I’m looking after a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens while it makes its way around the world. It’s called Nifty, and it travels in a tupperware alongside souvenirs from around the world.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make, is that whilst it’s an incredibly cheap lens, the image quality, and creative possibilities it offers are superb. Its image quality easily rivals zoom lenses that cost 4 or times as much, and given it’s large (f1/.8) maximum aperture, it allows you to shoot in low light, and to create very narrow depths of field, while the background melts away into smooth smudges of colour.

An added advantage of shooting with a prime lens, is that it makes you think more about the composition - you can zoom with your feet, but if you can’t move enough, it makes you think about what other shots you could make (that you normally wouldn’t have thought about).

If you have only ever shot with the lens that came with your camera, find yourself a 50mm f/1.8 lens - almost all manufacturers make them, and they’re almost always the cheapest proper lens that they offer.

Give it a go, shoot with a prime. Not only are budget 50mm lenses generally of amazing quality, they open up types of photography that wouldn’t otherwise be possible!