Now that exams are over, until next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and possibly the year after that, I suddenly have time for photography again. Or, at least I am using my free time for photography. After beginning to plan a number of portrait projects, I suddenly realised that I had a strange choice of lens considering portraiture is largely what I'm interested in. The 80-200mm f/2.8 is a fantastic lens, and I had a good sample with immaculate optics, but the minimum focusing distance of 1.5m, physical size and not relatively so fast maximum aperture were a bit of a hindrance. It worked out that I was trying to work around the lens, by zooming in and loosing resolution and stability in order to get 'close', rather than working with the lens. I decided, that time had come for a change.

My plan was, to trade in my 80-200mm f/2.8 in order to raise some cash which, combined with some savings of my own would allow me to buy the 85mm f/1.8 as a portrait lens and the 35mm f/2 as a quasi normal lens, also useful for full body portraits.

Of course, I consulted my mentor ~eduardofrench who, slightly to my surprise, agreed that this was a good idea. I have become used to being told that my grand schemes are reactionary and juvenile. So, I spent the next day planning a journey, and the day following that on the journey to and from the camera shop [link] . Unfortunately, the 85mm f/1.8 was not in stock, but they were kind enough to post it special delivery as soon as it arrived for no extra charge. This is the sort of reason that I go to the opposite end of the neighbouring county to do my camera shopping. This was on Monday, the lens was posted on Tuesday and so was at my door on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was asleep after a late night and my dad missed the postman. So I had to wait until today so that I could collect it from the post office!

It was more than worth the effort, both lenses are excellent and I'm eager to get shooting properly. Results up here when the following criteria are met:

• I can be bothered to arrange taking picture
• I actually am bothered to take pictures
• I produce something I deem to be acceptable