I met my mother today because we wanted to go shopping together in a big shopping center. I shot some very cool portraits of my mother on the way to the malls, and even inside the shopping center because Christmas trees or any Christmas lights make a nice bokeh portrait background. We definitely had fun, although my mother is a bit shy because strangers were curious and looked, but I told her “You will get used to it”. As a German, I can tell you, taking photos or posing for a portrait is definitely not normal in Germany. For the photographer it might be normal, but strangers (especially old people) always look as if you come from another planet. It’s maybe curiosity, or they are curious if I am a professional because of the big camera, I don’t know. I hated it when I started with photography, but now I don’t care anymore. However, my mother did notice it that people were curious, but that’s why I told her that she will get used to it.
I can tell you, my Nikon 50mm 1.8G lens is awesome on my D7100 for shooting portraits, it’s effectively 75mm due to the 1.5x crop factor of the DX sensor, but this is really a nice focal length for portraits as I noticed today. As I said, the wide aperture of the lens allows me to blur out the background and keep only the person in the picture sharp, with lights in the background the results are really interesting. For portraits alone, purchasing the lens was already the best decision I could make. I think I wrote about the idea the first time in September, but I am glad that I really decided to get my hands on a 50mm lens. I am definitely not someone who makes fast decisions, if you consider that I made the decision not until December. Most of the time, I will use this lens for portrait photography, but this lens works so well with other subjects as well.
As I mentioned in another post, the focal length is also perfect when it comes to food photography. I did not have this in my mind, but it totally makes sense now that I used the lens since some days. What I like is that I don’t have to be too far away from the dish, but also not too close. Then again, even in this case I can play with depth of field, maybe highlight the foreground and blur out the background. Yes, I am a bit amazed by the wide aperture now, I do take a lot of pictures at f/1.8 with this lens, but I guess this will settle down over time. Now it’s different to me, my previous lenses did not have that option, that’s why I am crazy about it now. I found a sausage stand with my mother today, and we wanted to eat a Bockwurst. Of course I had to take a picture of my two Bockwürstchen. I do usually eat it with mustard, but today I also added ketchup as I couldn’t decide for one. Basic math, if you have two Bockwurst, you can eat one with mustard, another one with ketchup (laugh). I hope I didn’t make you hungry now.
Diary of Dennis 
I have been following your adventures with your new lens with interest. I can tell you the Swiss people are very similar with their thoughts on taking photos in a shopping center. I take photos every time I visit the local supermarket, three times a week, especially in the flower department. I use the photos often for challenges in WordPress. Last week the shop assistant asked me why, because the head of the department saw me and wanted to know. I explained for Internet etc. etc. and she laughed and said that is Ok for her and the boss. Now she greets me everytime I arrive with the camera. Mr. Swiss my other half has learned to be patient with me if we go anywhere. I always have my camera with me. I have a Nikon D7000 and now also a Nikon D3000. My problem is that I am a little handicapped and need to walk with a cane (MS) but I have worked out how to do it and manage to stand on my own for a short time. The Nikon D7000 was just a little to heavy for daily usage, and I find the D3000 ideal. i have a Nikkor 18-55 lens which I mainly use when going on photo walkabouts. I also have a 200 and 500 zoom lens for other occasion, and a macro lens which I usually have permanently on my Nikon D7000. Keep shooting, I am following with interest. the Bockwürst looks great. I had my first Currywürst last year in Germany in Moselgebiet when I was there to attend my son’s wedding and they are really good, I felt like Commissar Derrick and his assistant Harry – they were always eating them,
I took pictures of objects in Christmas stands on the market, some Christmas stand owners are totally fine with it if you want to take pictures of their products, but I met some that are really anti-photography. There was this one Christmas stand with beautiful handcrafted pottery. I shot one or two photos of my favorite products she had in the stand, and then she started to complain why I would take photos of her products. I told her “Look, I have a private website where I share photos and thoughts from our beautiful city, I thought your products would be a great example of what our Christmas market has to offer.”. She did whine a bit more about the two photos that I shot, and then I said “I know I don’t have to, but I will gladly delete the photos because now there are negative thoughts connected with them”. I simply didn’t want to discuss with someone who gets upset because of a product photo, also now I didn’t want to show off her product anymore on my blog. I kept searching and found other beautiful things on the market where the stand owners didn’t complain about the photos. I mean, it’s hilarious that there are people that make a big deal because of a photo, especially if I shot a photo of an object and not a person. It’s not even forbidden to take photos of something that you spot in the public, and a Christmas market is very much public 😀 I do see why the assistant asked you, I’d be curious too for what you use the photos, but what we bloggers do is no big drama, and I am glad the assistant you met saw it the same. 🙂
I use the D7100, it’s not a much different camera than the D7000. My mother is interested in photography and I sometimes I wonder if I should gift her a D3xxx or D5xxx to get her started. I myself would be very interested in both Nikon lines too, mainly because my D7100 has no flip screen, it’s not a big deal, but for videography a flip screen would be kinda cool, for example if I would want to record myself when I play guitar. Yes, the D7xxx line is a bit heavier, I can see why this can be a problem. Currywurst is awesome, I hope you enjoyed. I am Currywurst addict by the way 🙂
I had a Nikon D7100 and was in trouble with owners of a stall several times too. Now i have a much smaller mirrorless camera (Sony a6300), because of back problems originally. But i also appreciate that people don’t take me serious anymore. With the huge DSLR they think you are from the press, a spy or a perverse. 😉 With the small mirrorless i look more like a tourist.
PS: Sure! You made me hungry again. 😉
You nailed it. Yeah, press, spy and pervert…. I had it all happen to me, people asked me if I would be from the local press. Then I had arguments with people who thought I would have taken a photo of them, which was not true. And in Reinfeld I tried to take a photo of a squirrel that was running up a tree, with my 70-300mm lens, sadly there was a property behind the tree and of course the owner did come to me to complain why I would spy him in his hosue lol. Most of the time people are really cool, at times I had nice discussions with strangers just because I had a camera with me, but sadly you also have cases where people get mad for nothing.