As promised, here is part 2 of my “What kind of camera should I get?” explanation.  When I first started getting into photography, I asked myself, “why is this lens $400 and this one $1400!?”  Quickly, I learned the magic words: aperture/f-stop/depth of field.  Technically, aperture is: the opening in your lens that light passes through.  Visually, if you want more of that blur or bokeh in your photo, that means you want a large opening in your lens.  The larger, the more blur…and the better quality of your blur!  The way to get a large opening is to get a “fast” lens–anything with f-stop 2.8 or larger/faster.  Now, the larger the opening, the smaller the number.  As of right now, Canon has the the largest aperture: 1.2  Large apertures are beautiful for portraits, or whenever you are trying to separate your subject from its surrounding.  Otherwise, if you’re doing a group photo, you’ll want an aperture like 4.0 or 5.0 (depending on the size of your group)…something that’ll produce less blur (you want everyone in focus!).

And of course, the “faster” (1.2, 1.4….2.0…2.8) lens you get, the more expensive it’ll be.  It’s called “faster” because since more light is passing through that opening and hitting your sensor, the faster your shutter can close to take the photo.

Here are some examples that I just now took of hershey kisses……..Yes, I’ve been eating these all day…Everyone loves kisses!!!!  These photos were taken with my 50 1.4.