The Christmas season has officially started with the annual Santa Stroll in Ada’s Wintersmith Park.

With it starts to Christmas photography season.

At recent events I’ve covered, I saw a lot of smartphone photography, and that works for a lot of us. Smartphones have amazing cameras, and I fold smartphone photography into my work all the time.

But if you know me at all, I am very much a lens lover, and this time of year is a great time to grab your favorite lenses and turn yourself loose on lights, trees, parade floats, Santa Clauses, kids, and anything else that feels great to photograph.

And as always, my first go-to lens is the 50mm. It’s a great focal length on cameras of any sensor size, and most 50mm lenses have large maximum apertures, like f/1.8, f/1.4, even a few around that feature f/1.2, and those apertures not only let a huge amount of that precious Christmastime light in, they can also create very beautiful out-of-focus areas.

Also, there is definitely something to be said for turning off all the automation of devices like smartphones and using something that makes us try a little harder to find the real narrative in our Christmas photos.