Michael J. Fox once said, “Family is not an important thing; it’s everything.” Walking the frosted paths in silence while watching the leaves gently fall, I am most reminded of family. There’s something about a vibrant tonal tapestry blanketing the earth that reminds me that even in the muted carpet of withered foliage, there is beauty in every leaf from every family tree. And the paradox of strength and fragility all the same lures me to want to capture every single moment for exactly what it is: everything.
I could lead you down a poetic bunny trail with this, but at the heart of capturing your best family moments is the lens through which you see them. To capture the breadth of everything family these holidays, I’d encourage you to look to Sigma. I’ll bet I can personally match a memory for every lens!
One of my earliest holiday memories is the chaotic frenzy of cousins that I’d get to play hide-and-seek with. I can’t help but envy all the photographs missed of the sharp-angled positions we’d contort our bodies into trying to remain unseen. If someone had a Sigma 16mm Prime f/1.4, the perspectives they would have captured would have been incredible. It’s a fast lens and performs amazingly in low-light conditions, which would have boded well for sunset documenting our fast agility in racing to “Home Free”. Even Sigma’s 18-50mm f/2.8 would be a reliable contender too and would be a great bridge from chronicling your children’s hide-and-seek adventures to candid photos around the dinner table given its focal range and portability. Its autofocus system is also fast and quiet which makes it a win for both still photography and video.
If most of the holiday action will be indoors, and you want to find a merry medley between group photos and intimate portraits, I can’t cheerfully endorse Sigma’s 24-70mm f/2.8 anymore. I’ve photographed entire weddings with this lens alone. In the spirit of holiday magic, I see this lens not as “an important thing”... but as “everything”. Do you want sharp and versatile? This is it. It’s the lens that lets you zoom in or out - depending on the chaos- and keeps it consistent across its zoom range with beautiful depth of field control.
Personally, while I loved the chaos of family and holidays, I found stealing quiet moments of retreat necessary. Sometimes I’d just sit in a sea of screaming children as if I were paused in time while everyone else was in fast-forward. It's in these moments, that I was able to lean into my prime artistic instincts with Sigma’s 85mm f/1.4 prime. There’s something about standing still, zooming in and the blur of distractions that brings creative vision into full view. There’s a reason they call this lens “Portrait Perfection”. Its high optical performance delivers the sharpest images with minimal distortions. A fast f/1.4 aperture means the bokeh you’ll get in subject separation will lend itself amazingly to creative compositions. It really is the artist’s lens.
Sometimes, though, stepping away from the chaos isn’t enough to catch your breath. Sometimes stepping outside entirely is what you need to zoom out. Family is as much the place(s) that we root ourselves in as it is the people we build relationships with. When you zoom out to photograph your family’s homestead with a Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 lens, you’re taking it all in and saying “This is us. We lived here. We loved here”. This ultra-wide lightweight lens packs ultra-wide love because it really does capture the expansive scenes of not only your home and neighbourhood, but it creatively allows you to silently take a step back and soak it all in while the lens brings it all together to warp your memory in a bow.
However you’re reflecting on family this season, remember to just soak it in and capture it all at every angle. And let Sigma do the rest.
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