How I Photographed the Cute Couple at a Moments Notice? (Knowing your tools)

While wandering around the fountain in Central Park (NYC), the quarrel of sparrows on the parapet caught my eye. So I walked over to them and started taking pictures. Suddenly, at the corner of my eye I saw the man, in the couple above, pickup his camera and point it at the sparrows, I quickly stepped back and recomposed the image with my 35mm prime and photographed the couple and the sparrows in one capture at an instant. As soon as the man took the photograph of the birds he lowered his camera. If I was a few seconds late I would have missed the image.

The lesson here is, using a lens over and over enables you to determine the frame of capture. The only downfall to this is, that when I switch from my usual 35mm prime with my 50mm prime, I have difficulty composing the image in my head before seeing it in the view finder. This costs precious seconds in taking instantaneous street photographs. (My Street Photography Camera Settings for Quick Captures)

My Preferred Lens Usage:

1. Street photography: 35mm prime (95%), 50mm prime (5%)
2. Landscapes: 10-22mm zoom (80%), 22-70mm (20%)
3. Portraits: 50mm prime (70%), 70-200mm (30%)
4. Fisheye: 8mm prime (100%)

The percentages above next to the lens (mm) is the frequency of usage per past photographic documentation. This in no way is a set rule that I follow, I switch things up every now and then, however the list above is my usual preference for different photography genre.

Camera Settings: ISO400, f/8, 1/250s