On a recent trip to New York City and Iceland, I brought two cameras, each with only one lens: a 28mm and a 50mm. (The 28 is a fixed-lens camera, the 50 was on an ILC.) I shot a lot more with the 28, which, not incidentally, is a more feature-rich camera (including autofocus) than the ILC.

I found 28mm to be a very versatile focal length that worked well for lots of different subjects. Also, that camera has a 47-megapixel, full-frame sensor, so even though 28 is kinda wide for some subjects, one can still crop heavily and get a usable file.

Here’s NYC at night from the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building. This was taken with the 50mm lens at, I think, f/1.4. (This camera doesn’t record lens metadata.)

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, converted to monochrome. We started this walk one day around 10 a.m. and it was already uncomfortably hot and humid. I called off that walk immediately. We came back another day much earlier, and walked across the bridge to Brooklyn in much more tolerable conditions. 28mm

The view from Ellis Island. The skyline is in shadow, so not ideal lighting, but the cloudscape was great. 28mm

Times Square on a Friday night around midnight. The place was jumpin’ and packed with tourists (like me). 28mm

Break dancers in Times Square. 28mm

No photographer living in NYC could ever complain about a lack of subjects. In another post, I’ll share more photos from there—too many images in one post diminishes their impact.