shooting with a 50mm lens is kind of annoying at times. it's a telephoto lens, so that means you're always zoomed in--and the 1.6x crop factor from the APS-C sensor size makes it actually an 80mm lens. i constantly have to back away from subjects.. or i'm always not close enough. it's a lot less convenient b/c you have to yourself move around if you want to change the "zoom" of the shot.
BUT--and this is a big one--it forces you to be 100% dedicated to the shot. the thing that i always disliked about zoom lenses was that it made certain shots too easy. subject matter too far? just zoom in. need a wide angle shot? just zoom out. i am in no way knocking zoom--i think it's just good for any photographer to get away from it for a while. work for your shots.
i think i need to be careful not to overdo it with the bokeh-heavy shots, lest i be categorized as an amateur playing with new equipment... but wait, isn't that what i am?
i can't say i even remember taking this shot... which means i didn't really put much effort into it. on one hand, i'm simply floored by the quality of this lens. on the other hand.. it's like.. where's the artist's inspiration? anyone who spends 80 bucks on this lens could have taken this shot. it's kind of like.. want to get round the nurburgring in under 10 minutes? just buy a gt-r.
of course it'll take time to develop my own style of photography. but at what point can you really call it your 'own' style? aren't we all just emulating the masters.. in anything? i think that's where the fun is.. i'm not trying to be pro or anything, i just want to take good pictures and remember my life.
speaking of fun--i cannot praise RAW enough. the things you can do in post processing.. full exposure stop increases, hue, saturation, white balance.. it's like you just magically put more light onto the sensor, exactly where you want it. i would contend that anyone who thinks that the postprocessing required of RAW shots is a _drawback_ can't really call him/herself (notice my agreement of pronouns there) a photographer, amateur or not.
