A few weeks ago a certain person reached out to me to give me praise on the work I've done on the blog. Like always I was very humbled by the comment, as we continued to talk the conversation got a little more personal. They expressed their desire to want to shoot full time and asked if I made my income solely off photography and the blog. I responded by saying at the moment I do have a full-time job, but for all of 2015, I was strictly freelance and my only source of income were through photography. I encouraged them to at least try and wished him the best of luck with his future endeavors.

He thanked me and then went on a mini-rant on why he thought the idea only sound good on paper. His first issue was that his gear wasn't good enough... I stopped him right there. I was at work so I didn't have the time to fully explain to him why gear doesn't matter, I simply just said those words. I felt as if I shorted that person in our conversation, so here I am reaching back out to you if you're reading, hopefully, this time with a more in-depth response that not only gives you perspective but hope for the future. I want to tell everyone that great gear is a confidence booster, but it's not needed to produce a photo that a publication will be happy with. In the grand scheme of things, your first couple of paid assignments will be the most boring work you've ever done, with simple tasks, such as taking a picture of a guy standing on a wall, or a woman giving a speech, this requires an iPhone at best.

But I'm not just going to talk your ears off. Recently I did a post on my favorite images of 2015 with the Fujifilm X Series, this time, I'll do something similar, except post my favorite images using vintage glass, all which cost me under $50. If you look to the right of the title, you'll see the price I paid for each piece of glass. For these lenses I used the Fotodiox adapter's to connect the older lenses to my Fujifilm X-Mount, so if you're thinking about adding some of this legacy glass to your collection then remember you need the proper adapter to utilize it. Don't worry, I'll be sure to link you to the proper one for each system.

All images below were shot on the Fujifilm X-T1

Fujian 50 f/1.4 (CCTV) - $30