In one of my recent posts, I talked about the trouble I had getting my camera equipment into South Sudan. With the kind of trouble I had, and the fact that my carry-on bag weighed 32 pounds, you might wonder why I carry so much photo gear. I think the answer is in the picture above. There are times when I become tired of my own work. Then there are times when I look at a picture I’ve taken and just have to sit back and say, “Wow!”  The above picture was one of those times. The fact is, I would never have been able to create the picture above had I only had my small camera with me. Furthermore, I wouldn’t have been able to create it had I not brought a totally unnecessary lens with me. I shot it with my canon 135 mm f-2 lens. It falls within the focal length range of the lenses I already had with me, but with the f-2 available, I was able to get that razor thin depth of field I love so much. And it made lugging the extra pounds around for two weeks totally worth it.