The lens you’re looking through can make a big difference. Summer prefers prime lenses—that is, single focal length lenses—with the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G a particular favorite.

Primes are generally lighter and smaller than zooms, but she likes them for their large maximum apertures that allow in more light. Since she often photographs in the client’s house, lighting can be a problem. “I try to use natural light whenever I can,” she says, “even if it’s coming in through just one window. I’m going to bring the child over to that window and start working it.”

She also likes to shoot wide open (the lens at its maximum aperture), or close to it, to get sharp focus on her subject and a pleasantly blurred, non-distracting background—as in the photograph of her daughter playing with the magnets.

Primes also allow her to shoot at faster shutter speeds. “I don’t often have a lot of time—the baby is yawning, that’s a second. I need to be able to capture a yawn or a smile or something that’s going to happen fast. Photographing babies and toddlers you can miss those moments in a second, so if you don’t have a fast lens it’s not going to happen.”

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