Nearly every time I return from a trip, I'm asked about which lenses I used to capture the images. At the end of a long trip, I like to look at the distribution of shots by lens. Here's how it looked for my most recent road trip to photograph the 21 Missions of California:

I used just one camera for the entire trip--the Nikon D800.

Given the number of architectural images that I captured, it's not surprising that the ultra-wide Nikon 14-24 was the workhorse once again. My Nikon 24-70 saw far more use than it usually does. The fisheye, micro and longer prime lenses served as specialty lenses for this particular journey.

One might question why I bothered to carry a lens that only contributes 2 to 3% of my total pictures for the trip. In this case, they were used to capture images that my other lenses aren't capable of capturing. Here are a few examples:

Sigma 15mm Fisheye

No other lens of mine is capable of including this entire circle within the frame. Spiral staircaseSpiral staircase at The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa at 3649 Mission Inn Avenue in Riverside, California on August 4, 2016

Nikon 200 Micro

I don't have any other lenses that can focus at such a close distance.

Water LilyWater Lily at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden at 301 N. Baldwin Avenue in Arcadia, California on August 4, 2016

Nikon 300 2.8 VR1

I don't have a lens that's any sharper than this one.

Mission San JoseBell at the Mission San Jose at 43300 Mission Blvd in Fremont, California on July 26, 2016

Nikon 500 VR

I brought this rather cumbersome lens along just in case I came across any California surfers. I'm glad I had it with me.

Jeremy FloresJeremy Flores from France, one of the top surfers in the world, at Lower Trestles at San Onofre State Beach in San Clemente, California on August 7, 2016