Certain lenses are perfect for certain kinds of photography. When I do a
portrait head shot for a publication, I prefer a 105 mm because with my
lighting gear, I can fill a frame nearly perfectly and have a large, crisp
image to work off of, without worrying about it falling apart on me.

Yes, I am used to setting myself up to work with certain focal lengths,
Well, there's two mentions of portrait photography, and the application of a
specific focal length lens certainly makes sense in that context. Since I
never shoot in any kind of a controlled setting such as a portrait studio or
an outdoor set, I guess I'm more used to composing on the fly with whatever
is presented to me. Which is why zooms work so well for me. And I do
understand that longer lenses will in fact compress the apparent depth of an
image, versus shorter lenses.