My favorite new lens is my Sigma 18-50 mm F2.8 EX DC Macro. I love that this lens is a wide angle, but also a macro. Wide-angle lenses capture a large degree of the scene in front of you and macro lenses allow you to get close to a subject and focus very finitely. I used that lens to make this image of some grass at the entrance to Stearns Park.
F3.5 at 1/500, ISO 1000, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm