wide angle

Every landscape photographer possesses, or at least should possess, a wide-angle lens of some sort.  Something in the range of 14-24mm ideally.

But a lot of first-time users of such lenses (myself included) stick it on the end of their cameras and go out to capture those sweeping vistas that you can’t quite get with a standard lens.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, just that it’s not getting the best out of the lens.

For me, photography isn’t necessarily about accurately capturing what’s in front of you.  It’s about interpreting that scene and then using your tools (camera, lens, filters, exposure, etc.) to convey your interpretation.

And this is where the wide-angle lens comes into its own.

I love to use it to photograph, yes, huge scenes; but better still to force perspective if you like by including a close foreground subject.  The picture below is an ideal example.

Fujifilm X-T3, Fujinon XF 10-24mm f4.0

2 seconds @ f11, ISO 160

Tripod, self-timed release, Haida Circular Polarising Filter

I could have just set up my camera at head height and snapped the scene in front of me.  Yes, that would have captured the landscape, but I feel that the image I shot adds so much more.  It makes you look at the scene more closely, and therefore to look at the elements of the landscape in more context: the puddle in the foreground leads the eye to the stream and then up to the glimpse of the fiery sky getting darker as night approaches.

I haven’t conveyed this very well (as per), but hopefully the picture says what my words can’t.