This week I rented a Tamron 15-100 mm wide angle lens to learn more about photographing with wide angle lenses and decide if I want to look for one of these lenses in the future.
On a hot steamy morning I took it out for a spin at West Medicine Lake Park near where I live. It was shocking to see the world through the extremely wide 15 mm view. The learning was also fascinating as I worked to figure out where my point of focus should be, what worked well with the wide angle and what didn’t.
I was surprised when I first looked through the lens at 15 mm and everything looked so much further from the lens than my trained perception said it was. After thinking on it I realized that I was simply zooming out further than I’d ever zoomed out before. Of course things looked further away.
A Different Point of View
I certainly didn’t master wide angle photography in a single half hour wander around the park, but I did get a feel for how it was to see the world this way. I’m intrigued by this different point of view.
The leaning tree above has been one of my favorite subjects at this park. I have to say, this is one of my all-time favorite photos that I have made of this tree. Looking at it I feel almost like I’m there. Fascinating.
Other shots did not turn out so well. That was fine with me since my objective was to figure out when it would make sense to use this lens and when it wouldn’t. Now that I’ve played with it, I want to study images made by other photographers and see if I can figure out which ones used a wide angle lens.
Here are a couple of photos made with the lens at 15 mm and then again the same scene with the lens at 30 mm. What a difference in point of view!
Shot at 15 mm
Same scene at 30 mm
Can you see how much wider and more expansive the view is at 15 mm and how much closer everything looks at 30 mm? Not only is the view wider horizontally, but you can see more in the vertical axis as well (more sky, more foreground water). The angles inside the frame are different also.
Here are some flowers I photographed on a bush beside the trail.
Shot at 15 mm
Same flowers on same bush at 30 mm
I moved closer to the bush when photographing at 15 mm but still there’s so much more perceived distance between me and the camera, even though I was leaning in super close to the large bunch of flowers in the center of the image.
Using the wide angle lens also lengthens the perspective of paths and roads. The photo below is a perfect example. The board walk to the fishing deck looks super long in this photo. It is not that long in real life.
Another thing that I find interesting in using the wide angle is how objects in the foreground can create more interest and give a sense of being there. Here is one of the first photos I made with the wide angle lens. I saw the rocks at the edge of the beach, crouched down so that they filled the foreground and made this image. I love how the rocks in the foreground make me feel so close that I can reach out and touch them.
It really is a different way to see the world. Even though I’ve used telephoto lenses for years, I’ve not worked with the extreme wide angles before. Now I understand why many landscape photographers use wide angle lenses more than any others.
While I’m not ready to make a total switch, I want to do more with this lens.
When was the last time you explored a new technique or tool in your art?
May you walk in beauty.
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