Wide Glass
As most of you know, I am a detail, up close kind of shooter. I like to capture the sum of the parts, as it were. Landscape photography unnerves me. Great landscape shots move the heart, but many, sadly, are lacking a point of view. Wide glass is difficult to master. (Wide-angle lenses are lenses that can capture “place” - it captures the outlying edges of our vision.) The field of vision is so great you can see everything and nothing at the same time. Great landscape photographers are able to draw they eye in–they have a focus, an anchor–something that puts meaning to all that space they are laying out for your eyes. This is not obvious. So, I have avoided landscape for the most part, choosing to sneak right in on my subject–a lash or paw, petal or wing.
This was shot with a 10-22mm F4 wide angle lens, but up close. I was trying to bridge the distance, as it were, between its broad field of view and the narrow, detailed vision in my head. I not have found my sweet spot yet but it is fun.
If you have a wide-angle lens, try getting in close. Lie down in that field or church pew. Find some “detail” and shoot it with a wide perspective on it’s world. It could change your point of view.