Premium/ Telephoto lenses for landscapes
Being a mostly self-taught photographer I have come across most of my ideas by simple trial and error. I usually stick with things that just feel right to me, a gut feeling. I don’t tend to look at norms or best practices as closely as perhaps I should and that in turn has given my photography a somewhat unconventional feel if viewed in an “art’ vacuum with only other photographers to compare with. I don’t go out of my way to break convention, and truthfully, whether it be telephoto lenses or my use of wide angles, these ideas are very well used in cinematography and illustration but have somehow fallen out of favour with stills photographers. I believe it has a lot to do with marketing more than anything else, wide for landscapes, beaten over the head with it but the truth is it’s just one option, one tool at our disposal. Today, I will show you how (and why) I gravitate towards telephoto focal lengths for landscape photography.
It all started when I was playing around with vintage lenses, between trips to Asia. I didn’t really have much in the way of what I considered “subjects” to photograph whilst stuck in Wales and ended up just walking my camera up the valleys behind my house. To me, they were as mundane as it came. Having grown up as a child there they were just part of the scenery. I ended up picking a Cosinon 135mm F2.8, I knew Cosina made modern Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses and for what little it cost I thought I would try it out. Up to that point the longest focal I had used was the 85mm Zeiss Batis (a lens I never once thought to take photos of landscapes with) but having nothing else at my disposal I threw it on my then Sony A7RII and took it out. My photo’s sucked but I liked how it could isolate elements of a grander scene and although when the time came to go back to Asia the 135 never came with me, the idea of a telephoto in my kit always appealed to me. I even tested the XF50-140mm when I started shooting the X-T3 and the 70-200mm F2.8 G Master for Sony, but both times I decided that for the amount I would use them they didn’t warrant the space in my Pelicase or the comparative cost to the primes I was used to shooting.
Fast forward to the pandemic and I found myself yet again stuck for “subjects”. The pandemic wasn’t kind to me, years later and I am still feeling the effects of it. I had sold my “professional” Sony equipment (that I spent 7 years building up to) but saved a little from the proceeds and got myself the 90mm F2 for the Fuji, with the aim of shooting the Welsh coastline. This time my idea was elevated, I knew the 90mm rendered excellent images and wanted to use that fine rendering to really deliver images with all that tiny detail, like a woodblock transfer. I never really accomplished that and yet again when the time came to pack bags and move on, it never came with. I am constantly going through this process of minimising my setup for travel only to blow it out again once settled in my new location. Currently, my gear has ballooned and the idea of shooting landscapes with a telephoto has come to my mind again.
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