A different perspective

People tend to think of telephoto lenses as being of use to take a photo of a distant subject that can not otherwise be approached close enough to photograph. However, lenses of different focal length each have their own perspective. In most DSLR cameras, a standard focal length is about 35mm, a 16mm lens therefor would be a wide angle and a 70mm a modest telephoto, and each lens with a unique perspective - wide angle lenses tend to stretch and telephoto lenses compress perspective. Also the depth of field (the area front to back that is in focus) is greater with wide angle lenses and less with telephoto lenses. This means that telephoto lenses are useful for isolating a subject by their narrow angle of view and shallow depth of field.

The first set of pictures I took of Faye's garden were shot with a 35mm lens, one offering a natural perspective. I wanted to try out my new 300mm lens, so back to the garden as it is the handiest location, just out the back door. This new lens can focus down to 4' 7" and most of the above images were shot at between 5 and 6 feet, not a range one would normally think to use a telephoto lens. But, as you can see, it does offer a totally different perspective than that of the 35mm lens in the first batch of images.