Using a wide angle lens on my camera

This week I'm going to talk about the first time I used a wide angle lens on my camera.

My relation to photography

I've always taken pictures. I'm 31 so I obviously started with disposable cameras on school trips. In college, I got my first digital camera, 10MP, a revolution at the time! My favorite subject was for a long time the tip of my fake Converses decorated with pink felt pen in puddles of daisies. When I got to high school, I started photographing my friends with keffiyeh. And at 18, I received my first DSLR as a gift. An investment well worth it since 13 years later, it is still my main camera. I had a few adventures with film cameras in the meantime, but considering the price of film and its development, I often go back to digital.

My DSLR accompanied me during my travels and when I created the project Voyage Chez Vous, in which I did a lot of street photography. At that time, my goal was to show people in their urban environment. And someone offered me a wide angle lens to help me.

Wide angle lens

What is a wide angle lens? According to Wikipedia, it is "a lens with a short focal length. The effect of this short focal length is to allow a wide framing of close objects from which we can not move away”. This means that it is easier to take large objects, such as buildings, when you are in the street for example, or that you can see more elements in the picture. Also, because of the shape of the lens, the lines can be more or less distorted compared to reality.

My failed first attempt

When I received this lens, I went for a photo walk to test it. And I struggled like hell. I couldn't do the focus, all my pictures were blurred, I had to be very close to the people I crossed path with to take pictures of them, which made me feel uncomfortable, especially since I wasn't alone during the walk, contrary to usual. In short, I came back frustrated and I felt like a loser. Then, as my project Voyage Chez Vous stopped, I took a lot less pictures, and during my trips, I wanted to be sure that my pictures would be good, I didn't dare to take this lens and I never really practiced with it.

So officially, today's episode is about a second time. But the conditions, my skills and my mindset are different.

Growing out of my camera’s limits

When I left for New Zealand, I still took my wide angle lens in my luggage. The first few months here, I had several opportunities to push my camera to its limits by doing scene shots and model shoots. I began to feel that my needs and skills in photography had become greater than what my camera could offer me. But before I invested in a new camera, I thought I could learn one more thing: how to use that wide angle lens.

Trying another time

I got up one day, wanting to take pictures, and went for a walk in the Wynyard area, which is right next to the CBD, in Auckland. It's an area I know well and where I often go. So I didn't feel any pressure to get my pictures right: if I need to, I can go back there anytime. I haven't photographed too many people on the streets here yet, so I didn't focus on that. I figured I would just take pictures of what caught my eye. It was very cloudy and not the weather I'm usually best with, so I was already prepared to blame the clouds for my incompetence. In short, I didn't put any constraints or goals on myself, other than to walk with my camera, as if I were just giving it some air. I've noticed that when I'm afraid to do something, the best way to motivate myself is often to lower expectations to nothing.

Habits’ change

I was completely confused by this wide angle lens. All my habits were turned upside down. Because of the short focal length, the positioning of my body in space was different. You have to be extremely close to the objects you are taking pictures of. You almost have to be able to touch them so that they are big enough on the picture. For me, who is used to looking for details above our heads, from a distance, it completely changed the subject of my photos and my eye had to try to hold on to other elements.

With the wide angle, it is possible to put more elements in the picture, which is interesting for large objects, boats for example, but which complicates the framing when you want to do framing without too many elements. On the other hand, with the combination of the wide angle and the short distance to the foreground, the perspective effect is accentuated and it is easier to have several interesting shots in the same image.

I tried to take some pictures of people too. The advantage is that it allows to see the person in his environment. The disadvantage is that, since you have to be so close, it is not discreet at all. People can clearly hear the click of the device, even when you are behind them.

Another important thing is that I found that this lens gets dirty much faster. The lens is larger so it catches more dust. And because what's in the foreground is larger, anything that's placed on the lens is very visible in the final image.

Thoughts on the results

This experiment made me ask myself a question. I thought I wasn't very good at landscape photography in general, probably because it's not my favorite subject. But I came to wonder if it's not rather that the lens I was using until now was not adapted to landscapes and therefore I didn't find my pictures interesting for that reason.

In the end, I have about 20 good pictures from this walk. I am very happy to have gone for this walk. I have changed my emotion towards the lens, I feel that I have learned things and that I have still room to improve with this camera. I think it will take a few more practice walks with it for the body positioning and framing to become automatic but I'm more enthusiastic about it now.

Future with this lens

I still have a doubt about taking my camera with my two lenses when I go on vacation because I think my bag is already heavy enough. However, I do want to get back into street photography. And even though I still have new things to learn on my old camera, I think I'll still look into buying a new one to go beyond the limits I've reached on other subjects.

Thank you!

Thanks for reading this article! Come tell me in the comments, on Instagram or Tiktok if you've ever used a wide angle lens, if you have any tips, what your relationship to photography is, and what you did that was new this week.

I'll see you next week to talk about creating my first zines.