This is not a fresh concept, but it does open up a new world of opportunities if you haven’t tried it. The idea is that a telephoto lens can help you pick out little details within a larger scene. Suddenly the weather matters a lot less, and you’ve got far more to shoot.
When it comes to landscape photography, most people (especially early on) think about the “grand landscape”. They’ll throw on some kind of wide angle lens and try to capture everything they see in one frame. Those photos can be incredible! But this kind of photo often depends on a setting sun, clouds in the sky, blue hour, a storm, or some real help from the weather. Otherwise it’s kinda blah.
Take this photo for example:
Kinda blah. This was more of a “remember the moment” photo (i.e. the view from the lower part of Angels Landing in Zion), but you get the idea. This was shot with a 35mm lens — pretty wide — and captures the “grandness” of the scene.
However, within this photo, there are many smaller scenes — you just have to find them. Continuing with the example:
Where’s Waldo? Using the original photo, can you find where this one came from?
The overall light wasn’t magical on the grand scene, and the sky was a flat, cloudless blue, but within that scene there were many nice pockets of light. Here, the pine tree in the lower half is isolated out of the shadows, with a surrounding “arch” framing everything. For me, this is a bit more interesting. To help emphasize the point even further, here’s the view I had with my own eyes vs what my 100-400mm (all the way out to 400mm) was picking up:
Next time you’re out shooting landscapes, make sure you take more than just a wide angle. Using a telephoto will help train your eye to see all kinds of new opportunities and help you build a more diverse collection of photos.