Lessons Learned: Focal length selection

Oftentimes compositions are dependent upon your lens selection. The Sony Mavica MVC CD1000 camera I use has a generous telephoto focal length (20x), so I enjoy quite a bit of freedom in that area. Zooms are great tools for composing.

In this case, I wanted to include the brightly lit rowboats tied dockside in the foreground, the lobster boat moored off shore and the traditional New England home in the distance across the Penobscot River. With the naked eye, the three were no where near each other, but when I got them aligned by stepping back with a longer lens, it was just a matter of fine-tuning my focal length (the amount of zoom) to place them in the frame in a contextually relevent arrangement.

Although telephoto lenses tend to foreshorten, or flatten, an image by their nature, this foggy Maine morning exaggerated the natural effects of distance (muted colors, softer focus, reduced detail) and recreated the sense of distance negated by the effect of a mid-length telephoto lens.

Strong sidelighting creates drama and depth in an image that would otherwise be enveloped in the soft, foggy atmosphere. Dawn has just broken, and we're a step beyond that lovely predawn glow, moving into the low-level spotlight realm. Isn't light wonderful?