Pic(k) of the week 15: THE CROOKED TREE - a lesson in lens compression

Time to take a break from posting images from my recent trip to the Seychelles... This weeks Pic(k) comes from the open plains of Al Madam, where I photographed a crooked tree with a mosque in the background. 

At the foothills of the Hajar mountains, close to the Omani border, one finds numerous small square villages, far away from the hustle and bustle of the larger cities in the UAE and often belonging to families that have a bedouin heritage. The area is one of my favourite escapes to go for an afternoon photo-road trip. 

Image details:

• Fujifilm X-E4 with XF70-300 lens
• 1/800s, f14, ISO 1000, 269mm
• Straight Out Of Camera using Velvia film simulation  

I often get the question; "Which is the best lens for landscape photography"? The answer is always, "it depends". While most think about wide-angle lenses for landscape work, do not exclude a super tele-photo lens like the XF70-300. It allows to shoot more intimate landscapes, isolating certain subjects like in the image below. The added advantage is the compression of that is achieved at the higher focal lengths. The mosque in the image is at least a mile (1600m) away from the tree. Below is a comparison shot from more or less the exact same position; the shot with a 35mm lens is on the right. On the image shot with the telephoto (left below), the mosque is not sharp making for a much better separation of the main subject; the crooked tree. 

Remember: “Wherever you go, there you are”. John Kabat Zinn

BJORN

X-Photographer

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