Could You Force Yourself to Use Just This One Lens?

As a landscape photographer who is addicted to the big vista, I have often wondered just how hard or easy it would be to force myself to only use one lens, and that lens being the 70-200mm. The versatility of this lens is fantastic, and many of you will know this already. However, the best thing about having my 70-200mm is that it's always in my bag and ready to be deployed whenever I need it, but what if I were only to have this lens?

If you are a portrait photographer, then you are acutely aware of the benefits of having a 70-200mm: the compression of the scene, the picking out of the faces in the bigger area, the beautiful bokeh, and the flexibility that you get just by using this one lens.

Wedding photographers will use this lens more than they will use their wide-angle lens because it allows them to capture candid moments in a larger crowd, and for us landscape photographers, it allows us to pick out a vignette from the larger scene, which can make us and the viewer wonder where it could be.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my wide-angle lens and I love to use it every time I'm out in the landscape. The flexibility that it gives me, in my opinion, is second to none, and by putting it into portrait orientation, it allows me to stretch the top and bottom of the frame, thus changing the scene completely, but I felt that this was too easy. Now, if we bring the 70-200mm into the mix, what that makes us do is to think differently, it changes the norm. It mixes things up and, most of all, gives us a totally different view of the scene that's in front of us.

Over the last month or so, I have found myself using my 70-200mm more than I have done in the last six months put together, and what it has taught me is that this lens is indeed a phenomenal tool to have in my bag, but even more phenomenal when it's the only one that I can use. I went to my local woods, for example, armed only with my 70-200mm on a frosty morning and managed to find totally different shots, as I was no longer looking at the larger scene. I was now looking for smaller, more intimate scenes in the woodland that is full, as the cliché would say, of chaos. Additionally, I went to the coast, and with my 70-200mm, it allowed me to tune in to the waves and the crashing waves as they hit the coastline in front of me. My approach was going to be completely different from how it normally would be when I'm at the sea, and I didn't even use any of my filters. The results of this coastal wave shoot were that I got some of my best shots of the year (so far).

What I have also found is that when I do use my wide angle lens, I invariably end up using my 70-200mm for a portion, if not most, of my shoots, and I really enjoy the perspective that it gives me. Plus, I also enjoy the ability to be able to pick out certain things that I would normally take for granted with my wide-angle lens. If we look at a scene that we will photograph with our wide angle lens and get one shot, and now for a moment imagine how many individual shots you can get from that one scene by using your telephoto lens, I have found that there were many.

I also have my Sigma 150-600mm, and this lens has proven to be a fantastic lens in the right circumstances. The zoom is not suited to every scene, of course, however, when you do need to get that extra bit of reach, it is extremely helpful and beneficial to the results that you can get from one scene. It is with the 70-200mm, however, that I found the most versatility, and as I said above, it seems to be that I'm gravitating to it more and more on every shoot.

I have also gone on shoots with only my wide-angle lens since, and I did not feel restricted. In fact, I felt liberated, free from my tripod as such, and free to explore more through my viewfinder. It can be all too easy to overly rely on our tripod, however, we all have been gifted with our own human tripod, our legs and arms, and with this fluidity, I feel it can be hugely beneficial, not only to the images that we capture of a scene but also to our skill set overall. I would encourage you to try this approach and force yourself to only use your 70-200mm. I firmly believe that you will be surprised with the results that you will get, not only from this shoot but also in subsequent ones because you have learned a number of things along the way.

There is a saying that we should do things that scare us often, and while this approach may appear as a scary task for many, it can, in fact, be a very helpful task. Helpful in that it takes away choice, makes our brain think differently, makes your imagination stronger, and most of all, helps your eye for a shot improve. Some of the best images I have seen over the years were taken with a telephoto lens, and I feel the reason they are so strong is that they are different from the norm, they are something that doesn't appear immediately recognizable.

How about you? Do you use your 70-200mm more than your wide-angle lens already, or is it something that you wish you would try more of?

Let's continue the conversation in the comments below.