Telephoto landscape photography above the clouds

Who says you have to choose between film and digital? Certainly not Michael Shainblum who takes us behind the scenes in this beautiful video while he captures telephoto images of landscapes in golden hour fog.

Now you might be thinking that a 100-400mm lens wouldn’t be the first thing you’d reach for in your camera bag when shooting the last light of day. But after watching this I’m thinking that perhaps I should use my long lenses more when I’m shooting landscapes.

Longer lenses have the advantage (or disadvantage however you choose to view it, I’m a glass half full kinda gal) of image compression. That means that objects appear closer together along the front to back axis, creating a very different feel to the expansive wide-angle lens. This effect is particularly beautiful in fog where you can see pine trees appearing out of the ether.

Michael goes on to shoot an awesome timelapse of the fog moving across the valley after sundown. I’m always mesmerized by time-lapses but this one with the rolling mists is just great and really pulls the atmosphere.

Michael then compares two shots of the same scene shot with different length shutter speeds. One very short (1/1250) and one shot with a longer exposure (10 seconds). The mist obviously is smoothed out in the longer exposure, making it appear almost cloud-like, like cottonwool.

I’m not sure which one I like best, however, I do like the long exposure. I will for sure be trying all of these ideas the next time I’m outside shooting in fog and mist! It’s worth the effort of lugging a long lens.

The images shot on the film camera versus the Sony A1 are startlingly different. Neither is better than the other, but comparing the two side by side is interesting, and for me, further emphasises the fact that shooting film and digital have become quite different beasts in 2021, far more so now than when digital was in its infancy. It’s an interesting comparison and one that makes me want to dust off my old film cameras and take them out again to see what I can create.

What do you like best for landscape photography? Long or wide-angle lenses? And do you shoot both 35mm film and digital?