Using a longer lens

Mostly we tend to take landscapes with a normal or wide angle lens. However, sometimes a longer lens can be useful - and it will change the way you visualise and take your landscape photographs.

By using, say, a 200 mm lens, you will be able to focus further away, cutting out the foreground. That can be particularly useful if you're taking pictures from the road. You can eliminate the verges, power lines, and buildings close to the road - and focus on the landscape out in front.

The longer lens also has a flattening effect. So if you're taking pictures of patterns such as dry stone walls or sand dunes, you'll have a more even picture with better depth of field across the photograph. With patterns, or with roads running into the distance, or river meanders, you can get an almost abstract effect which is stunning - and very different from what you'd achieve with a wide angle lens.

A longer lens can also help you isolate an interesting feature, for instance a craggy rock or a single tree.

You're also far enough away from the subject that parallax - converging lines - isn't going to be so strong. So using a longer lens and going further away can be a good strategy for architectural photography too.

Remember though, using a longer lens will give you shake. So on bright days, make sure you're using a high shutter speed - 1/250 or above - or, better, take a tripod or use another support (in extremis, the seat of a motorbike or the top of a car!)