If there is one hurdle to overcome when using your wide-angle lens, it is the constant need to get closer, closer, closer—and when you think you are close enough, get closer still! Getting close enough is something we all struggle with, and with a wide-angle only more so, as we have to be ever mindful of the wide-angle lens’s tendency to push subjects toward the “back of the stage.” Once we recognize this, we can simply place one foot in front of the other and walk closer to the stage.

With great anticipation, my students and I awaited the “big one” to arrive in Manhattan last August—the Hurricane That Wasn’t, as we soon were calling it. But, hey, we were not going to sit around and cry about what could have been! So out the door we went, into the deserted streets of Lower Manhattan. I asked one of my students, dressed in his yellow rain slicker, to sit against the backdrop of several red doors. I then asked each of the students to take a shot with their wide-angle lens. Not one got close enough—at least, not initially. Compare the two examples shown here. The first image is what most of the students shot, and the second is what I recommend. It’s about getting closer. If you want to create an intimate encounter with your wide-angle lens, you need to be much closer than 5 feet!

Nikon D3X with 24–85mm lens at 28mm, f/16 for 1/60 sec., ISO 100