Why I Think 35mm is a Cinematic Focal Length for Travel Photography

When I first bought my Sony A7R III camera body, the first lens that I ever bought was the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G-Master Lens, which was my main lens for street photography in Los Angeles and the main lens that I used when I travelled to London. While I enjoyed the versatility of this lens, I found myself more frequently using the lens at a wider focal length.

This image was taken with my Sony 24-70mm 2.8 G-Master Lens at a 32mm focal length.

This image was taken with my Sony 24-70mm 2.8 G-Master Lens at a 38mm focal length.

The first prime lens I bought for the camera was the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art. And after years of having one prime lens, I decided I wanted to buy a second one with a wide angle and debated between a 24mm lens and 35mm lens. In the end, I decided to go with the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens and it has become one of my favorite lenses to use.

CAPTURING THE SCENE

One of the reasons why I chose to go with a 35mm rather than a 24mm is because while 24mm is wider and covers a greater amount of real estate in a photo, I found that the 35mm provides less distortion (which would come in handy when i worked with models to shoot portraits and outdoor lifestyle images), but it’s still wide enough to capture landscapes. Since a lot of my travel photography in Los Angeles is rooted in street and beach photography, I wanted to use a lens that would be wide enough and incredibly sharp.

Additionally, a lot of the scenes I capture are at sunset or at night, so I wanted to make sure that I bought a lens that had a wide aperture. As a result, I went with the Sigma lens for the Sony E-mount. I was already impressed with the quality of the 85mm that I had for years, that I figured I would be impressed with their 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens.

The two photos above were taken on my first day with the Sigma 35mm at Venice Beach, Los Angeles. I think the 35mm is wide enough to capture an entire scene, but not so wide that you’re overwhelmed by too many things happening in the photo. Of course if you do end up wanting to go wider, you can always take a few steps back.

The 35mm is a lens that I bring with me whether I’m doing street photography, hiking on the mountains, or going to the beach. I think the lens offers a lot of versatility as far as adventure photography. If you’re looking into getting more close-up shots with a prime lens, then I would choose the 85mm lens. I think the two lenses go together perfectly to get a good variety of travel photos.

For more examples of my photography work, you can visit my travel photography portfolio.