Focal Length Experimentation- Techniques

Focus length-"the distance between the centre of a lens or curved mirror and its focus."

In other words the focal length of a camera is the zoom. For example, You can get a subject to stand int he same spot but due to the focal length, you can change how close the subject appears to be, it can be a close up- as you have zoomed in at the highest focal length (for example for my camera 55mm), or it can be a wide angle because you have chosen the smaller focal length (for example for my camera 18mm) 



This is an example of a focal length image

As you can see from the boxes, you can change what you image includes due to the focal length- in this case the photographer had a bigger lens- thus making them be able to zoom in further/ have a smaller focal length. 

When shooting "wide", for example, on my camera the widest mm is 18mm. This creates a sort of distortion because it forms a "fish-eye" lens effects, where the camera almost fits around the camera.
A wide photographers can use this distortion to their advantage is sport photography through the use of tele photo lens, this is an example...

The subject is in focus whereas the surrounding players are distorted. This is a good technique because it doesn't take away the attention from this main player.