Students ask me all the time what lenses they should have on my various photo tours. After asking them what they already have, I often find they are missing a good wide angle lens. When I say 'good', what I really mean is a lens less than 18mm on a full frame camera, or 10 to 12mm on a cropped sensor camera. I took the picture of a bed and breakfast establshment in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with a 16mm wide angle, and it created a wonderful perspective. Wide angles exaggerate perspective artistically, they have extensive depth of field, and they make the foreground seem like it is disproportionately large when compared to the background. All of these things make wide angles very important to have. I would say that at least 40% of all my pictures are taken with a wide angle lens.For maximum drama and visual impact, the wider the better.