If you asked most photographers what standard lenses were most would say standard lenses are anything from 24mm-200mm with apertures no smaller than f22 and no larger than 2.8 with the exceptions of 50mm lenses. These lenses will cover the vast majority of use cover the vast majority of photos you wish to take. Many photographers argue that most people could really get away with a 50mm. So why am I arguing you should be trying to get your hands on and shoot with faster, slower, longer, and wider lenses. As I argued in my post about 50mm most subjects have been shot thousands or even millions of times, most of these shots are taken with point and shoots or cellphone cameras but there are still many people who have taken the time to get creative with standard lenses with most subjects.
A landscape shot at 125mm This compressed the scene making the mountains more dramatic
Using non-standard lenses opens up non-standard compositions. Shooting landscapes with telephotos and wildlife with wide angles seems counter intuitive until you Google whatever “rare” animal or “obscure” landscape you may be shooting and realize how many photos there are of that subject that look nearly identical.
So non-standard lenses don’t have to be the weirdest or rarest lens they just have to be lenses that people don’t think to use for a given subject.
An article on extreme long exposures showing how creative you can get