Reach for the sky and end up with the stars
Wouldn’t it be nice as a nature or landscape photographer if everyday was that perfect day? But like all things we have the good, the bad, and even the ugly. But, when it comes to nature photography, you have one key advantage, you have far more opportunities when compared to landscape. In this article you are going to learn a few things, at least I hope.
Just imagine a day where the lighting, composition, and weather were working in perfect harmony. It might go a little something like this. You make your way through this narrow path that is cut in the earth. As you make your way through you notice a nicely sunlight barn. Behind that barn you have a beautiful skyline and it is accompanied by mountains as far as the eyes can see. Now, doesn’t that sound like a scene taken straight from an episode of Bob Ross. Those days are there - you just have to find them.
Wouldn’t it be nice as a nature or landscape photographer if everyday was that perfect day? But like all things we have the good, the bad, and even the ugly. But, when it comes to nature photography, you have one key advantage, you have far more opportunities when compared to landscape. In this article you are going to learn a few things, at least I hope.
Just imagine a day where the lighting, composition, and weather were working in perfect harmony. It might go a little something like this. You make your way through this narrow path that is cut in the earth. As you make your way through you notice a nicely sunlight barn. Behind that barn you have a beautiful skyline and it is accompanied by mountains as far as the eyes can see. Now, doesn’t that sound like a scene taken straight from an episode of Bob Ross. Those days are there - you just have to find them.
When it comes to landscape in my experience I have little opportunity when it comes to those images - as I live in Illinois and let me just say I WISH I DID! I remember when I was younger we went to New Mexico and hiked in the mountains for a week, we hiked 71 miles total. It was absolutely gorgeous. Personally, I will always be a landscape photographer at heart. However, I admit that now and days, I spend most my time doing nature and macro photography. The opportunities are just there for me, unlike landscape photography.
If you are a beginning photographer, let me first tell you that it takes more than pointing and shooting. In fact, pictures don’t make pictures, people make pictures. That means you have to develop an eye that can pick out those pictures. When I started to get in to photography more, I started to notice that I look at the world in the form of a picture. I started to look at things and interrupt them as a composition or sometimes lack thereof. You take this out, add this in, move this here, and snap - snap - snap - alright, did I get the picture exposed good enough? excellent and off I went to find the next image.
This is the first part of taking good pictures, once you master your cameras ability and potential to take amazing images - the rest kind of just falls into place. I also don’t want to mislead, once you become a professional photographer. . . not every day will be your best day. I went out the other night and took several images and the lighting was just way to harsh and my images didn’t look as A+ as I wanted, but with the use of post processing I was able to bring them back. The images used for this article are those some of those images.
I wanted to part ways by giving you some advice on taking images. When it comes to your photography it really comes with a steep learning curve. You have to learn the cameras modes, the settings, you then have to learn what filters you may need (if doing landscape) and how to use them, and the list stretches on. But, as you develop into a more advanced photographer you’ll start to notice you start looking for quality over quantity. You will take maybe 3 images of the same thing just to make sure you have backups and then move on. However, when you are first getting started, snap away,have fun, and learn from it. As a photographer who started with a point and shoot and worked his way up, I can tell you that I still learn something new it seems almost every day.
Adam Smith
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