Nothing beats spending an afternoon with just two things: your camera and nature. As an adventure-seeker, it’s the perfect outlet for your stimulation – no two landscape photo sessions are ever the same.
So how do you translate the amazing experiences of being in nature into spectacular landscape photos others adore? Through this lesson I hope to teach you just that.
I begin the lesson with an all-to-common scenario that the typical amateur photographer almost always succumbs to…
Being Surrounded By Beauty But Unable to Take Great Photos…
Several years ago I went on a 3 day, 40 mile trek into the remote regions of Kings Canyons. Long stretches of untouched wildlife surrounded me as I journeyed through nature – dSLR in one hand, trekking pole in the other.
The chirping of birds flying overhead into the horizon… the crunching of gravel under my feet as I walked the barely kept trail… in every corner there was beauty.
My response? I pointed my camera left and right, photographing everything I possibly could.
I had one goal: massive coverage of this vast landscape.
Unfortunately, when I returned home to view my photos, the results were thoroughly disappointing.
Most all of my photos were mediocre at best.
Although I was more in-touch with nature during those three days than my entire life – I felt the dew form on my skin, watched the sun rise and fall, and could smell organic earth all around me – my photos failed to show any of this!
Now, years later, I realize why…
I was experiencing nature in-person, which is entirely different than experiencing it via camera.
Landscape Photography Is Not What You Think
If you think great landscape photography is about going to some remote wilderness, setting up your tripod, pushing down the shutter, and calling it a day, you’ve got it all wrong.
Landscape photography awesomeness is far from that…
You see, no matter how refreshing the cold cold breeze of nature is on your skin as the sun sets over the horizon, if you can’t convey this visually to your viewer and allow them to feel these sensations as well, your photo will fail.
While you are out in nature, it’ easy to be overwhelmed by your senses.
For someone looking at your photo on a flat digital screen in the comfort of their home, however, there’s what I call a “sense disconnect”.