Nature Photography Section 4

Doing research first to find a photogenic landscape seems to me like another one of those obvious tips that I am finding more and more frequently in this book. Color being one of the most important things in finding a good landscape is also fairly obvious. He does bring visual priorities back in this section, saying that red is the attractive color, and can create a great landscape. Finding more subtle color harmonies with fog or sand dunes seems to be an afterthought, but I thought it was a good one.

Clouds really do make the difference. I have to completely agree with him on this one, the clouds can completely change a landscape, taking it from okay to amazing. Planning for interesting clouds is a little bit harder. The author says both a still, clear atmosphere and fog, mist, haze and falling snow can create amazing pictures. The atmosphere really does have a lot to do with getting a good picture.

Taking pictures at northern or southern angles allows for great sidelight, especially at sunrise and sunset, but I don’t know how much effort I would put forth to take a picture in those particular directions. A landscape may not be as attractive from those angles. Having open horizons to allow for the best light is also important, but seems like another thing that cannot necessarily be helped.

Perspective is another important part of landscape photographs. Size cues help us figure out the scale of a scene, these can include trees, animals, or even clouds. Wide angle lenses increase the perceived distance between elements, promoting a feeling of deeper space, telephoto lenses have the opposite effect. Overlapping elements in a photo also help with feelings of perspective. One thing to look for when taking landscapes is something with five planes: foreground, mid-ground, feature, cloud plane, and sky plane. These add interest and help with perspective. All of these tips make perfect sense and I have no doubt that they make for better photographs, but I will definitely have to work on actually noticing and using them when I take pictures.

The final part of this section is about nature’s mirrors, or water. I would agree that pictures of reflections are beautiful and they add a lot of interest to the photo. However, as with sitting in a blind all day to take pictures of animals, I am not sure if I am committed enough to wade into the water to get the best possible picture of the reflection. Maybe this will have to be an experiment to try during the summer months.