Try and capture what you are seeing and experiencing. Digital photography makes it easy to experiment. Look at how the sun plays off the leaves, trees, bark, water droplets; see how it illuminates the spider web or causes the water to shimmer.
When the sun is hidden behind a flat white sky, look for textures and contrasts.
In his article about landscape photography (PhotoSecrets.com), Mark Fenwick encourages his readers to look for:
- Light -shadows and highlights,
- Shapes – round and angular,
- Colour – harmony and discord,
- Texture – rough and smooth,
- Composition – strong and weak,
- Tones – light and dark
- Patterns – even and odd,
- Mystery.
While you are exploring, move around your subject. Look for alternate vantage points and angles. If you can, try it at different times of the day. By mneung around and exploring a site at different times, the landscape will reveal more to you.
You can also try using different lens apertures. Ansell Adams is well known for shooting everything at f22 in order to capture all of the detail in his scenes. You can also use that depth of field to your advantage by blurring an unattractive or distracting foreground while keeping the remainder of the scene in sharp focus.
You can always start with the standard shot of an area but then start experimenting. Move around, lay on the ground, climb a tree, blur the foreground, or frame the image with a tree of bush. You can change the perspective by switching from a wide angle lens to a telephoto lens or have a little fin and try a fish eye lens.
Enjoy your photographic safaris or walks and learn to see what is happening at the moment you are there. Don’t settle for a standard shot, experiment and try something different.
