Difficult Roads Often Lead To Beautiful Destinations

 

We’ve all had the experience of driving through a beautiful landscape when we stop at every scenic overlook to take photographs to capture the greatness of what we see.

Landscape photography will get you out of your everyday busyness and into the stillness of, wide open and wild spaces. Whether in the rugged mountains, the dry deserts or perhaps the mysterious coastal forests, or the wind-blown prairies. No matter which direction you are headed to, eventually you will find nature in all its beauty. It's out there, just waiting to be captured.  It's up to us to be there and be prepared to bring but a minuscule part of it in our images.

 

I remember looking at incredible landscape photography images on social media and my thought was that now that I have a “good” camera, I can take pictures like that. But my images absolutely didn't look anything like those. It quickly became evident that its not just about the gear but a whole lot more.

The “more” includes such things as being able to masterfully manipulate camera settings; having a creative vision; being in the right place; at the right time; a good understanding of compositional elements and so much more. Basically any modern DSLR or camera is capable of capturing amazing images.  Putting these other things into practice along with the gear will get you where you want to go. It just takes time and a lot of shooting to get there. They are mostly pretty basic on the surface.

There are so many factors, and the settings will be different depending on every different  situation. In camera settings you basically need to know about exposure mode, shutter speed, ISO and aperture. It's up to you to dig deeper and discover the impact it can have on your landscape photography style. Landscape subjects can be – Forest , Flowing water, Mountains, Seacoast,Plains and Prairies or Desert.

Time is the most important variable that can help you in getting good landscape pictures. When you arrive in a place you've never visited before, first spend some time scouting, hiking or driving to different locations, finding different angles from different perspective. Carry a compass to figure out where the sun will rise and set, and imagine how the place would look in different kinds of light. This can take some practice because you also have to look at where the light will not be falling.

From the moment when I first starting taking pictures until now, one thing has remained constant as I realized through distance running that my higher passion was the experience, the final result that are the photographs is always secondary to the process and my total immersion into the natural world that facilitates that final result.