Landscape photography can be really fun and yield gorgeous results. It usually involves being outside and taking time to appreciate your natural surroundings. Unlike taking portraits of children, landscape photography can take a lot of time and be done slowly and very mindfully.
Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation for my local photography group by Tom Haynes. The talk was called Listening to the Light and focused on his landscape photography, mostly taken around Big Bend park here in Texas. Today I thought I’d share a few highlights I took away from the presentation.
- Become a weatherman.
- Learn to read the light and predict how it will change with time.
- Don’t use any artificial light.
- At sunset, wait for the sun to drop below the clouds and light up the bottom of the clouds.
- Some of the best color can come even after the sun drops below the horizon.
- Look for areas in the foreground that can reflect the light.
- Slow down, think, take time.
- Wide angle lens makes the mountains seem smaller.
- He doesn’t use a tripod because sunsets are dynamic.
- Bracket your exposures.
- Use aperture priority, usually around F/8.
- Break the rules sometimes.
- Long telephoto lenses can compress things together.
- 100 mm macro lens is good sometimes.
- 12 mm ultrawide, he refers to it as his “cloud lens”.
- 10.5 mm fisheye
- Black and white shows texture.
- White balance is always set for daylight.
- “Fortune favors the prepared”.
Have you tried any landscape photography? Where was your favorite location to shoot?
