Pretty much everyone now has a camera in some way, shape or form. Here are 5 good reasons you should be giving landscape photography a try.
1. Get’s you into the Great Outdoors.
You can not do landscape photography sat on your couch. It gets you out of the house, into interesting locations and promotes a more active lifestyle. There is virtually no downside to this and your overall wellbeing will be increased. One of my favourite things in the world is getting home after a day out shooting landscape photography, listening to some great music, then sitting down and post processing your images. If you do this with a friend, it is even better.
2. Landscape photography is easy.
Let me explain. Anyone can give landscape photography a try. It’s just so accessible. Head out the door with your smart phone in hand and start shooting what you see. You don’t need to worry about adding light like flashes or reflectors, you don’t need tripods and filters to get great shots and cityscapes work just as well as landscapes. There are also plenty of locations where you can grab great shots just by sticking your camera out the window of your car.
3. It’s Hard
Whilst it is very accessible, mastering it can take an entire lifetime. There are technical aspects that must be learned like compositions rules, camera settings and the exposure triangle. To take your images even further you need an artistic vision to tell a story. It is all about the story. Always.
It is also really hard getting up at 4am to catch a sunrise. Plus climbing up a mountain is no picnic, although, you do often have one at the top.
However when you take on these challenges you will be rewarded with great images and a deep sense of satisfaction that will keep you wanting more. It does not hurt to be lucky either, especially when it comes to the weather.
4. Understand light
Doing landscape photography will increase your understanding of light and exposure very quickly. That will benefit your photography as a whole. It gets you thinking about sunrises, sunsets, golden hours, contrast, shadows, highlights, mid tones, backlighting and front lighting.
The light on your subject is as important as the subject itself and understanding how to best use the light to tell your story will really take your images to the next level.
5. Attention
Creating landscape photographs is an excellent way to draw attention to yourself and build a social media following around your work. Pretty much everyone loves to look at a beautiful landscape and quality images quickly gain attention. This is particularly true if you focus down onto capturing great images of your local area. People will quickly identify with the subjects in your pictures which can create an opportunity to sell your work and gain commissions if you are good enough.
Finally, a warning:
If you catch the bug you will never be able to look at a nice landscape again without thinking about how you could capture it in an image. You will permanently be looking at weather forecasts, cloud cover, tidal times, sunset times and your desire for gear will be unlikely to reduce.
Also, stay safe, apply some common sense to the places you visit and remember there is no photograph worth risking your life for.
For me landscape photography makes me so happy that, if it went unchecked, I would spend all my time doing it and would probably forget to speak to anyone ever again in my life.
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