Attributes that will help you take amazing landscape photos and stand out from the oversaturated crowd.
“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.”
— Matt Hardy
We live in a changing world, where once you could travel to a beautiful location and spend hours there by yourself taking photos, getting that unique shot; nowadays there is a good chance you will be joined by busloads of tourists, or day hikers wielding selfie sticks and smartphones all taking a snapshot of the same thing you are trying to photograph. However, all is not lost in the world of photography; even though there are many, many more people out there taking photos, thanks to the increase in mobile phones, and social media, I believe it is still possible to stand out from the crowd.
When searching on google images, Instagram, flicker, 500px or any one of the other countless image sharing websites for photos of a specific location or subject you want to photograph, it could be quite easy to get overwhelmed by the number of photos that have already been taken; however, if you take the time to look at all those photos, you will find that there are only a few that really stand out, the ones that make you think wow this photographer is really talented.
What is it that helps these photographers stand out in a very oversaturated market? When I was out in the early hours of the morning walking to a location to photograph the sunrise I came up with five attributes I like to call the “5 P’s of landscape photography”. At the time I thought I was a genius; however, after doing some research on the internet I have discovered there are a few variations of this idea out there for different genres, and the five attributes I have come up with don’t necessarily just relate to landscape photography; I’m just using landscape photography as my example as that is what I photograph most.
I haven’t listed these in any specific order; however, I do think without the first attribute, Passion, the others aren’t enough to consistently get good results.
Passion
In my mind, passion is the most important attribute required for achieving great results from any hobby. Without passion, you will never be able to stand out from the crowd and without passion, it would be easy to give up or not even try. There have been many mornings where it would have been very easy to stay in my nice warm bed for a few more hours rather than getting up and heading out into the cold, dark morning to trip over rocks and get wet feet just to capture a beautiful photo that has been potentially photographed many times before.
However, landscape photography is something I am very passionate about so I find it very easy to get up early or stay out late to take photos. I absolutely love sitting there behind my tripod watching the light change across a scene. The enjoyment I get from hiking to a location and then sitting out there in nature far outweighs any discomfort I may feel along the way.
In the image above passion played a big part. The temperature was below zero and looking out the window the sky was so bland, a small part of me could have easily jumped back in my warm bed rather than heading out, but instead, I knew no matter how cold it is out there, the feeling I get from experiencing the calm of the morning while being amongst such beautiful scenery was much stronger than the urge to give it a miss.
Patience
Along with passion, I believe patience has to be a close second as one of the most important attributes anyone wanting to consistently take spectacular landscape photos will need. Having patience will allow you to capture the photo you have set in your mind. I have spent many hours out in nature waiting for the light to be just right or sitting in my car watching a location waiting for the weather to change. Patience can also come in very handy when photographing somewhere famous that has crowds of people around.
Many people will just be happy taking a photo of a beautiful location and will just fire off a few snaps and then be ready to move on. I have been out photographing many times with non-photographers who will take a photo and then be ready to move on. I can see them getting itchy feet out the corner of my eye while I sit patiently behind my tripod waiting for the sun to shine through the clouds above and cast down a glow on the mountain I am photographing.
Quite often you will be out taking photos; you’ve found the composition you want to photograph, and now you need to wait for the light to change so the scene becomes what you had pre-visualized. While waiting however you notice the light getting nice in another direction but the composition isn’t as good as the one you have chosen. This is a dilemma that I had while taking the above photo. I knew what I wanted but as the light got nice off to my left I started to have doubts that the scene in front of me would get the light I wanted. In the past, I would often give up on the shot I wanted to photograph the mediocre shot in the other direction just because the mediocre shot had some nice light, but this time I decided to stick to my guns and be patient. And I believe it paid off.
Persistence
Persistence and patience go hand in hand. With patience, you need to wait for something to happen, wherewith persistence you may not get the results you are after the first time around, or the second, so you will need to keep trying if you’re to succeed. Persistence plays a big part in landscape photography, especially if you have a vision in mind. One of the challenging parts of landscape photography is that we have no control over mother nature, which in turn means we have little control over what we are photographing. We can take certain steps to help with capturing our vision but when it comes down to it, there is a lot of luck involved.
This is where persistence comes in; if you have a specific vision in mind of a location you’re at but today the light just isn’t playing ball, then you may need to return to this location, often many times, to capture the photo that you’re after.
The photo above is taken at a small homestead close to my house. It is a very popular area, always teeming with locals and tourists, so it can be quite hard to photograph this scene during good light without too many people in the photo. I had tried many times before to capture this scene but either the light was never right, or there were too many people in the scene. Sometimes there would be someone sitting on the bench to the right, which would have been quite nice; however, the person sitting there was usually someone that didn’t add to the vision I had but rather took away from it. I could have easily given up thinking I wouldn’t get a photo here that I am happy with and tried another composition elsewhere, but being persistent I managed to get the nice light I was hoping for with the added bonus of the rainbow I wasn’t expecting.
Positivity
Sometimes you will get to a point where you feel the world is against you. Every time you had been out lately nothing had worked out and you’re ready to throw in the towel. Now is the time to stay positive, things are not always going to work out, but when they do you will be so blown away by how good you feel that you will question what was even going through your mind when you thought about giving up.
I have heard statistics about many professional landscape photographers who take 1000’s of images every year but only end up with around 10 images they would include in the portfolio and around 30 they would share with social media. That’s a huge amount of images where things didn’t work out exactly as they had envisioned.
Every time that you go out does not have to be a resounding success, you will have times where things just aren’t going your way. But remember, each time you are out photographing, even if you don’t get the image you’re after, you’re still working on your craft. You are learning new techniques, or scouting new locations. Maybe you will find a new composition that you hadn’t thought of as you were so focused on getting the photo you had envisioned. Or maybe just being out enjoying nature, and the quiet of your surroundings before the world wakes up is enough. Landscape photography isn’t just about taking photos, it’s also about experiencing the beauty of this planet we live on.
The weather on a morning where I had planned to go out into the nearby hills to take sunrise photos hadn’t tuned out to be as positive as the weather forecast the day before had said it would be, in fact, it was dull, grey and dreary. However, I hadn’t been out into the hills for a long time and had been neglecting my photography for a while so I decided to head out anyway. I knew if I stayed home being a Negative Nancy, thinking the world is out to get me I would continue to find reasons to not go out and take photos, and my camera would end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
Thinking positively I headed out to the hills. Drizzle coming down on the windscreen throughout the entire drive there. I couldn’t see more than a few meters in front of me as I drove in the dark. Yet I was still feeling pretty optimistic. Perhaps I would get some moody shots of shapes appearing for brief moments within the fog. Perhaps I would just get to enjoy a nice walk. Or as things turned out, the clouds would be low enough that I would be able to walk out the top of them and take some stunning shots of the hills breaking through the inversion of clouds below. I ended up spending quite a few hours up there, taking photos like the one above, and just watching the clouds move in and out of the valleys and then clearing to bring forth a lovely day.
Playfulness
Finally, we make it to the last of the five P’s – playful. No matter how early in the morning it is, no matter how many times you have tried to get the photo you have envisioned, and no matter how long you have been waiting for the light to be just right, don’t take things too seriously, make sure you are still having fun. Enjoy the moment you are in. Stop photographing for a while and look at the beautiful scene in front of you without worrying about what shutter speed you should be using. Forget about the photo and soak it all in, remember what it was about the scene that made you want to photograph it in the first place.
Firstly, if things aren’t going well remembering to have fun will help reduce any anxiety and negativity you may be having towards the current situation. Don’t stress, its not the end of the world if you don’t get the photo today. Secondly, if you are having fun and enjoying your time out there, just taking in the scene and forgetting about the photo for a short while, then those positive emotions will help when you are post-processing as you will be able to remember more how you felt in the moment.
The above photo was taken during a hailstorm while I was walking in the hills. The hail was coming directly at me so I wasn’t too keen to point my camera in that direction, so instead, I just pulled my hood over my head and stood there enjoying the scene in front of me. When the hail got a little lighter I decided to take the risk to get a photo, but instead of setting up a tripod, I got my settings to where I thought they should be while facing away from the scene I was photographing, envisioned a composition, and then in one quick movement, I spun around bought the viewfinder to my eye and fired off a shot. It took a few attempts of doing this to get it right, but it was so much fun. I felt like a cowboy from an old western caught up in a duel with another cowboy. I love being able to look back at photos like these and remember exactly how I felt all that time ago.
Final words
Over the many years of taking landscape photos, I have found that having the five attributes that I like to call the five P’s of photography – passion, patience, persistence, positivity, and playfulness – have played a huge part in being able to capture some great images that I am very proud of. It has made all those early mornings enjoyable. Sitting behind my tripod and waiting for the light to be just right, allowing me to just absorb the scene in front of me, whether it be a new scene or a scene that I have visited dozens of times before, has been some of the most memorable moments of my life.
