Bright and sunny skies, or bluebird skies, as some call them, are the bane of landscape photographers. Or are they? We’ve all been taught to seek out the “good” light of golden hour or dramatic skies. This video talks about how to walk away with great images even on those sunny, cloudless days.
Have you ever had a landscape photography trip planned only to have several days of cloudless skies? Michael Shainblum shares his tips for photographing landscapes on bright and sunny days, so those trips still result in great results.
Shainblum works through some of his techniques for capturing images on days with blue skies. He highlights the importance of scouting scenes under the harsh light, marking them for coming back to them a little later in the day with reflected light. This takes slowing down a little, observing the elements and subjects around you, and thinking about how they will look later in the day.
Shainblum also seeks out subjects in more favorable conditions, looking for small scenes and textures in the shade of canyon walls. He shares impressive results that can come from a little extra effort looking for pleasing light in small places. He concludes the video with what I think is one of the most important tips in the video.
I have actively been pushing myself to latch onto the advice that there is no bad light. The tips presented by Shainblum in this video are welcomed as I work to grow my approach to photographing landscapes at times old me would have considered unfavorable.
That's a great video about the valley of fire. Great photographs. I will visit this place in July and was wondering how to start there since I probably not make it for sunrise or sunset.... Thank you for posting you experiences!
I have certainly added it to a list of places I would like to visit. Close to Las Vegas, so that makes it easy to get there!
Valley of Fire State Park is getting overrun in cooler months. Campsites getting hard to find any days. Dont know about mid-summer season. Changes in the works proposed to limit visitation. I did not see this location mentioned in the video.
I am not super surprised, it seems so close to Vegas that it ends up being an "easy" location to get to - or to tack onto a trip that launches from Las Vegas. I was in Death Valley earlier this year and I know at least two of the folks I was with spent an extra day and went to Vally of Fire since they were leaving from Las Vegas.
He snuck the Valley of Fire in there as a bit of flashback around the 6m10s mark, he notes a few days earlier he had been in Valley of Fire State Park.