Recent Landscapes Articles

The Reality of Landscape Photography

Landscape photography often requires stepping outside your comfort zone, both physically and creatively. The most striking images can demand long hikes, unpredictable weather, and a willingness to embrace the unexpected. These challenges don’t just test your endurance—they add layers of meaning to the photographs you capture.

When to Prioritize Shutter Speed or Aperture in the Field

Shutter speed and aperture are two key components of the exposure triangle. Even if you are familiar with their role in proper exposure, you might struggle with when you should prioritize one over the other for the scene you are photographing. What elements should you be considering?

How Tough Is Your Camera?

Landscape photographers put their gear through some very challenging environments, from rain to snow to freezing cold temperatures and more. Unique landscape conditions tend to happen in inclement weather, making challenging weather the time to be out. But just how tough is your camera?

Sustaining Your Growth After a Photography Workshop

The impact of a photography workshop doesn’t end with the last official event. If you continue to engage with the lessons and inspiration you gained during your time there, you can allow them to shape your photographic journey in meaningful and lasting ways.

How to Shoot and Edit Stunning High-Key Winter Landscapes

High-key photography is a powerful way to create bright, dreamy landscape images with minimal shadows and a soft, low-contrast feel. Winter is the perfect season to experiment with this style, as snowy scenes and overcast skies provide a natural foundation for high-key aesthetics.

Sunrise and Sunset Photography: From Start to Finish

Sunrises and sunsets are cornerstone images for the landscape photographer, presenting opportunities to showcase fantastic scenes in the favorable soft light of the early morning or late evening. The following tips help guide you through successful sunrise and sunset photography from start to finish.

How to Prepare for a Photography Workshop

A photography workshop provides an immersive opportunity to dedicate an extended time to your photography. But before embarking on the journey, you’ll want to prepare yourself so that you make the most of the experience.

Composition Tweaks to Boost Your Landscape Photography

Composition is one of the most crucial elements in photography. It’s what gives your images balance, depth, and impact. Even the most stunning landscape can look flat and uninspiring without good composition. In this article, I will go into the fundamentals of composition and explore how I use different techniques to create visually captivating landscape photos.

Be Deliberate With Your Composition

Composition in photography can be challenging. It involves a series of rules that some say are to be followed, others say to be broken, and some say to be bent. What exactly are you looking for in a composition? How do the rules play together? Not wasting space in the frame is a great way to start.

The Evolution of an Image

My photographs are hardly ever representative of objective reality, but they are representative of my vision, my artistic interpretation of the scene. In this article, I will talk about why I made a particular photograph, what was done in the camera, and then what I did in the darkroom to realize the finished image—or at least the image as it is right now. Realizing that I hardly ever reach a final conclusion on a photograph, especially when I am working on it in a wet, traditional darkroom, everything remains a “work in progress.”

The Polaroid Photography of Film Director Wim Wenders

As a filmmaker, there’s no denying that Wim Wenders has a distinctive and immediately recognizable visual style. But did you know that, in the years before his film career really took off, he developed and honed a great deal of his visual creativity working in the medium of Polaroid photography?

To Zone, or Not to Zone: That May Be the Question

When I began photographing the landscape, the only option was using film, either black and white or color. When using black and white film, most of us used the Zone System or a derivation of it. Even those who cursed it as being too constrictive—it is not—or some kind of voodoo (again, it is not) were using this type of system in some way.

In the Field Tips for Photographing Forest Scenes

Woodland photography can be one of the more challenging environments for landscape photography. The trees and undergrowth create scenes of chaos that can be hard to organize into compelling images. Follow along as two landscape photographers wander through a rainforest, making photographs.

Six Steps to More Effective Landscape Photographs

Photographing the landscape can be hard work, at times very hard work. It entails rising well before daylight in most cases and working in sometimes very harsh conditions. Most of the time, you will be out in the woods until well past dark, waiting for just the right moment, which may not come—even after your most valiant efforts. It makes sense, then, to do everything you can to stack the odds in your favor. Here are some thoughts on that.

A Practical Tip for Improving Your Photography in 2025

Do you find yourself getting frustrated with your photography in the field? It is easy to fall into routines and practices that could hamper your photography and stifle your creativity. Are you looking for a way to break out of that as we move into 2025? This video provides a practical tip to help!

Take Better Photos by Doing Less Work

Having infinite resources for many of the locations we frequent for landscape photography is what makes it so accessible to anyone and everyone. The downside is that we tend to plan out everywhere we go, every shot we want to take, and thus we never really get a chance to develop our vision as photographers.

The Reward of Being an Artist in Residence

I have had the opportunity of working as an Artist in Residence for the National Park Service four times. The last residency was for Buffalo National River in Arkansas. In the spring of 2020, I got a call from one of the managers for the National Forest Service in Wyoming, wanting to know if I would be interested in coming to Wyoming to do a residency there in Bighorn National Forest, which I was glad to do. So, in early September 2020, I loaded up my gear into my Bronco and headed to Wyoming!

Mastering Composition for Landscape Photography

Even with the best gear, a stunning location, and perfect light, your photos can still fall flat. The key lies in composition. It’s a skill that evolves over time and one you’ll always have room to improve.

Is Interest in Landscape Photography Declining?

As social media platforms shift more and more toward video content and become fragmented, is interest in landscape photography declining? Using tools such as Google Trends analysis, one can see what people are searching for on the Internet and on YouTube. Is interest really declining?

Five Landscape Photography Tips To Practice for 2025

The end of a year and the beginning of a new one is the perfect time to reflect on your photography progression and think about the year ahead. What will you work on improving? How will your approach change? The five tips offered in this video will help you have a strong start.

Using Luminance to Improve Your Landscape Photos

Landscape photos can be spectacular or mediocre, depending on the use of tonality in the image. If you don’t pay attention to the areas of brightness or which colors stand out, you can be at a disadvantage. Understanding luminance and the tools to adjust luminosity can help you improve your images.

How to Rediscover Your Creativity with a Single Lens

When was the last time you explored with just one lens, focusing solely on its unique perspective? Taking this approach can help you see familiar places in new ways and appreciate the versatility of your gear.

Large Format Cameras in the Landscape

A question arises: Exactly why is it that you still use very large cameras and film when photographing the American landscape? Which is what I do.

Conquer the Cold: Shoot Stunning Photos in Winter Weather

For many, the snow is starting to fly, and the temperature is dropping. That isn’t a reason to put your camera into hibernation for the winter and dust off the dust in the spring. Winter can be a great time to create a few new photographs while keeping yourself and your gear protected. Here are five tips for keeping your camera gear safe and yourself warm!

Wide Angle Photography: Tips for Stunning Landscape Shots

Wide angle lenses can capture expansive views, but using them effectively takes practice. Choosing the right focal length and understanding composition techniques can help you elevate your landscape shots and make the most of this versatile tool.

How to Capture Stunning Images in Overcast Conditions

Exploring new landscapes can be thrilling and challenging, especially in unpredictable weather. Finding the right balance between the effort of getting to the location and the payoff is often the toughest part.

Do You Really Need Fancy Gear To Shoot Panoramas?

In this article, we examine whether panoramic photos can be created without purchasing expensive gear. In this tutorial, we will stitch high-resolution landscapes using a standard tripod and explain the difference between wide-angle and telephoto lenses. Whether capturing a vast seascape or compressing a distant mountain range, this tutorial will walk you through camera setup, shooting tips, and editing secrets to get the most out of your images.
Perfect Light Every Time? A Photographer’s Secret Weapon

We’ve all been there: a stunning landscape, but the weather forecast was wrong again. Traditional weather forecasts are simply not designed for photographers. But there is a new tool that changes the game.