Recent Landscapes Articles

Photographing Jackson Hole Wildlife With the Sony a7R IV and 200-600mm

In late September 2019, I joined up with three other wildlife and landscape photographers to take on Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a few days surrounding the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) WildSpeak West symposium. In this video I review my best images taken with my new gear from this short but productive three-day trip to the Tetons.

Helpful Tips for Better Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is a tricky genre that takes the confluence of multiple threads of technical prowess, creative thinking, and a bit of luck from the elements to create a successful image. This helpful video will give you lots of great tips to improve your landscape photography.

The Nikon Z7 in the Hands of an Urban Photographer

It's been exactly a year since the release of Nikon's flagship full-frame mirrorless camera and the camera has been tested in so many different genres. For this review, I test out this camera for compatibility in the exact kind of photography that I do: urban photography.

Planning for Autumn Photos

Autumn has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere, and with it comes the opportunity for vibrant, colorful photos of the changing leaves. It is often just a few weeks that we get with those brilliant colors, however, so it is important to do some scouting and planning to be ready when the times arrives. This great video will give you some helpful tips to be ready to take some excellent images of the fall leaves.

Do You Have a Photographic Nemesis Location?

Do you have a location where it seems no matter what you do, you just can't seem to take a good picture? This great video explores what happens when you have a nemesis location, why you should keep pursuing it, and what you can do to get past your difficulties.

Want to Shoot Fall Colors? Use These Guides to Pick the Perfect Time

The bright reds, oranges, and yellows of trees in autumn make for compelling subjects, but it can be tricky to plan travel around nature. If you want to give yourself the best odds for success, you need to plan ahead. Crowd-sourced foliage maps and reports can let you know when and where the color is at the peak.

Hands On With The Phase One IQ4 150MP: Can You Shoot Long Exposures at 1/125s?

Like them or not, medium format cameras are the truth when it comes to image quality. The latest 150 megapixel juggernaut from Phase One is another example of what these systems are capable of, but there's far more to this back than just sheer resolution. Ever shot long exposures at 1/125s?

Around this time last year Phase One released the IQ4 line of digital backs. The IQ4 expanded on the IQ3 and introduced a new Infinity Platform (the UI and operating system in the backs), as well as two brand new sensors: the 151 megapixel full frame medium format IQ4 150MP and 150MP...

Fstoppers Reviews: Masters of Photography: Albert Watson

The Masters of Photography courses are aimed at offering instruction from those who have mastered their genre, to those who are entering it. The Albert Watson course covers his whole career, working in portraiture and commercial advertising as well as shooting landscapes and personal projects. Here’s what I thought after giving it a go.

The Importance of Returning to the Same Photography Locations

It can get exhausting, inefficient, and even expensive constantly trying to find new photo locations for your landscape work. But with a little bit of work and creativity, you can get numerous shots and looks from a single location. This great video discusses why it is important to keep returning to the same location and how it can improve your work.

The Best Location Photography App You Will Ever Use

Do you like to plan your location shots? Will you be visiting a location and want to know where the sun is going to be at a particular time of the day? Will the building or mountain block the sun right before sunset? Well, if you're like me, you want to know these answers before you get to the location, and that's why you need this app.

The Power of the Dehaze Tool

The Dehaze tool in Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Lightroom is fantastic for landscape photography. Here are some examples of its use.

What Should You Think About When You Take a Photo?

Landscape photography is a difficult genre that combines a lot of technical ideas with nuanced artistry and detailed vision, making it a challenge to create a successful image. So, what should you be thinking about as you are standing behind the camera, readying your shutter finger? This excellent video explores that exact question.

How to Create a Gigapixel Panorama Using Syrp Genie Mini II

Most panoramas can easily be shot by hand but what happens if you want to shoot a multi-row pano? What if you want to create a truly "gigapixel" image that could require over 100 images? You're going to need some hardware to help.

Sometimes, Things Just Don't Go Well

Watch enough YouTube and photography tutorials, and you might start to think that accomplished photographers do nothing but take spectacular shots day in and day out. But the truth is that even the best among us have days where things just don't go right or the creative juices just aren't flowing properly. This great video takes an honest look at what happens when things just aren't going the way you had hoped.

How to Create Stunning Images of Trees

The wonderful thing about trees is that every single one is unique in texture, shape, curvature, structure, setting, and more, making them excellent subjects for landscape photographers. This excellent tutorial will show you how to create eye-catching photos of trees.

When the Sky Gives You Clouds Like These, Just Go Shoot

When the weather gods do something crazy, don't ask questions; just say thank you. You can try and plan your outdoor photography until you're blue in the face, but sometimes, when it starts to look like the conditions might be epic, you need to be spontaneous and just get out there.

The Laowa 15mm f/2: Wide, Fast, and Built for Full Frame Mirrorless

Laowa is one of the first to create a wide lens for Nikon’s Z and Canon's RF mount, with their 15mm f/2 Zero-D. The lens is also available in Sony's FE, representing a unique option for full frame mirrorless users. With an impressive aperture and focal length combination, is it a lens you should consider?

Use Color to Dictate Your Style in Landscape Photography

Ansel Adams loved editing his images in the darkroom and often spoke about it. More importantly, he saw it as an important role in creating the final image that he had visualized when he took the shot.

What Are the Best Settings for Landscape Photography?

One of the neat things about landscape photography is that you can produce vastly different images from the same scene simply by varying the choices of your basic settings. This excellent video discusses numerous situations you might encounter as a landscape photographer and the best camera settings to consider using in each of them.

Five Simple Tips for Cityscape Photography

Shooting cityscapes is something many people never get tired of. The urban jungle is an ever-changing landscape that never ceases to amaze many people with its often grandiose theme and bright, distinct, and often colorful details.

Five Reasons Why a 24-105mm Zoom Is a Must-Have Lens

The 24-105mm lens is rarely the one you think about first when the subject is landscape photography. However, this lens is one of my most used lenses and has been for several years.

What if Your Photos Suck?

In this YouTube video, Brendan Van Son discusses with us the feelings and thoughts of what happens when you are working on assignment and your photos suck.

Do You Have to Pay to Photograph in the Faroe Islands?

The combination of vastly increased living standards for many people around the globe, individualism and social media has created a boom in tourism never seen in the history of humanity. Towns, areas and countries such as Venice, Dubrovnik, The Isle of Skye, US national parks, Iceland, The Netherlands and The Faroe Islands are feeling it (and that is just to name a few). The Faroe Islands seem to do something different.

How a Professional Landscape Photographer Composes a Photo

One of the more nuanced and difficult aspects of landscape photography is composition. This excellent video features a professional landscape photographer as he talks through how he chose the compositions for two of his images.

When Disaster Strikes and Your Camera Drowns

Some days, you spend the day hiking in beautiful weather, the sun shining on your face and a light breeze dancing through your hair while you capture arresting images of Mother Nature in all her glory. Some days, it rains all day, and your camera falls into a river.