The Importance of Patience and Split-Second Timing in Landscape Photography

You might not think of landscape photography as a genre that relies on split-second timing, but when you are dealing with dynamic scenes, just a moment's difference can create separate images and tell entirely different stories. This fantastic video discusses why you should consider the timing of your shots and how you can get multiple images from the same scene simply by varying it. 

Coming to you from Andrew Marr, this excellent video discusses why you should consider the timing of your shot carefully when dealing with dynamic landscape scenes, such as crashing waves or moving clouds. I learned this lesson in a very frustrating way once. When trying out the Hasselblad X1D when it first came out several years ago, I tried to time a shot with waves breaking in the left side of the frame to balance out a tree and clouds in the other parts of the image, but early firmware versions of the camera were particularly slow and finicky, and it took me about 30 tries to actually get the timing right. It was worth it in the end, though, as the waves breaking were the only composition that worked. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Marr. 

And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi." 

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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