Words from the Pros : 5 Tips When Shooting Nature and Landscape





Once people get past the beginning stages of landscape and nature photography, I think a lot of folks find themselves in a state where they say, “Ok I know how to use the camera…NOW WHAT!?” I hear it from numerous workshop students each year, they go a lot of fun places to make photographs, and have trouble “seeing” the photos, or finding ways to capture what they witness. Sometimes I find that the frustration with vision for an image leads to a regression where they even begin to question their basic camera knowledge.

I’ve listed a few steps I think that can help those looking to move past the “beginner” stages of photography.











1. KNOW YOUR CAMERA EQUIPMENT

I don’t mean just understanding the relationship with aperture and shutter speed. Yes, that’s part of shooting manual…but knowing your equipment goes beyond that. Know how to achieve all the possible looks you might want from a scene, taking into account how you will process it. Are you combining exposures for focus? Are you blending different exposures for dynamic range? Both? Trying to freeze action, blur it? Are you getting creative with white balance? Do you know the limits of your cameras ISO? Where does the quality really start to suffer? How fast can YOU handhold a lens effectively? What limitations does your lens collection and camera body have? Where do you need to compromise with the equipment you will be using on your shoot?

I see a lot of folks who are fairly competent shooters come back from an epic trip saying…”Well I just wasn’t happy with any of the shots I got, they’re all so soft at f18” Come to find out the lens they’ve been using is notoriously soft at higher apertures…That’s the kind of thing you should know BEFORE you go somewhere epic. You need to know the limitations of your gear, how to control it the way you want to use it, and when you’ll need t make a compromise…and then be able to explain it to yourself WHY you made that compromise. Once you have this under control…you don’t have to fret about your camera…and can focus more on the fun of shooting.











2. PROCESSING IS A BIG DEAL

I’m not talking over the top, crazy processing either. I’m talking simply about being able to visualize the way you want your finished photo to look, and knowing how to take it to that point. EVERY photo needs some level of processing to make it looks its best. I would say processing is 25-30% of an image. One thing I like doing during workshops is finding someone who is kind of ‘so-so’ on their images…then picking something that they might feel is just OK. I’ll take it and process it, bringing out all the best that image has to offer. Often when I’m finished the people will go. “WOW…I didn’t know that was what it would look like.” Yes, one can go TOO far with the processing…but often time people don’t go nearly far enough.











3. TELL THE STORY

Light changes all the time. Locations look different than we expect at times. I’ve seen a lot of photographers get frustrated (myself included) that they drove ALL this way for the WORST conditions. They get mad, sad, or some combinations of those emotions, then end up shooting nothing…missing out on other possibilities. A lot of people will roll out to photograph with a specific image they want in their head. I want _________________ with this EPIC sunset/sunrise behind it. They show up. It’s overcast, and conditions don’t look to change for days…and they end up with nothing. If you were to ask them, what is it about this location that you like so much? They would probably say; “I like the mountain…the river…the shapes of the hills, the lake…etc. I have never heard anyone go. “The epic sunset. JUST the sunset.”

We’re drawn to locations by the location, not the weather. Tell the story that you’re given on that day. Make what you see THAT day as beautiful as you can. Think differently! Try using monochrome, play with depth of field. There’s something there. Sometimes you just have to find it. Take photos of the people or surroundings of the area. You’re an outdoor photographer. Not an EPIC sunset photographer. If epic sunsets are what you’re looking for, stay home and wait…take a shot of the sunset with the Home Depot in it. I’ve started to try and get in the practice of not looking too heavily at weather reports. A) They’re often wrong. B) I know myself, and I’ll look for excuses sometimes to not shoot…and weather, let’s face it is an easy way out.











4. LOOK AT MORE BAD PHOTOS THAN GOOD ONES

Looking at good photography is inspiring, and with the Internet and social media circus accessible in even the most remote parts of the world…it’s easy to find. Just pop open 500instabookr.com and you’ll see TONS of amazing images. Its mind boggling how many amazing locations people go and how many amazing images they bring back. While all of this can surely inspire you to take your photography to new heights, it can also intimidate you, and set unrealistic goals. “My work is never going to look like that…ugh.” Or “I’ve been there 50 times and it’s NEVER looked like that…ugh, I’m cursed.”

Beginner photographers will often be more likely to be motivated by amazing photography…they’re still in the wonder of learning everything…and are grounded in the fact they do have a lot to learn so they won’t put too high of an expectation on themselves. More intermediate photographers will look at the pictures, and feel sad that they’ve been shooting for ____ years and not gotten to that level of quality, been to that location, learned to process that well, etc.

I find that looking at snapshots and less than amazing photographs not only will help you to feel better about your own work, but many times it will shed light on an angle or location that hasn’t been really captured properly yet. A lot of happy snapper photographers head out to some pretty amazing locations and see some pretty amazing things and then do a subpar job at capturing that with their phones or point and shoot cameras. For them, it’s fine. They are simply capturing what they saw at the time, documenting a moment. For someone who knows how to use a camera as an art tool, there can be a great deal of potential in visiting some of these spots and waiting for the perfect conditions. I’ve found several really wonderful spots by looking at bad photos others have taken..











5. DON’T PIGEONHOLE YOURSELF

I’ve met a lot of photographers in the 20+ years I’ve been doing this, and never more than now do I find people putting themselves into categories. When I graduated college in 1995 I would just tell people I was a photographer…and I was. I would shoot whatever, whenever, and however I felt like. I found myself in the not too distant past labeling myself as a “Fine Art Landscape Photographer” Which sounds kind of cool, but in reality…it wasn’t who I was…or even wanted to be. I found I was missing out on some fun and amazing experiences because I felt it wasn’t in my specialty area. I’ve made a serious effort to try and broaden the label to “outdoor photographer.” This, while still somewhat restrictive, has allowed me to do real estate shooting, jobs for marinas, portraits, wildlife, weddings, sports, photojournalism, and more. My personal desire has always been to be out photographing whatever I can, whenever I can. The joy of creating is what drives me…and trying to label myself or stick to marketing only one style of photography not only left me out of some potentially amazing experiences, it also cost me money. If you love photography, your job is to tell a story the best way you can with the equipment you have at your disposal AND hopefully get a kick out of the process.





About the Author Brian Rueb is an internationally recognized photographer based in Northern California. His work has appeared in numerous magazines including Shutterbug and Photographers Forum. In addition to winning numerous awards and merit at the Local, State, National, and International levels, Brian also writes for several websites sharing his interesting often-comical adventures into the wilderness in search of new images. For more on Brian, check out his bio here.

Date: 9/29/15 / Author: Brian Rueb