One of the most wonderful things about photography is that you never run out of subject matter. There are so many different themes to explore. Many people start with landscapes, portraiture, travel, wildlife, children and architecture – and there is enough there to keep you going for a good many years —but the world is your oyster and you can try anything that appeals.
If you want some great landscape shots, a willingness to spend time exploring the countryside on foot is vital. The best views are rarely found at the roadside, so be prepared to get away from the car or coach. Only by going off the beaten track with a map in your hand will you discover things that many photographers miss.
Ideal Conditions
Successful landscape pictures can be taken at any time of the day, but certain conditions stack the odds of success in your favour. If you rise at dawn you are almost certain to capture some stunning images as the earth awakens after a night under the stars. From high ground you will often see veils of mist hanging in valleys, or floating gracefully over rivers, lakes and woodlands. The first rays of sunlight bathing a hillside also look stunning, and the low angle of the light reveals texture and creates a sense of depth.
USE A TRIPOD One of the keys to producing great scenic pictures is to use a tripod. It will ensure you get sharp pictures and will also slow down your picture taking – resulting in more considered compositions.
Placing one of these dramatic looking trees so that it looms large in the foreground gives the picture a powerful sense of depth.
However, although bright sunshine and blue skies promise great conditions for shooting landscapes, nothing beats a bit of stormy weather if you want really dramatic images. The most spectacular images are produced when rays of sunlight break through a dark, brooding sky and illuminate the foreground or distant features.
The mist of early morning rolling over the hills, the sprawling long shadows of the trees, the compressed perspective created by using a telephoto lens… landscape images do not get any better than this.
The most important thing with landscape photography is not to include too much. Faced with a great expanse of gorgeous countryside, you may be tempted to just start snapping away. However, when there is too much in the frame you can lose impact. Start, then, by deciding what it is about the scene that attracts you. Maybe the light on the hills catches your eye or the pattern created by a dry stone wall? Once you have established what the main point of interest is, you can set about emphasizing it. As a rule of thumb, keep your compositions simple. A single feature, such as a cottage at the foot of a mountain, can make an attractive shot in its own right.
A large proportion of the earth’s surface is covered with water, so it is not unreasonable to think of it as a subject in its own right, as we do landscape. After all, what a range of options it offers us: waterfalls, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, pools – plus, of course, the sea.
Photographing Water
The appearance of water is determined largely by the quality of the light and the colour of the sky. Shoot at different times of day and in a variety of different weather conditions and you get a wide range of results. In bright, sunny conditions, rivers and lakes tend to look blue, whereas early or late in the day they take on an attractive warm coloration. The position of the sun also plays a role. When it is overhead, around noon, a highly reflective finish is produced, with lots of highlights dancing on the surface. But during the morning or afternoon, when the sun is at a lower angle, light rakes across the surface, revealing the texture of the water. Best of all, though, is a sunset over water – which is closely matched by the delightful colours you get an hour or so after the sun has gone to sleep.
ON REFLECTION One of the first things that comes to mind when you think of water is reflection (see right). From perfect mirror images in a tranquil lake to shimmering abstracts in a bustling harbour, reflections make great subjects. Use a wide-angle lens if you want to include both the reflection and what is being reflected, or a telephoto zoom to crop in on just a small area.
Moving water has immense power and the most effective way of capturing it is by setting a long shutter speed. The result is an atmospheric, creamy froth that flows effortlessly around rocks or plummets earthward from a waterfall (see above). The longer the exposure, the greater the degree of blur. Start by mounting your camera on a tripod, then experiment with a range of shutter speeds, to see what works best – this will often be in the range of ¼ second to 4 seconds, which will require a slow ISO setting.
Action is one of the most challenging subjects to photograph. As well as having to worry about all the normal things - such as exposure, lighting and composition - you also need to focus accurately on something that is moving, possibly so fast that you can hardly see what’s going on.
Shoot Everyday Action
While it is natural to equate action with sport, in fact it is only the tip of the iceberg. A better approach is to think of action as capturing movement, and no matter where you live you will find opportunities to take great action pictures. So do not ignore the more common subjects that are around you every day – such as your kids jumping off a trampoline in your garden or skateboarders honing their skills on the street.
By far the trickiest part of focusing is keeping a moving subject in sharp focus. Happily, most autofocus cameras will handle this chore for you – and many have a ‘predictive’ capability that anticipates where the subject will actually be when the shutter fires.
ACTION Action is all around us - and can be just as captivating as sport. The slight movement in the jumping boy’s legs makes this shot work effectively.
One of the best ways of representing action is by setting a long shutter speed and blurring the subject. These dodgem cars were photographed at ¼sec, with the camera panned to render the dodgem recognizable.
You need quick reactions, a reasonably long lens, and a shutter speed of at least 1/500sec to capture racehorses galloping towards you. Get it right, though, and the results can be spectacular.
Photographing Winter Sports
Special considerations when shooting winter sports include the need to check the exposure carefully. Snow is white. To a human, such a statement is obvious; however, to a camera, it is not. When it is pointed at snow, the camera simply ‘sees’ a great deal of light and reduces the exposure to compensate.
