Explore, Wait, Shoot, Repeat.
Iceland, Norway, the Dolomites. Popular landscape images on social media often show grand vistas from those places. As a hobby photographer, seeing your own images side by side to these outstanding photographs, you quickly find yourself thinking that you have to go those places yourself to be able to take great photos. At least that’s what I found myself thinking as I started out as a photographer.
Luckily, this never kept me from exploring the nature near at my doorstep. Despite having made trips to the Dolomites in Italy and the Redwoods in Northern California, I gotta be honest: My favourite images were all taken close to were I live.
This shot was taken just a ten minute right from my flat in Brunswick on a early summer morning.
So how come that the seemingly more photogenic landscapes did not lead to equally beautiful images for me? In my opinion, the key ingredient for a good image is not necessarily the scenery but the right conditions. On holidays, you have to take what you get. You cannot wait until you finally get the fog or the flat light you had hoped for.
That’s completely different at home. After having found a subject, you can wait, follow the weather forecast and come back when the time is right and you find the desired conditions.
I have often visited this little lake in the easter part of Brunswick. It was only until this morning back in December 2022, when I got the right conditions: Thick fog and the heron as an eyecatcher in the water.
Over the years, I thus established a dedicated routine when it comes to photographing landscapes:
Explore the local area (often without my camera) and scout for possible shooting locations.
Image the scene during other conditions: What light to I want? Is it better to come back in the morning, or evening? Do I want fog in my shot?
Continuously check the weather forecast for the desired conditions.
Come back and get the shot!
The hardest part during this process is to image a scene during other conditions. Even with some practice, I am often surprised how much a patch of woodland can change from one day to another.
I can’t count the number of times I walked past this tree, never paying proper attention to it. It took three me years and a foggy morning to see its potential. Sometimes, you just need to be lucky.
Consequently, landscape photography to me is not only about observing. Similarly important is my ability to imagine how a subject could look like in other weather conditions or seasons. After having done that, it comes down to waiting until the time has come to capture the imagined shot. Sounds easier than it is, to be honest.
