Field Techniques

How to Read a Landscape and React to the Light: Lessons from a Fiordland Boat Expedition
Video Tutorials

How to Read a Landscape and React to the Light: Lessons from a Fiordland Boat Expedition

There’s a trap a lot of photographers fall into on location, myself included: waiting for the “perfect” conditions before picking up the camera. Clear skies, golden hour, no wind. I spent an entire vacation once chasing a single waterfall shot in the Cascades, convinced I needed ideal light. I missed dinner three nights in a row and came home with maybe two frames I actually liked. What I should have been doing was working with whatever the landscape was handing me.

How to Shoot a Year's Worth of Keepers: Lessons from Thomas Heaton's Behind-the-Scenes Calendar Project
Video Tutorials

How to Shoot a Year's Worth of Keepers: Lessons from Thomas Heaton's Behind-the-Scenes Calendar Project

There’s a particular kind of pressure that comes with committing to a long-term photography project. I felt it when I challenged myself to shoot a “best of the year” collection for the first time - suddenly every outing felt like it either counted or didn’t, and I started second-guessing compositions I would have just shot freely before. What I needed wasn’t more gear advice. I needed to see how a working landscape photographer actually makes decisions in the field, across different locations, different seasons, different light.

The 4-Step Composition Process That Changed How I Read a Scene
Video Tutorials

The 4-Step Composition Process That Changed How I Read a Scene

Every Sunday morning I do a photo walk. No agenda, no client, no pressure. Just me, whatever camera I feel like grabbing, and whatever Seattle decides to look like that day. And for years, I would show up to a location, pull out my camera within about 30 seconds, and start shooting. I thought I was being efficient. What I was actually doing was skipping the most important part. I came across a tutorial by landscape photographer Mark Denney where he breaks down his four-step process for finding and building a strong composition on location.