Forest Photography

Stop Fighting the Chaos: How to Actually Compose Forest Photographs
Video Tutorials

Stop Fighting the Chaos: How to Actually Compose Forest Photographs

Forest scenes break my brain every single time. I’ve stood at the edge of a dense woodland on my Sunday morning photo walks, looked into that wall of trunks and branches and moss, and felt absolutely paralyzed. It’s not like shooting at the coast, where the lighthouse or the sea stack basically tells you where to point your camera. In the forest, everything is competing for attention, and nothing is obviously “the subject.

How to Find and Frame Forest Shots in Unpredictable Weather (Lessons from Fiordland)
Video Tutorials

How to Find and Frame Forest Shots in Unpredictable Weather (Lessons from Fiordland)

I once spent an entire vacation chasing a single waterfall shot. I missed dinner four nights in a row, came back to the hotel soaked every time, and walked away with maybe two frames I actually liked. What I lacked wasn’t gear or patience. I lacked a system for reading a chaotic natural scene quickly and building a composition on the fly, in changing light, in wet conditions that were doing their best to ruin everything.

How to Actually See the Forest (And Stop Forcing Shots That Aren't There)
Video Tutorials

How to Actually See the Forest (And Stop Forcing Shots That Aren't There)

Forest photography has a way of humbling you fast. I’ve walked into beautiful woodland scenes with a full bag of gear and walked out with nothing I wanted to keep. The problem was never the forest. It was me, rushing, forcing compositions that looked good in my head but fell flat on the sensor. I’d frame up a shot, decide it wasn’t working, move twenty feet, try again, and repeat until the light was gone.