They say that in photography, planning is everything. And, for the large part this is wise advice - especially for landscape photographers like myself who are at the mercy of weather and light levels.
These days, there’s no end of resources to help you plan an image down to the fine details - you could use a weather app to ensure there’s no rain forecast, or a dedicated photography app (such as PhotoPills) to show you a map view of the location and even the direction of light and time of sunset, right down to the minute.
But is planning a photoshoot like a military operation always such a good approach? Well, perhaps not, and here’s why…. First up is the very question of why you are taking the photo in the first place. Is it for a commission or simply a location you've been waiting to cross off your list? If you’re out there for enjoyment, does putting the pressure of following maps and watching the clock for the best light really add to the pleasure of the experience? Probably not. And secondly, even if you have planned everything to the last letter, Mother Nature may still throw you a curveball that will spoil the shot completely or leave you feeling like you could do better elsewhere. . . . . This is where you need a 'Plan B'.
Apps like PhotoPills can tell you the direction of light and times of sunset/sunrise, making them massively useful to landscape photographers.
Now, the Plan B could be as simply as conceding that your original location is simply not going to work out and a recent landscape shoot reminded me of this very lesson. I had planned to photograph a landscape location while visiting Northumberland in the north of England. I’d used Instagram to see how other photographers had captured the area (this would help me try something different), I’d used a weather app to make sure the light would be right and I’d even used PhotoPills to make sure I knew where the light would be coming from and when. But something just didn’t feel right about the scene and, after a few test shots, I knew it was time to switch to 'Plan B'.
I headed back to the car park, chucked my tripod in the boot of the car and was about to drive off, when I saw it. . . . A lone tree on a raised grassy knoll right in the middle of the car park and backlight by the most spectacular sunset. There was only a few other cars around, and the drivers sure did offer some quizzical looks in my direction as I retrieved the tripod and set up on the gravel of the parking area. By casting the tree into a silhouette and making the most of the sky, the scene looks like it could have been captured in a National Park revered for its beauty, when the reality was that just a few metres away from my tripod was a bin where people deposit what their dogs leave behind, if you know what I mean.
Yep, the image really was taken in the middle of a car park. Image by Matty Graham.
My point is this; sometimes 'Plan A' doesn’t work out and landscape photographers need the ability to know when to move on, and how to think on their feet – spotting the potential of a scene, wherever it may be. Knowing how you can treat the image in post processing can further help shape your approach to scenes, plus being creative with composition and focal lengths are also techniques landscape photographers should bear in mind when 'Plan A' has gone out the window and you need to find something before the sun goes down.
By casting my subject into sihouette and making the most of the sunset, this beautiful scene could have been captured anywhere in the world, let alone a car park. Image by Matty Graham.
So, perhaps 'Plan B' should stand for; Be ready for anything, Be willing to experiment, Be creative, Be willing to know when to move locations. The truth is that, while planning and preparation are a great start, the perfect picture can appear out of nowhere!
. digitalrev.com2019-1-31 03:00