Am I getting this right

[Ron Morse]

I have done next to nothing with landscape but would like very much to improve.

Advice that I got on a couple of other forums was very inconsistant and left me confused. One piece of advice that I get here consistantly is to get down low and leave a little of the foreground to tie it together or at least that is my interpretation of it.

Yesterday I took about a 20 minute ride to Sunkhaze bog. This place has an abundance, although hard to see, of bear, bobcat, river otters and too many others to list.
Unfortunately their is still about 24 inches of snow left on the path in. With the weather people calling for more snow tonight and tomorrow. Will it ever end?
I took these shots trying to put the advice together. Is my trying to get down low working?

 

[Alain Briot]

I agree about using a foreground, but I don't know about getting low. It depends on the needs of each image, each composition.

From looking at the three photographs above I would say that your number one problem is the light. In one word: the light you use is uninteresting.

Keep in mind that you are not photographing so much the subject as you are photographing the light reflected off the subject. For this reason, you need to use the finest light available. Usually this means sunrise and sunset, but there are other types of extremely beautiful light such as overcast & open shade for example.

Midday light on a clear day is just about as uninteresting as it gets unless you work in black and white.

The giant twig on the right side of the third image also needs to go. It could have easily been avoided by pushing it to the side, or moving the camera to the left. Attention to "details" is important (in this case its really not a detail as it is so prominently there).

Have you read my essay on this site "Seeing like a Master?" :

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/art_Alain_Briot_001.php

 

[Ron Morse]

Thank you Alain.
For years all I photographed was horse events almost every weekend for summers and tropical fish. The horse events you take the shots whatever time of day it is regardless of the weather their is no other choice. With the fish shots I provide my own light.
I will not forget the time of day again. I can visualize what you are saying.
I did read your essay but need to go back and study it at length.
I have another shot without the twig and though I normally would have used that shot I used the one with the twig thinking that was people ment by including some of the forground.
Thank you for taking the time. I really would like to get the landscapes worked out.

 

[Alain Briot]

Part of defining a style, or more likely in the beginning part of taking better photographs, is being clear about what we do. Tropical fish and horse shows are tropical fish and horse shows. Fine art landscapes are fine art landscapes. I do the later, not the former two. In the case of my work, and thus of what I teach, the goal is an image that will stay on display for years and years. An image that will bring not only beauty but, if it succeeds, renewed wonder about the subject and a new understanding of this subject. Overall, the image will demonstrate a unique vision translated through a personal style.

On a much more down to earth level just because something is in the foreground doesn't mean it should be photographed ;-) The way to decide if it should be photographed or not is to ask yourself if it adds something to the image or if it detracts. Your twig detracts -- a lot!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Ron,

I have already seen your pictures tell more that you are moving around to try to get more of the scene into you mind and into the picture. Getting foreground is one part of that and that anchors and often applies context. What to exlude is also important as Alain pointed out. However, you are on the right tack. Now you will look out for this. I do commend you to read Alain's essay at the front of OPF, it is really a great start for getting some direction and voice.

We are fortunate to have quite a number of accomplished photographers who have dedicated to doing one thing very well. Each kind of photography has its own language and curriculum.

For horse shows and sports, the particpants really want documentation with peak moment timing and framing, in a crime scene with exhaustive precision, in fashion with cutting edge flair and personal pizzaz.

Pictures that are collected require so much more!

The working skills brought from other disciplines simply allow one to use a camera and know about some possibilities.

Other sites review cameras and are very gear orientated. Here we also try to share and point people in the direction of great examples.

Having accomplished photographers here helps.

Thanks

Asher

 

[Ron Morse]

Thanks Asher. I had read Alains essay when it was first posted and again a little later. I have since read it a couple of more times trying to put some of the points to memory.
Landscape is completely new to me. I will never reach the level of many but perhaps I will get to a point that I won't be embarrassing myself.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Ron,

It's but a journey. You are on the right path so you cannot be ambarassed!

On the way you will meet fools and wise men, beggars and folk that help you.

Asher

 

[Marian Howell]

hang in there and keep clickin' Ron one way to improve your landscape photography is the old fashioned way -- practice. Alain is right about the light, and the obvious way is to shoot in the traditional "golden hours" around sunrise and sunset. you are making the challenge more difficult by going out mid-day. hang out for a lot of sunrises and sunsets and see what catches your eye and ask yourself why. animals like that time of day as well. the weather is getting better now (well, after early next week maybe LOL!) so this is possible.
sometimes, however, you are somewhere mid-day and you want a shot...it happens. my favorite of your shots above is #3 (fwiw, i see an annoying twig in #4 but not in #3). that kind of day on the marsh means something to me (the promise of spring!!), living on a marshy coast as i do, so i can understand the appeal. in your shot, i would have started by exploring those reflections on the left along the bank. sweet. but that's just me, what drew your eye to the scene?? whatever it is that you are seeing, that's what i want to see when i look at your shot! what is your eye drawn to in the image?? don't think that all landscape photography is wide angle images...don't get boxed in by the "low down/foreground" thing, yes it is a valid working approach, successful for many, but it's not the only way!
one other suggestion, look at lots of other landscape shots. Alain's on his web site, for instance, in the portfolio section, will give you an idea of the variety of images that collectively can be called landscapes.
i'm off now to watch this pre-storm sunset (with camera of course!) because storms often cause interesting light ))

 

[Ron Morse]

Thank you very much for the suggestions Marion, I think the thing other than learning to see for the landscape work is to take a ton of landscape pictures and start pieceing it together.

South Coast.... You must be somewheres around Borne. I worked in Mass for years until I retired a year ago. The worst was when I worked at M.I.T.. Ten minutes to work in the morning and 1 hour and 5 minutes at night to go 1.5 miles to get to the highway.

I hope that you got the sunset you were looking for.

 

[Erik DeBill]

Don't let the "golden hour" lobby get you too down. A lot of times the light is nicer then, but in some places and on some days it can be quite nice in the middle of the day.

The cliche is that "bad weather makes good pictures", since clouds, rain, fog and mist all transform the light and can lead to really wonderful pictures. Also, some places get their best light when the sun is overhead. Antelope Canyon is the cliche example of this, but there are many others, including many places with heavy tree cover - the filtered light that reaches the forest floor tends to have its own charm.

It makes me angry every time I hear someone say that anyone that doesn't take their landscape photos at the break of dawn or just as the sun sets is lazy. There are good pictures to be taken at any time of day. You can find out what they are with practice.