I was talking landscape photography with folks a week ago and a very good question came up. “What elements do I look for in a landscape?” I took this question to mean in part, do I have a mental check list of what I’m looking for in a scene to make me stop and make a photo? I do but it’s not a list that has any particular order. We will pass past a scene and Sharon will often say, “That’s gorgeous” which it is. “You wanna stop and take a pic” she will often ask. And at times, I will say, “Nope, no light.” Then in answering the question, light is what makes me stop to explore a landscape but it alone is not enough to make me go click. I’m using this photo taken this last week at Ding Darling with the Nikon 1 V3 to kinda illustrate my thought process (love this camera for landscapes!).
There is no doubt the God Beams is what took my attention away from the Roseatte Spoonbills. And it helped in making my mind up where to stand, but lens selection, exposure and finishing were decided on other elements. For even in a landscape, I feel storytelling must happen and passion flow. With that in mind, the flock of birds in silhouette needed to be included for time and place. The grander of that sky requires visual depth which requires a foreground, middleground and background. Placing the God Beams in the frame to take advantage of the vanishing point they create (reality and reflection) is part of it. Then there is the color that is created in part by using Cloudy WB and underexposure. After the light, which element I incorporated next, and then the next and then the next I really don’t know. So I guess in answering the question, I know where I start but after that, the elements need to fall in place and the camera craft lines them all up. Oh ya, there is one last element I forgot to mention and perhaps it is the one that comes first come to think of it. Love for what’s being experienced.