Landscape photography has morphed its way into more of a popularity contest than an art form.  There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t see an in your face, ‘look at me!’ style of photograph gracing the front page of 500px or any of your favorite social media websites.  For me, my perception of landscape photography has changed a great deal.  Sure, don’t get me wrong I LOVE dramatic skies, epic vistas and jaw dropping presentations of the beautiful world in which we call home, but seeing the same areas, presented in the same ways over and over again drives me absolutely crazy.  I don’t think I’m the only one with that mindset. I think that social media has really been responsible for the demise of subtly.  Mass media photo sharing sites push those colorful square crops to the top in no time because as humans, well we love color.  Our eyes are naturally drawn more to colorful scenes; gorgeous sunsets, fields of flowers and starry night skies. We have a tendency to overlook the little things; nature’s footnotes if you will.

Personally I think that we as photographers can easily shift that ideal and find some middle ground by simply not limiting ones self to what’s popular.  That idea seems simple enough in practice, but developing an eye for subtle scenes and natural abstracts is no easy feet.

Seeing the Trees Through the Forest

I know this typically isn’t the way that this idiom is written, but it is quite intentional.  Often times we get so overwhelmed by the vast landscapes in front of us that we over look the subtleties and intimate details that make the landscapes themselves so unique and breathtaking.  The sum of the parts make the whole.  Sometimes it’s worth looking at just what those parts are comprised of and focusing in on the small details that most of us would otherwise overlook.  Finding the trees through the forest can be problematic from time to time; especially when weather comes into play.  I always try to look for patterns in nature.  If a pattern exists; it’s meant to be seen.  I personally look for objects or lines that really catch my eye and lead me through a scene.  From there I really try to focus on those lines, textures, patterns or objects of interest. Sometimes you have to let the weather and the conditions do the framing for you.

Fog, mist and low clouds can not only add some serious mood and atmosphere to an image but they can also help to frame and add depth to an image as well.  Let the clouds and fog help to guide your decision.  Look for breaks in the fog to emphasize a particular feature that you’re drawn to.  It could be a layered ridge line, a small stand of trees or even a mountain peak.  I think too often we get discouraged by crappy weather and low visibility when we should be looking at it as not only an opportunity but a challenge as well.  I love shooting in questionable conditions.  Some of my most memorable shots and experiences have come from shooting in some really challenging and for me evocative situations.  Don’t ever let less than ideal weather conditions discourage you from breaking out your camera.

Limitation is the Demise of Art

Limiting yourself to a certain style or preferred composition can seriously hinder personal development as a photographer.  I struggled a great deal with this early on.  I remember the first time a stumbled upon 500px and I was blown away by the gorgeous mountains surrounded by in your face wildflowers loaded with color and detail.  Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE shots like that.  I have several in my portfolio, but sometimes it is nice to take step back from them to look for inspiration in other places.  Compositions don’t always have to blow the viewer away by the sheer ‘wow’ factor.  Subtle is good.  

Corn Lilies are an excellent example of this; there are intricate patterns and beautiful compositions to be found if you take your eyes off of the mountains and look to the slopes below.  Pay attention to the curves and turns in the leaves.  How can you best exemplify them?  When I put this image together I looked for symmetrical features that would make the central lily stand out from the rest of them.

I found several lilies that I really enjoyed but framing them appropriately just didn’t feel right until I stumbled upon the one that you see featured here in this image.  The light was perfect, the symmetry was there and the framing helped to exemplify what I was trying to convey.

Water can be an excellent source of inspiration if you know where to look.  Take a waterfall or a turbulent aqua blue glacier fed river.   Your initial inclination might be to find a way to represent the entire scene in a manner that evokes emotion or captures your eye in a unique way.  I find myself drawn to that mindset as well from time to time but I challenge you to look further into the scene and dissect it.  What section of that river do you find most attractive?  Is there a rock formation that catches your eye?  Does a certain tier in a massive waterfall lead your eye through the scene?  Instead of finding a way to work those features into a vast landscape let them take center stage.  Let those features speak for themselves.  After all there is a reason that your eye found them; they’re unique to the area and really epitomize the beauty of the sum of those parts.

The next challenge that you face is how to best represent the intimate scene you wish to capture.  What settings and shutter speed should you use?  Landscape or portrait?  What crop?  These are all questions that circulate in my mind while I’m out shooting in the field.  For waterfalls and any moving body of water in general I find myself drawn toward methods that enhance water texture and lines.  I look for patterns in the flow of the water; the ying and yang of the currents, the balance of the flow around rocks and the light play on the water itself.  I try to evoke a feeling of being there from that small sampling of that vast gorgeous landscape.

I think capturing a variety of textures in a single exposure can be a very powerful thing.  Smooth lines combined with circulating pools and turbulent rapids frozen in time can add a great deal of depth and layering to an image.  It can really make a photograph come to life.  The shot to the right could have been taken on the coast, in a river, near a glacier etc.  That’s the beauty of abstracts; they can really captivate one’s imagination.

Capturing abstracts of waterfalls can be fairly tricky; especially when the water flow is extremely high.  Looking for features in the rocks surrounding the falls, the vegetation in the area or the various tiers in the falls themselves can offer up a variety of different composition.  Focusing on the falls themselves can be another method to capturing an intimate and more unique scene.  Water texture and framing are the big keys to shooting something of that nature successfully.  How much texture do you want?  Do you want to focus on the water itself, or frame it with a bit of the surrounding terrain?

I recently challenged myself to shoot an abstract of one of the most photographed waterfalls in Washington State.  Snoqualmie Falls. Compositionally speaking the falls are extremely limited.  There are really only three terraces to successfully capture the falls from (including the base) and although conditions can change upon every visit; the composition remains the same.

For this trip I put down the wide angle lens and broke out the telephoto.  This shot is one example of the several that I attempted that evening.

I decided to frame the falls by centering the bottom portion in front of the large cavern that sits directly behind them.  I played with a variety of different shutter speeds but ultimately settled upon the one that provided enough water texture and overall movement to lead the eye through the frame.

Abstract or Abstract?

Intimate scenes like the ones described above can be extremely challenging to shoot.  With that said; what happens when you go into the digital darkroom and discover shear disappointment in your efforts?  Fear not! Not all is lost.  There are creative ways to recover disappointing or lack luster shots to some extent.  Motion blur either in camera or in the digital dark room can be extremely rewarding if done correctly.  It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it can add a lot of creativity to what might be a bland original shot or it can take an amazing shot in a completely different direction.   The panoramic stand of trees that you see here was shot during one of the better years of fall color that we had up here in Washington.

The shot itself lacked a lot of interest so I decided to take a more artistic approach in presenting it.  I utilized motion blur in Photoshop to achieve this effect.  You can achieve this in camera as well by shooting a long exposure shot while slowly tilting your camera up or down to blur the image (hints the title; MOTION blur).  Like I said this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it can be a fun creative exercise and it’s not a bad tool to have in your back pocket when your artistically stalled or just want to get the creative juices flowing a bit.

As I mentioned before ‘limitation is the demise of art’.  Don’t limit yourself to the conventional techniques.  Think outside of the box and don’t be afraid to try new techniques with different compositions that will set you apart from the field.

The post Nature’s Footnotes: The Abstract Side of Landscape Photography appeared first on Chris Williams Exploration Photography.

If there ever was an ‘oh sh$t’ moment in my photographic career thus far this would have to be it. I left fairly early on a Friday morning in a valiant effort to make it down to Cape Kiwanda to shoot the sunset because the weather was looking prime to either be a complete bust or something really special. We had an offshore low spinning in some really unsettled weather in the form of a few nasty thunderstorms and some heavy rain/sleet/hail showers which made the drive down to Portland a ton of fun to say the least. Once I hit PDX a hopped over to HWY 101 to make a few pit stops on the way down the coast. I finally hit Kiwanda in the late afternoon and managed to get about 45 minutes of sleep in before heading out in the late afternoon light to set up for what I was seriously hoping to be some epic light.

Thunderstorms were everywhere and the rain showers were pummeling the coast as the sun fought through to illuminate the area. I shot a set on the rocks down below the dunes as the tide was still a out a bit and then made the climb to shoot some of the more well known compositions in that area. I shot some moody wave action on the cliffs for a bit before turning my attention to one of more well known comps of the Haystack made famous by guys like Dyar and Noriega when all of the sudden BOOM. Thunder cracked over head and rain started coming down. For whatever reason I decided to turn around and check out the cliffs directly behind me and they were absolutely going off. The sun had dropped right below the thunderhead and soaked the cliffs in warm ominous light. I scrambled down the slick clay (be forewarned it’s slick as hell especially when wet) shot over to the other side of the bluff and set up shop praying to the photography gods that I could get off a few clean shots. The light lasted maybe 5 minutes before being swallowed up by the incoming weather. It was definitely something I will never forget and it was one hell of a way to start my trip down the coast.

Photo Specs:

Sony a7r

16mm, ISO 50, f/13, 1/3sec, two exposures blended by hand in CS6 followed by utilizing luminosity masks and various editing techniques

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Landscape photography can be very challenging, but with the right skill set and some perseverance you too, can set yourself apart from the crowd.  Here, I will be outlining a few tips and tricks that I think are essential to getting a great landscape photograph.

1.) Use A Tripod

This may seem trivial, but a tripod is essential to getting the perfect shot.  Not only does it add stability, but it also helps you to avoid camera shake and enables you to use longer shutter speeds for low light conditions or to capture beautiful silky waterfalls, like the one pictured here.  Even at extremely fast shutter speeds a tripod can help you to line up your shot and maintain consistency throughout your entire photography session.   A cable release and or a remote control can also be used in addition to a tripod to ensure that the camera doesn’t move or vibrate during the shot.

2.) Look For A Focal Point 

When you’re looking at a vast landscape what stands out to you?  A roaring waterfall, an old tree, maybe a mountain?  These are all considered focal points.  Focal points or subjects are crucial to getting the perfect landscape photograph and can really add character and depth to a photo.  A focal point also helps to lead your eye through the photograph giving it a nice ‘flow’.

Try to frame your focal point of interest to add depth to the photo.  The rule of thirds is often referred to by photographers when discussing focal points but it can be a bit confusing.  The main idea is to avoid cluttering an image with multiple points of interest while also avoiding too much open space in the photo.  It’s a bit of a ying and yang principle.

3.) Depth Of Field (DOF) and Focus Stacking   

Depth of field is very important to capturing every detail possible in a landscape.  The main idea is to have as much of landscape in focus as you can.  A wide angle lens can be very useful for this but another way to go about it is to use an extremely small aperture.  This means setting your camera to a high f/stop number i.e. f/22 or f/16.  This allows for greater DOF to be obtained.  It’s important to keep in mind though that this will darken your image a lot as it blocks more light from hitting the sensor of the camera.  To counter this you can increase your shutter speed to allow more light into the photo.  You can also increase your ISO but this can sometimes lead to grainy photos, so try to adjust your shutter speed first.  Focus stacking is the key to obtaining pin point sharpness throughout your images.  I always start with the subjects closest to me first and then move to the back of the image.  This means that you get the object closest to you in focus first and take a photo, move to the next point and take a photo.  You do this as many times as necessary to achieve a sharp image from front to back.  To put an image like this together you need to load the layers into Photoshop, align them and then blend them using the action in Photoshop.

4.) The Foreground

This is another crucial element to setting your photo apart from the rest.  An example of this would be an alpine meadow with a large mountain range in the background.  Pick a foreground that will add a sense of depth and character to your image.  Gorgeous wildflowers are often the choice foreground for most photographers; but anything of interest can be a foreground element; a log, rocks, water you name it!

5.) The Sky

The sky can add a great deal of character to your image, but it’s important to avoid adding too much to the shot as it will take away from your focal point (remember the rule of thirds).  For instance if you have a pristine blue sky, don’t let it dominate the image as it can take away from your focal point.  If you have interesting clouds or an amazing sunset to work with then make that more of a focus in your shot, maybe even the entire foreground.  Using lens filters can also add drama and color to the sky your working with.

6.) The Weather

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are quite accustomed to clouds and rain, but don’t let that discourage you!  In fact I encourage you to go shooting in less than optimal weather conditions.  A stormy sky can often add a great deal of character to the image and can really make your photo stand out from the crowed.  I encourage you to look up, look for dramatic clouds, foggy skies, misty mornings as these things can all add a great deal of character to an image.

 7.) Lines and the Horizon

While photographing landscapes a tripod can be an immense help when it comes to keeping a straight horizon line.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come home to find that my horizons weren’t perfect (this can be fixed with post processing but it’s better to get it right the first time).    Try to adjust your horizon based upon your foreground.  By adjusting the horizon you can get more or less of the sky in your shot.

Lines can also add a great deal of depth to an image and can also help to frame the photo.  A river, road or even a valley can help lead the eye to your object of interest.  Look for lines that add depth to the photo, they can even be a focal point in your image.

8.) Photographing Movement

Slow shutter speeds are your best friend while trying to photograph movement.  A silky waterfall is a classic example of this technique but there are many other uses for this type of photography such as long exposures involving a freeway full of cars, waves in the ocean or even the stars in the sky.  Movement in a photo can add drama and a sense of actually ‘being there’ to the photo.  Longer shutter speeds allow a great deal more light to hit your sensor, so remember to adjust your aperture accordingly (bigger f/numbers).

9.) Golden or Magic Hours

Timing is everything!  Instead of shooting a photograph in the middle of the day wait until sunset or dusk or even sunrise to add more character and richness to the photo.  The colors, the lighting and the conditions will make for a much more dramatic and appealing image.

10.) Perspective

Sometimes looking straight out over a vast landscape will leave you with a boring image.  Get dirty.  Shoot low, look for flowers and other objects and points of interest.  Look for unique angles and different points of view to give your shot character and set it apart from the rest.

The post Landscape Photography 101: Getting The Shot Landscape Photography Tutorial appeared first on Chris Williams Exploration Photography.

Fine Art Prints

Choosing fine art prints for your home isn’t just about choosing art that speaks to you, it’s about choosing something that fits your interior design needs as well. If you’re decorating your new home, updating your fine art print collection in your current home or if you’re a first time fine art photography buyer, I work to make sure that the photos that you choose match your style and your interior design needs so that you can enjoy them for years to come.

Fine art prints are in limited runs of 100 prints each and once they’re sold out, they will be removed from my online shop. The limited quantities ensure that you are receiving a unique and collectible print.

I’m currently offering vivid metal prints with a ready to hang float mount. These show-stopping conversation pieces add an artistic edge and contemporary elegance to your collection while offering a unique high gloss finish. Recent advancements in technology allow my printer to print with enhanced sharpness and gorgeous true to life vivid colors! These vivid metal prints offer a 3D pop that puts the viewer right there in the scene.

• 16×24 Vivid Metal Print: $550.00
• 20×30 Vivid Metal Print: $680.00
• 24×36 Vivid Metal Print: $780.00

Licensing

If you’re interested in licensing any of my images please feel free to contact me directly. All of my images are available for licensing. 

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