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How To Show Depth In Landscapes

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Mojave DesertOne of the common goals of a landscape photograph is to show depth—either to show the viewer how vast a landscape is or to help lead the viewer’s eye from the foreground into the background.

You might think that adding depth is as simple as using a wide angle lens, but it’s a little more subtle than that.

Here are a few ways to show depth in a landscape photo:

1. Focus on elements that lead the viewer’s eye

The general thing to remember with capturing depth in a landscape is to focus on elements that naturally lead the viewer’s eyes through all dimensions of the landscape. This could be things like a fallen tree that points towards the back of the frame and leads the eye to the base of a mountain, or a stream that serves a similar purpose. [Read more…] about How To Show Depth In Landscapes

Photographing a Subject for Multiple Uses

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Bluebell wildflowers blooming in the spring
Spring Bluebells / Photo by Jim Braswell

When photographing a subject, do you picture in your mind just how that photo will be used? Do you ever consider multiple uses? I got caught in the trap of shooting for a single use, early in my photographic endeavors.

When putting together a series of images for a nature calendar, I found some older images that would have been wonderful to include in the calendar. But these images were all shot as verticals (or, “portraits”) and were not able to be cropped to a suitable horizontal format. In some cases, you may be able to re-crop a vertical into a horizontal, but sometimes the result is not what you are looking for. In this post, I’ll share a few things I learned along the way and how I try to shoot all my nature subjects today. [Read more…] about Photographing a Subject for Multiple Uses

How To Stay Warm on Those Cold Days

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Adult Bald Eagle sitting on a snowy tree limb
Bald Eagle in Snow / Photo by Jim Braswell
Ironically, as I write this post, I’m sitting in a motel room in the Colorado Rockies, waiting for the temperatures to warm up. I arrived here a couple of days ago, to shoot the bighorn sheep in the rut. Although I love to shoot nature in the winter, you also need to use common sense.

When temperatures are record-breaking lows (like right now), or wind chill advisories are in effect (like right now), it may be best to stay indoors. What makes the frigid temperatures I’m encountering on this trip even more of an issue, is the fact that I have to hike back into a canyon for about 3 miles to find the sheep. Then, of course, 3 miles back out. But tomorrow’s forecast is for warmer temperatures (in the 30’s), so I will be getting out tomorrow! So how do you prepare for shooting in cold, winter weather? [Read more…] about How To Stay Warm on Those Cold Days

How To Prepare For An African Safari Trip (Part II)

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Photo by Jack Dausman
Photo by Jack Dausman
Last week, Jack talked about how to prepare for an African safari trip. This week, in part two of his post, he talks about how to capture the moment once you’re there.

Early Morning

Landscape photographers enjoy the early light of pre-dawn. Be sure to explain this interest to your guide, well in advance, as it will take some extra planning. Game reserves have a lock-down policy against any night time excursions because there are still incidents of poaching. To leave before dawn will require some coordination. [Read more…] about How To Prepare For An African Safari Trip (Part II)

New eBook – 53 Tips For Nature Photography

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53 Tips For Nature PhotographyIn the last six years, we’ve published over 240 posts here on PhotoNaturalist. With each new post, it gets harder to dig through the older posts and find the ones you might be interested in. It’s one of the most common comments I get from new readers.

So, I thought now was a good time to create a “best of PhotoNaturalist” eBook that contains all of our most popular posts (but only including posts written by me, because I do not have permission to resell other writers’ posts).

The eBook is 108 pages, and has 53 of my top posts. I determined the “top posts” by looking at traffic, and how much each post was shared on social media. I also tried to include a nice balance of subjects, so I separated the posts into four sections: general, landscape, wildlife, and close-up. [Read more…] about New eBook – 53 Tips For Nature Photography

8 Tips and Tutorials For Winter Photography

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Photo by Vic Berardi
Photo by Vic Berardi
With all this super cold and snowy weather we’re getting up here in the northern hemisphere, I thought it’d be good to put together a list of helpful tips and tutorials for winter photography 🙂

So, here are a few posts we’ve written about winter here at PhotoNaturalist, as well as some great articles from other blogs:

#1 – How to get a perfect exposure of a snow-covered landscape

If you try shooting a snowy landscape with autoexposure, then you’ll almost always end up with gray snow in your photos. So, this post gives you a few ways to avoid that common problem. [Read more…] about 8 Tips and Tutorials For Winter Photography