Monday, November 15, 2010

Shooting Landscapes - A Tip from Killer Tips for Better Pics


This is a paragraph from my last book, Killer Tips for Better Pics.  You can see the first 15 pages of the book by going to blurb.com and typing in the name of the book.  If you're interested in purchasing one, you can do it there or, if you're local, you can get it for a little less by ordering directly from me.  I won't normally use this blog to advertise products, but wanted to let you know where you could get the book if you're interested.  It's not a big book, only 40 pages, but has some good common sense tips to help you improve your photography.  Now, here's one of the tips from the book about shooting landscapes.  I hope you enjoy it.

"The best time to shoot a landscape is 15-30 minutes before sunrise to 30 -60 minutes after and the same time frame at sunset. It’s called the “magic hour”, because that’s when you get the soft, warm light that makes great pictures. Yes, you can take landscape pictures at other times, but it will be more difficult to get the kind of shot you want. So, now you know that you’ll be getting up before dawn & will always be late for dinner. That’s the life of a landscape shooter, so you’d better get used to it."   I tried to inject a little humor into my book.  I hope I suceeded.  LOL!

On my recent Yellowstone workshop, my group told me that they enjoyed the workshop and would love to go on another one, but they also told me I was a slave-driver.  I guess I have to plead guilty to that charge, because I usually drug them out of bed earlier than they would have liked.  But, if you sleep late, you may miss opportunities that may not be repeated later in the day.  If you're serious about photography, sometimes you just have to get up early, go out and get some great images and then take a nap in the middle of the day, when the light's not as good, if you need to.  Does that mean you'll always get great pics if you get up early?  Absolutely not.  We took one of the workshop participants out early one morning to get some good sunrise pics and there just weren't any.  But, after looking around a little, we did find a small herd of elk and got pics of them in the early morning light.  Were the other participants jealous?   I don't know.   They probably enjoyed staying in their warm beds just a little later that day.  LOL!

Oh, by the way, this image is from one of the early morning shoots during the workshop.   Every one in the group got great pictures that morning, so I'm pretty sure they were glad they got out of bed.

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