Sometimes, we try so hard to find a layout, but sometimes, we get distracted by too much and it’s hard to choose the best one. Back then, at home, we often had to accept that all of our pictures were just average. How can we avoid such situations and return home with a masterpiece instead?
In my latest video on YouTube, I embarked on a trip to some amazing places in Slovenia and Italy, and I stumbled across the famous luxury problem in photography of seeing too much composition. While driving in my truck, I think I drove my wife and co-pilot crazy with things like: “look, what’s the layout”. On the way to my first photo shoot location, I stopped several times to take pictures. I’m happy with the photos I get, but in my experience this can lead to the dangerous side effect of missing out on the best compositions out in the field, because we’re no longer looking into the depth of field. more scenes.
Waiting for everything to feel fine
During my years as a landscape photographer, I learned to keep my camera in my bag until I found a composition worth shooting. When I find something of interest, I get deep into the scene, I build the composition, take test shots with my phone, and when I’m completely clear about my image and everything is fine, I took the camera and took a picture. If I don’t want to get deeply involved in a scene, I know it might not be worth it and look for another spot.
Honestly, in over 30 years of photography, I have to say that keeping a camera in a bag is one of the best tips for landscape photography. But in my experience, beginners who aren’t used to thinking deeply about a scene have a hard time understanding the advantages and implications of that.
The power of connecting with mother nature
Experienced photographers sometimes have a hard time with too many compositions, and I had to put them up here myself. In the video mentioned above, you see me driving to Slovenia and scouting the site at Soca Gorges. I wasn’t going to take any pictures on the first day of the trip, but I did Sony a6500which I tend to use as my spy camera, cropped with Peak Design Capture v3 to the strap of my backpack and so I took about a dozen pictures. I like all. But none of them are powerful masterpieces. I had really impressive photos the next day, even though I didn’t even sleep that night. I’ve had issues with my heating, but I’m probably feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the possibilities of that location, to be honest.
Well, what’s different on the second day? First, I put my camera in my bag. Early in the morning, it was pouring rain. There was no one else outside of the venue, so I had the entire location photographed to myself. It feels so easy to connect with the place, with the scenery. I also watched a lot of composition, but it was easier to understand than writing about the stories I wanted my images to tell. Back in the day, my thoughts were often interrupted by children running around and laughing with their parents. But when we go outside of photography, we don’t have our own place, and we have to accept that there are other people out there, too. It may even be necessary for our creativity to be influenced and influenced by such things from time to time.
In the end, I had much better photos on the second day, because I kept the camera in my pocket, but also because I was one hundred percent focused. It’s still hard to decide which scenes I want to deepen, which scenes I want to be more involved in. But when you’re looking at a scene and everything starts to look fine, you know that this is a composition worth working on in more detail. Then you know that staying there and investing your time was the right decision. And then I came home with just one good photo instead of the average 20.
To see the full adventure with all the photos, check out the video linked above. And don’t be afraid to leave a comment below this article on how you picked the best possible layout.
