Bright and sunny skies, or blue bird skies, as some call them, are the obsession of landscape photographers. Or are they? We’ve all been taught to look for the “good” light of the golden hour or the dramatic sky. This video talks about walking with great images even on sunny, cloudless days.
Have you ever planned a landscape photography trip with only a few days of cloudless skies? Michael Shainblum shares tips for photographing landscapes on sunny days so those trips still yield great results.
Shainblum uses some of his techniques to photograph on days with blue skies. He emphasizes the importance of finding scenes in harsh light, marking them up for return later in the day with reflected light. This requires you to slow down a bit, observe the elements and objects around you, and think about how they will look later in the day.
Shainblum also searches for subjects in more favorable conditions, looking for scenes and small textures in the shade of the canyon walls. He shares the impressive results that can be achieved with a little more effort to find pleasant light in small places. He ends the video with what I think is one of the most important tips in the video.
I have actively pushed myself to follow the advice that there is no bad light. The tips presented by Shainblum in this video were welcomed as I worked to develop a method for photographing landscapes that I had previously considered unfavorable.
