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Craig Barber - Ten Tips For Better Landscape Photography Photographer Craig Barber offers his tip son how to improve your landscape photography Article rating: 8.38

1.      Simplify your equipment.  Too many photographers wander the landscape with multiple lenses, formats and films, and spend more time fumbling with equipment than actually working.  If you choose a format for the day, you will fare better because you’ll be conceptualizing everything in that format rather than wondering which camera and lens to use.

2.      Slow down. It’s important to stop, look and actually SEE! There’s a big difference between looking and seeing.

3.      Stay focused on whatever drew you to a particular spot. Too often, landscape photographers want to include too much information, as though it were possible to photograph the entire world in one image. Only NASA can pull that one off.

4.      Don't let the weather keep you indoors. You can't be a good landscape photographer if you’re a fairweather photographer. The same landscape can look very different when wet, dry, windy, parched or covered in snow. If you’re worried about your equipment, that's what they make plastic bags for.

5.      Photograph in all kinds of light. We all have our preferences, but if you sit around waiting for an overcast or sunny day, you’ll miss a lot. I used to prefer overcast days, then I did a road trip down the American west coast and was confronted with a variety of light. I couldn't wait in each community for the light to change, so I changed and my work grew.

6.      When you visit a new environment, leave your camera in the bag for a while and just wander the terrain, acclimating yourself. If you’re in a foreign environment it takes time to see and appreciate all that is before you. Also, when visiting a new environment I need to learn what the light is like. A sunny day in Havana is very different than a sunny day in England.

7.      Experiment! Try different approaches instead of mimicking a landscape photographer hero. We can’t all be Ansel Adams, and in any case, if you want to stand out you need to break away from the standard bearers.

8.      Maintain a notebook of your exposures. I’ve been photographing for a long time and I continue to maintain a notebook of my exposures, the weather, the light, etc., so that I can learn and remember what works for me in a given situation.

9.      Shoot lots of film, or digital files. This is the equivalent of an artist's sketch book; it's how we learn. If you shoot digitally, don't edit your shots in the field: "mistakes" can have interesting information or point you in a new direction.

10.     Work and respond with your heart, not your head. The work I respond to most is work that has feeling, not images that have been worked to death and over-intellectualized. I always ask my students what they feel, not what they think, for it is the heart that makes the work.

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	I just wish that I had the time to just wander with my camera bag - perhaps I should take Craig's lead and find some time in more unusual places. Well done Craig. Posted by: Frank De La Rue Nov 11, 2008 @ 6:15 AM EST
	Good advise, use 1 camera, or lens for the day. Pinhole is great to kickstart your creativity. Thanks Posted by: Walter Rietig Nov 12, 2008 @ 3:24 PM EST
	thanks from one barber to another great work!HEEHEE Posted by: pam barber Jul 12, 2009 @ 9:10 AM EST

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