Landscape photography is very wide ranging, encompassing everything from industrial and urban cityscapes through to the more traditional rural and coastal scenes. There is something for everyone.
The UK and Europe are both densely populated, and as a photographer I am fascinated by the way in which elements of the natural and man-made environment often merge to produce a landscape that shows our human influence stretching back through the generations.
EXPRESSION
What is it that raises the level of some landscape photographs to that of art? For me, it is when the photographer has a strength and clarity of vision, and is able to express that vision through their work to evoke feelings and emotions. Arguably, the greatest landscape photographer was Ansel Adams, who described successful landscape photography as ‘all a matter of feeling’. In fact, he went as far as to say that a great photograph should be ‘a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety’.
Like many photographers working in black & white, Ansel Adams believed that the medium offered him a much greater opportunity than colour to express his feelings and emotions. Without the obvious distraction of colour, black & white photography allows us to get closer to being able to show the real essence and inner beauty of the subject of our photographs.
LESS IS MORE
When I first became interested in photography, I spent the first year or so taking photos that were little more than snapshots. I was struggling to take shots that had any artistic merit. But gradually I evolved a simpler and simpler approach to composing my photos in the viewfinder that strengthened their impact by making them less cluttered and messy. It also had the happy side effect of making it easier to get good balance across the differing elements.
When I first became interested in photography, I spent the first year or so taking photos that were little more than snapshots. I was struggling to take shots that had any artistic merit. But gradually I evolved a simpler and simpler approach to composing my photos in the viewfinder that strengthened their impact by making them less cluttered and messy. It also had the happy side effect of making it easier to get good balance across the differing elements.
For any of you who may be struggling to achieve simple but strong composition in your photos, I’ve found that it helps if you think of composition as a reductive process rather than an additive one. In other words, the next time you have your eye at the viewfinder, instead of asking yourself what you want to include in the frame, ask yourself what you can exclude from the frame, to make it simpler and more direct. We live in a fast-moving and complex world, yet I derive great enjoyment and a fantastic sense of inner peace when I’m out with my camera taking simple and harmonious photographs.
BALANCE AND HARMONY
Even for beginners, the subject of visual balance in the composition of landscape photos is a relatively straightforward concept to get to grips with, and achieving it is made a lot easier using simple principles. For successful black & white landscape photography, however, the issue of balance goes much further than just good visual composition there are additional types of balance that should be considered.
For example, you can compose your photographs so that the elements in the frame not only achieve a visual balance, but also reveal a significant ‘emotional’ relationship with each other. An example of this is my photograph of Fiddlers Ferry Power Station in Cheshire (right), showing the power station and the dead tree. The composition is classically arranged with the foreground and background elements balancing each other visually. However, the relationship between the coal-fired power station and the dead tree intentionally goes beyond the simple foreground/background relationship of classical landscape photography.
Another important issue in mono landscape photography is that the overall balance of light and dark tones within the photograph is crucial to its success. Achieving this type of balance requires experience and it is usually a blend of good initial composition, combined with a personal vision of what you want to achieve in post-processing.
BEAUTY IN IMPERFECTION
The fact that beauty can be found in imperfection is perhaps a controversial view, but I believe the advent of digital technology has made it too easy for us to produce photos that are ‘perfect’, without any kind of visible flaw. As a result, this quest for perfection can often result in photos that feel soulless and lack personality.
The fact that beauty can be found in imperfection is perhaps a controversial view, but I believe the advent of digital technology has made it too easy for us to produce photos that are ‘perfect’, without any kind of visible flaw. As a result, this quest for perfection can often result in photos that feel soulless and lack personality.
Don’t get me wrong, though, as I love my digital camera and I love the ease of processing my photos in Photoshop. I’m not advocating a mass return to film, but I do think we need to use restraint when post-processing our digital photos. It’s not necessary to clone out every perceived ‘imperfection’ or show detail in every highlight and shadow.
I really enjoy long-exposure photography, often using exposure times in minutes rather than seconds. It’s a technique that can help simplify composition, but a big part of what I love about this type of photography is the lack of control over the end result. Often I get lovely surprises when I see the results because something unexpected happened during the time that the camera shutter was open (see photo of London’s Millennium Bridge bellow).
If we can learn to see the beauty in our sometimes imperfect and often fleetingly impermanent environment, to appreciate the visual harmony and balance in our landscapes, and to express that beauty and harmony through photographs that have a natural strength and simplicity, then not only will we enrich our lives, but we may also communicate our love of the landscape to others.
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