Location, Location, Location.
21st April 2009
These are the three rules to remember when looking at property and the same can be said for Photography.
On my latest trip to Killarney last week, I was after a couple of images which I spotted last year but the light and weather were not right. The image above, Newfoundland Bay, Upper Lake, Killarney, was one such image. Leaving the hotel well before sunrise to drive to the location and have the camera setup and ready in time meant an early start to the day and some funny looks from the night staff at the hotel.
After reaching the location and a quick scout around to find the position for the tripod. I find its best to do this without any equipment first. Check the camera bags before leaving the car so as not to forget anything. So now it's a waiting game. Waiting for the right light. It could be 5 mins or 5 hours, that's the game the Landscape photographer has to do. On this occasion I had to wait for about 1 hour. But while waiting for the right light to appear in front of the camera, I turned around to find a wonderful view unfold before me. A quick turn of the tripod head and the image below was the result.
These two swans kept me company for the whole time shooting here. I would have liked to have them a little more to the left but they did not understand my directions. All this time I had a quick look around so that I would not miss the image I was after in the first place.
However the light and the clouds started to change every quickly now and I was jumping back and forth. What would have been good was to have two cameras set up with remote triggers so that I could have stayed in one place and fire the shutter for the two cameras.
Now the clouds and the reflections in the still water made me re-think and to concentrate on this view and I was rewarded with this next image.
Because of the still water and clouds, I decided to move closer to the waters edge to remove any foreground interest and use these reflections. The final image in this series below is the best and was not what I was looking for in the first place.
So what did I learn from this?
Always look behind you. You may find that this will reward you with a much better images than your planned one. There was no way of knowing what will happen when you got to a location, so be ready to think again and move if you have to.
On my latest trip to Killarney last week, I was after a couple of images which I spotted last year but the light and weather were not right. The image above, Newfoundland Bay, Upper Lake, Killarney, was one such image. Leaving the hotel well before sunrise to drive to the location and have the camera setup and ready in time meant an early start to the day and some funny looks from the night staff at the hotel.
After reaching the location and a quick scout around to find the position for the tripod. I find its best to do this without any equipment first. Check the camera bags before leaving the car so as not to forget anything. So now it's a waiting game. Waiting for the right light. It could be 5 mins or 5 hours, that's the game the Landscape photographer has to do. On this occasion I had to wait for about 1 hour. But while waiting for the right light to appear in front of the camera, I turned around to find a wonderful view unfold before me. A quick turn of the tripod head and the image below was the result.
These two swans kept me company for the whole time shooting here. I would have liked to have them a little more to the left but they did not understand my directions. All this time I had a quick look around so that I would not miss the image I was after in the first place.
However the light and the clouds started to change every quickly now and I was jumping back and forth. What would have been good was to have two cameras set up with remote triggers so that I could have stayed in one place and fire the shutter for the two cameras.
Now the clouds and the reflections in the still water made me re-think and to concentrate on this view and I was rewarded with this next image.
Because of the still water and clouds, I decided to move closer to the waters edge to remove any foreground interest and use these reflections. The final image in this series below is the best and was not what I was looking for in the first place.
So what did I learn from this?
Always look behind you. You may find that this will reward you with a much better images than your planned one. There was no way of knowing what will happen when you got to a location, so be ready to think again and move if you have to.
