Landscape photography from the field

Composition & Technique

Why Your Landscape Photos Feel Empty (And What to Do Before You Even Raise the Camera)
Composition & Technique

Why Your Landscape Photos Feel Empty (And What to Do Before You Even Raise the Camera)

The Shot That Isn’t There Yet I was standing at the edge of a basalt rimrock outside Bend last October, about twenty minutes before first light. The scene in front of me was objectively beautiful. A high desert valley, juniper silhouettes, a streak of cold orange just beginning to crack the horizon. I had my tripod set up, my Lee filters in my vest pocket, my 16-35mm on the camera. And I almost pressed the shutter.

Why Your Landscape Photos Feel Empty (And What to Do Before You Ever Raise the Camera)
Composition & Technique

Why Your Landscape Photos Feel Empty (And What to Do Before You Ever Raise the Camera)

I stood at the edge of a basalt rim above the Crooked River for about twenty minutes before I took a single frame. The light was moving fast, the way it does in late October in central Oregon, dropping from gold to amber to that flat grey that kills everything. A newer photographer next to me was already firing. I counted his shutter presses. Forty-seven frames in the first three minutes.