ShipleyNW
Gold Member
I came from print journalism where I shot everything handheld. I owned a tripod but mainly for studio work, and I'd take it out once a year to shoot fireworks on the 4th of July. (I had a publisher tell me one time, "I won't pay you to shoot fireworks. Run the ones from last year. Who could tell?" He said that tongue in cheek, but he kinda had a point. I'm not sure I've shot fireworks since. One less reason to need a tripod.)
When I picked up photography again a few years ago, by necessity I had to put landscapes into my repertoire. I had no credentials anymore so I had to broaden my subject matter. I read articles and watched Youtube videos. I started from zero. I didn't even know what I was trying to achieve. I'd never even considered what might make a good landscape composition. This was back at the time when those toes-to-heaven ultrawide compositions were in vogue. I remember thinking, jeez I hope this isn't what landscape photography "Is." This doesn't look like any fun at all. Fortunately, that was just a passing fad.
In all the landscape media I come across, it almost always starts with a photographer toting a tripod up a hill, strapped to a backpack, on his back, no camera within reach. And when they find The Spot, they'll unpack, set up the sticks and wait for the light to get just right, from that exact spot. Then they'll stand back and trigger a single 4 second exposure at f/22 or its ND equivalent. Just like Ansel Adams in 1938.
I've tried that and I can't do it. I gotta move. When my feet are on the ground, I'm looking for shots. I get my camera out when I leave the car and wherever my destination might be, I'm ready to shoot anything that might catch my eye along the way.
And when something does catch my eye, I work it. That's what I call it. I'll circle around the scene in as big an arc as I can. I'll change the angle of the light and juxtaposition of the objects in the frame. I'll try lower, higher, wider, tighter. I'll line up a shot, click a few frames, then notice that a couple of things are overlapping in the background so I'll lean 3 inches to my left to give them some separation, then click off a few more frames. Moving a tripod 3 inches is like starting over.
I'll keep traveling around the arc, shooting the whole time. I might shoot a half dozen compositions to get one good shot of a static scene. And easily half the scenes I work I come up with nothing. That's the line I live on; maybe I can make this work if I find the right angle or that stray piece of light. When I'm done, I'm on my way, watching and ready for another scene to work on.
But the main thing that drives me to be nimble is the fleeting nature of nature. You can never step in the same river twice. The butterfly flap that drives chaos theory sometimes puffs out a scene that no human will ever see again. You gotta be ready. A tripod could get in the way.
When I picked up photography again a few years ago, by necessity I had to put landscapes into my repertoire. I had no credentials anymore so I had to broaden my subject matter. I read articles and watched Youtube videos. I started from zero. I didn't even know what I was trying to achieve. I'd never even considered what might make a good landscape composition. This was back at the time when those toes-to-heaven ultrawide compositions were in vogue. I remember thinking, jeez I hope this isn't what landscape photography "Is." This doesn't look like any fun at all. Fortunately, that was just a passing fad.
In all the landscape media I come across, it almost always starts with a photographer toting a tripod up a hill, strapped to a backpack, on his back, no camera within reach. And when they find The Spot, they'll unpack, set up the sticks and wait for the light to get just right, from that exact spot. Then they'll stand back and trigger a single 4 second exposure at f/22 or its ND equivalent. Just like Ansel Adams in 1938.
I've tried that and I can't do it. I gotta move. When my feet are on the ground, I'm looking for shots. I get my camera out when I leave the car and wherever my destination might be, I'm ready to shoot anything that might catch my eye along the way.
And when something does catch my eye, I work it. That's what I call it. I'll circle around the scene in as big an arc as I can. I'll change the angle of the light and juxtaposition of the objects in the frame. I'll try lower, higher, wider, tighter. I'll line up a shot, click a few frames, then notice that a couple of things are overlapping in the background so I'll lean 3 inches to my left to give them some separation, then click off a few more frames. Moving a tripod 3 inches is like starting over.
I'll keep traveling around the arc, shooting the whole time. I might shoot a half dozen compositions to get one good shot of a static scene. And easily half the scenes I work I come up with nothing. That's the line I live on; maybe I can make this work if I find the right angle or that stray piece of light. When I'm done, I'm on my way, watching and ready for another scene to work on.
But the main thing that drives me to be nimble is the fleeting nature of nature. You can never step in the same river twice. The butterfly flap that drives chaos theory sometimes puffs out a scene that no human will ever see again. You gotta be ready. A tripod could get in the way.
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