Landscape and Travel 101
Lets Talk about the Basics
Before we dive into all the settings and equipment, ask yourself one thing. What makes you want to take the image?
Maybe it’s:
Big, open views and dramatic skies
Quiet forest and hidden paths
Coastal scenes and moving water
The story of the people or places you visit.
There is ABSOULTY no right or wrong thing to photograph. It is all about what you want to see though your lens and what draws your eye to your camera. The goal is not about what is going to make other people happy, but what makes you excited about taking the picture.
TIP: When looking back on a shoot pick out some favorites, this will help you eventually learn your style.
Learn Your Gear Before Buying More Gear
I know, I know. It is SO tempting to have the latest and greatest gear, but the truth is sure, updated gear is great but it truly is all about how you use the gear that will make you a better photographer. Your biggest tool is understanding the camera you already have! (YES, this means any gear you have, a phone, mirrorless camera, DSLR, or film)
The 3 MOST IMPORTANT things you can learn are:
How to change your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO
How to focus on where you want
Understanding how everything works together (More on this in a later blog)
Practice! This can be in your back yard or outside your 9-5 job that we all dread. Learning different lighting conditions and becoming more confident in your gear will help in the long run. Yes, eventually we can talk about the latest camera but for now let’s stick to what we have and learn how to use it correctly first. Here is some basic gear.
Basic Gear
Camera
Any camera that lets you control settings is a great start. Use what you have, let’s upgrade later.
Lens
When taking landscape and travel photography wide- angle lenses are typically very popular (The wider the lens, the more scene we capture). Your kit lens to your camera is often a great start. Some lens ranges such as 18-55mm or 24-70mm is great. Personally I use a 24-105 2.8, this is a large, hefty lens but it does take really sharp photos.
Tripod
A tripod is great to have with you when you’re doing landscape or tavel photography. WHY? Well let me give you some examples.
Low light: the shutter speed can be dropped to super long exposures to let in more light having a tripod will ensure you have a clean clear image.
Water falls: When shooting waterfalls, we often want the water to appear smooth and flowing. A slow shutter technique lets more of the water blend together naturally.
Sunrise/ Sunsets: A tripod helps capture multiple exposures for sunrise and sunset photography, ensuring your camera stays steady so you can combine images later in post-processing to create the PERFECT HDR.
Have I convinced you yet?
Comfy Gear Bag!
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a good gear bag! Whether hiking long trails or exploring a large city, the bag you carry matters. Personally my gear is heavy! Lugging it around means I have to have a bag that supports my large lens and camera body. I normally travel with 2-3 cameras at a time so I am also making sure my bag can accommodate the gear I am bringing.
Here is the link to the backpack I use: https://brevite.co/products/the-jumper-photo-2-0?variant=52195338092910
