The Beast from the East & Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is a tricky one, At first glance, it seems fairly straightforward, I mean we have all been out and seen a local beauty spot and thought what a wonderful picture it would make but actually making a photograph that captures that can be far more difficult than it seems, I think this often comes down to “In camera Editing” I mean what to include and what to leave out of your image, A wide sweeping vista with no subject matter leaves the viewer without a focal point, looking for strong graphic elements in a sea of green and blue takes time and effort.

Over the last month Ireland and much of Europe was exposed to an extreme cold spell and heavy snow, dramatically named “The Beast from the East” by media outlets. As many people ran to their local shops to gather supplies, Landscape photographers were running to or should I say trudging to the hills. Overnight our landscape was simplified, The greens, yellows and browns replaced with a blanket of white, with a grey sky – Wonderful I thought! I am a huge fan of simplicity and this was a rare opportunity to capture strong graphic shapes in a pure white environment.

I think the end results were worth the cold feet and fingers that just wouldn’t work, I found red poppies ( I think they were poppies ) in a snow-covered field and tried a wide angle panorama. I also got a few trees isolated in the environment with snow clinging to their trunks – It’s hard to believe but all these images are full colour – It’s the environment that is Black & White.

I hope you got the chance to shoot some images in the snow and it certainly gave me a fresh way of looking at my landscape compositions. All around me now the landscape is turning to spring so I guess the next images I post will be somewhat warmer. As always happy shooting and feel free to comment or shoot me your thoughts.

Adrian

Tree on a snowy hillside