Landscape photography is within the reach of anyone who enjoys the outdoors and owns even the most basic camera equipment.
Defining Landscape Photography
Landscape photography is difficult to define. The more landscape photography we do, the broader our definition may become. Landscape photography is not so much about what is contained in the image, but what it portrays about a place. While a landscape photograph might be a wide-angle image of a pristine lake or an ocean sunset, it might just as well be a dormant plant in a winter pond. If the lake, the sunset and the dormant plant image each reveal something significant about a place, its inhabitants, or its conditions and evoke an emotional response in the viewer, they can be qualified as landscape photographs. Grand or tiny, a landscape is not so much about the subject itself, but rather about the place in which the subject exists and the feeling the subject and place evokes.
Camera Equipment for Landscape Photography
We do not need to invest in a lot of expensive gear to begin exploring landscape photography. We can travel light and concentrate on taking pictures rather than changing lenses, so the gear of choice can be a digital camera like a Coolpix 5700 with a built in zoom lens. A zoom lens will give us ready access to a wide range of focusing distances that will allow us to explore different compositions within a single scene with little effort. The one additional piece of equipment recommended to carry would be a lightweight tripod. A tripod will ensure a steady camera at any shutter speed and allow us to fine tune compositions.
Landscape Photography in Our Own Backyard
What if the familiar places of the famous landscape photographers lay many states away from our own home? Who says these are the most worthy locations anyway? Landscape photography is not about a specific place, but about seeing the significance of the natural world around us every day. Our own backyard - literally - can be a great starting place because we know it better than any other place. If there is no backyard, a city or country park, a campground or even a drainage pond bordering the local shopping mall can provide a great starting place to explore landscape photography. Once we know a place well, we can anticipate things like how the light will cast a shadow at a particular time of day, or when a certain wildflower will be in bloom
Extracted from an article written by Dawn Lane
