Dave Williams here, and it’s #TravelTuesday again! I’m working hard on a project right now (clues on my Instagram), and it’s occupying a lot of my thoughts, but in between those thoughts are dreams of the adventures I’ll have once the ‘rona situation is over. One of my favourite kinds of places to have adventure is among mountains, so today I want to share some hot photo tips for shooting in the mountains.
First off, a mountain photo doesn’t have to show the entire mountain. Cropping in on a feature of the mountain, like this awesome waterfall in Norway with the light dispersing into a rainbow through the mist, is a way to show off a part of the mountain without showing the whole thing.
Next up is scale. Mountains are huge by their very nature. Showing the sheer, gargantuan size of these behemoths by including a recognisable feature, such as a person, a building, or a vehicle, really shows off their size.
Sunrise and sunset in the mountains are different. I’m not just talking about how it’s awesome, but it actually is different. The horizon is displaced somewhat, so the sun doesn’t breach the horizon as it does on a flat earth. If there’s a mountain to the east, sunrise will be slightly delayed. If there’s a mountain to the west, the sunset will be earlier. We can play on this by shooting the light hitting the opposing face, or the rays soaring over the mountains, but we need to bear it in mind so we can be in the right place at the right time.
Silhouettes can really show off the shape of a mountain and using compositional methods we already know, such as the rule of thirds, diagonal lines, and others, we can turn out some great shots of entire mountain ranges silhouetted against a nice sky.
And to wrap up this week’s post, my top tip for mountain photography is to get on top of it! Climbing mountains, whether they’re enormous alpine wonders or simple, gentle lumps of granite, is a great achievement and gives us a great feeling, as well as some great photographs.
With that, I’m going back to my project and I’ll catch you all again next week.
Much love
Dave
1 comment