Four important rules for landscape photography:
1 . Shoot at sunrise or sunset, not during the middle of the day
2 . Use a tripod
3 . Use a wide angle lens to capture the whole scene
4 . Be patient and wait for great light
Oh, what’s that? Society is telling me how to take photos? Ha! I laugh in the face of social norms and conventions. I scoff at the masters of this craft and their years of tried and tested methods and vast back catalouges of breathtaking images. I laugh like an infatuated school girl at these so called “rules”.
I am the Maverick Photographer.
With the closing date fast approaching for the Art of Nature photography competition I headed down to Innes National Park at the bottom end of Little Italy (aka Yorke Peninsula) on the weekend with a view to taking some photos that would guarantee first prize and the accompanying $10,000 winner’s purse (which I will ultimately fritter away on technological gadgetry to take my breath away).
The problem with Innes for a wedding photographer masquerading as a maverick landscape photographer is that it’s a 3.5 hour drive from Adelaide which makes it kind of tricky to get those sunrise or sunset photos. Also, my tripod is heavy, and seeing as I wasn’t shooting in low light I figured I could probably just leave that at home. Then there’s the fact it was blowing a gale and is coastal, not a great situation for switching lenses (unless you like sand on your sensor?), and having seen a mother emu and her 7 chicks earlier that day I was keen to keep the 70-200 attached as much as possible. Finally, I didn’t really have the time to wait too long for great light, or anything else much – unless you’re out and about with fellow tragic photographer it’s a tough sell getting someone to stand around in gale force winds while you wait half an hour for the clouds to move ever so slightly.
Having said that, for the most part the light was actually about as good as I could have hoped for, the weather was a bit erratic with a mixture of rain and clear blue skies so that really added to the drama of the images (cloudless blue skies are boring, I love clouds). And the fact it was cold and windy meant there weren’t many visitors to get in the way of my photos. Also, I actually really like using a telephoto lens for landscape shots, unless there’s some great foreground interest I find it’s often difficult to frame a wide angle photo in an interesting way, by using a longer lens the photo becomes more compact and, importantly, makes it look a bit different to your average landscape photograph.
Keeping with tradition of the last few weeks I thought I’d include some native flora. I seriously think these plant photos are getting worse every week!
Not sure I can submit this as native Australian fauna.
Serenity now.
Maybe the cutest thing I’ve seen this year. The mother emu was looking a little jumpy, on closer inspection we found she was looking after her 7 chicks, the markings on these things were amazing, I wish they weren’t so fast and didn’t blend into the bush so well so I could get better photos!
I tore this sign down right after taking this photo. I don’t need any more competition for this $10k prize money.
To cap it off I’ve broken ANOTHER rule by putting the subject right in the middle of this photo. I’m bad to the bone.
Over the next couple of days I’ll be finalising my shots and submitting my entry into the competition. I’ve just read how the judging works, a panel selects the top 6 entries for each category then the power is given back to the people in the form of a public vote. In the unlikely event I’m fortunate enough to be a finalist you’ll find me down at your local shopping centre kissing babies and basically selling my soul for votes. I hope to see you there (BYO babies).
