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Landscape photography tools – leading elements

One of the most important elements of landscape photography is the leading element. It’s that one aspect of the image that pulls the viewer right into the frame. On one of my recent tours to Good Harbor Beach we were faced with a very low tide which gave us some very cool mounds of sand created by the tide. This added to the visual aspects of this image by also giving it some texture. The curving structure of the rivulets of sand leading up to the rising sun pulls the viewer into the image.

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I shot this in both horizontal and vertical but the vertical to me is much better. It gives the image more depth.

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The sun star is much better in this image because the sun is lower, but I still like the vertical even if it does have some sun flare from the filter as the sun was higher.

Reflections – A powerful landscape photographers tool

Last week while on an early morning tour to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester we were faced with a full moon low tide that seemed to go out forever. Normally this is not a great thing but in this instance it offered our group an interesting perspective on the cliche sunrise photo.

We set up looking for the sunrise over Thacher’s Island and the early morning dawn did not disappoint. It had a wonderful glow about it which started to brighten up the clouds in the south with incredible pinks, yellows, oranges and blues. I kept looking over in that direction at the clouds changing colors and could not help but think that there is a photo there. My Canon 5D Mklll was on the tripod with a longer lens but I had my Sony Nex7 with the wide zoom available. I grabbed this “little” camera and ran down to a large puddle and using the tilting LCD I made some shots at water level of the incredible colored clouds just before sunrise.

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I have shot reflections before and know that the best way to photograph using them is very low at water level. Of course this does not work in every case but in this case it works. The mounds of sand in the foreground give this scene a realistic look not just a copy of the scene above and help the viewer look over to the left following the clouds.

This image is not overdone with saturation and and is very real as the color is how I saw it. In my view it’s important not to overdue things in Lightroom or Photoshop as it takes away from the natural scene. When this image was shown to the folks in my tour we moved down to the small pond and made some great images as the sun came up.

Another successful Cape Ann Photo Tour!

Always Have a Camera

The other day while walking to my car I stumbled into one of the most beautiful sunsets we have seen around here in quite a while. It was magnificent. As I pulled my phone out of my pocket to get a quick shot it occurred to me that my trusty Canon G15 was in the car as it always is and it would give me a much better image with plenty of options. One of my mantras when teaching is to always have a camera with you (use your phone as a last resort). Most photographers I know, professional and otherwise have a second camera they can keep with them when the big heavy stuff is not an option. The Canon G15 is just such a camera. It has a great range, 28-143mm and is fast 1.8-2.8. For most things this camera is great. Sure it does not focus fast and not very good in low light but for most things is awesome! Capturing that memorable moment is all about what you have with you. Hence the image below!

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