Making the Most of Beautiful Scenery

by

  bexross

Driving through mountain ranges the world over, you are bound to come across some sight (probably many) which you really feel must be captured on film. At this juncture you are faced with many decisions, not least "how can I do this sight justice?". The way I see it there are a few careful descisions which need making. In this instance my sight was of this mountain, with the lake before it and plenty of other surrounding mountains all incredibly beautiful. Knowing I wanted to take a picture which would show it at its best I had to decide.. 1. Which lens would work best 2. How much of the scenery to include 3. Portrait or landscape 4. Will my film/ file size cope? My film was Fujichrome Velvia 50 which alleviates all concerns with the 4th qualm. The slow speed means that there is a fine grain and this film picks out colour like no other. Plus being a landscape I can rest it on a rock or a tripod and know that its not gonna run away while I compensate the slow speed with a longer exposure. I tried a couple of lenses, having only one wide angle with me. Unfortunately being a fisheye, while it shows infinately more of the great scenery I feel that justice is not done as the distortion is quite inorganic. I therefore had to settle for my 28-200mm lens at its wider apertures. This decision helps with those remaining. Since I can't get so much in as I'd like, I'll have to select a snippet, an individual portion of the landscape which will portray the aspects which I most want to capture. Here The strange clouds, the crisp blue sky, the towering mountain, the calm reflecting water and the bright eyecatching patch of snow which I thought picked the best from the view and helped to portray the feelings I get from standing here, namely the exhiliration of the bright colours, grand majestic landscape and yet total tranquility (I'd sum it up with the word awe!). Selecting these features and looking through the viewfinder I can tell that the height of the mountain and the fact that I want to include the lake before it and the sky above it mean that I will have to break with tradition and take a portrait picture of this landscape. And so I come out with a picture I'm happy with, which captures all the elements I want to be seeing again. With this picture however some post processing was also necessary. Standing in a valley the tall mountain behind me (and behing the road which I was stood upon) combined with a few of its own strange low clouds was sufficient to cast a shadow over me and the lake and even some of the foot hills below my subject, which is what brings out the reflection of the snow patch so well. As a result the original photograph, also posted on this site, had a much darker foreground. Feedback for the original was good but most thought that I should lighten the foreground and see if it helps. Being new to post processing I found it hard to convince myself to try it. I was originally of the mind that a good photographer should be able to capture its subject the old fashioned way and and fiddling afterwards is a cheat anyone can perform. However I was also aware that a photographer catching a sight along the way may not have the chance to wait for ideal conditions and indeed may never have the chance (who can move a mountain I ask you!) so I conceeded and felt the better for it. This continues the thought of photography as an art form and allows you to paint the landscape you see in your minds eye using the template canvas that nature lays before you, it rarely needs more than a few tweaks before you see the sight you've been waiting for. I guess all I'm saying is stop and think about it. Don't just snap and think landscape has to be shot in landscape, with a wide angle lens and never should be retouched afterwards. You may turn out something that little bit different which appeals much more to the eye of the beholder.