Landscape Photography

Landscape photography is an area of photography that has always interested me greatly but an area that I have not had many chances of photographing due to not travelling much. During the first year of my A-levels I went on a snowboarding trip to Chamonix, France and took my camera, however I only achieved one or two images that I am proud of. (below)





Below is an image I have taken from out of my Halls kitchen window of Leeds skyline; I have heavily edited the colours of this image. I really like the outcome of this image and was extremely lucky to get both planes flying across the image.


Sunsets and sunrises really interest me, and the capability they have of catching stunning silhouettes, like this image by Marc Shultz.

My Trip

On June 4th I am travelling to Thailand for 3 weeks and hope to take lots of photographs. In preparation I have bought a new camera bag, tripod and wide-angle lens and I have done lots of research into Landscape and Travel photography.

Research and Preperation

HDR imagery is something I found when doing this research.
“High dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.” – Wikipedia.
A range of photographs are taken of the same thing but with different exposure and then all the photographs are digital put together to create the final image.

This technique is used to achieve amazing landscape photography that can be edited to look fantastical like something of a fairy tale. Here are a few examples of HDR images that I found on Flickr.


When I was reading through a photography magazine I found an in depth tutorial of how to create HDR images, shown below.

Ryan McGinnis is a photographer that featured in the magazine article who specialises in HDR images. He loves to photograph storms and says, “HDR gives me nearly infinite latitude in post-processing an image. It captures all detail in all areas of an image, even under extremely challenging lighting, and is a technique that can produce extraordinary images.” McGinnis successfully sells stock photos through The Photoshelter Collection and Alamy; which I have briefly looked at in my Professional section.

Some of Ryan McGinnis work below:





Marc Shultz “is a fine-art travel photographer with a passion for capturing scenes of traditional Thai country life. His images depict the facets of religion and culture that are slowly fading away in a country heavily influenced by modern industrialization.” – from his website www.photographythailand.com
Shultz also works in advertising, product, corporate, food, hotel and interior photography and his images are published by newspapers, books & magazines, and used for advertising, commercial print media, and corporate literature.

Shultz’s photography covers all of Thailand’s life, the people, the wildlife and the scenery, and he uses both vibrant colourful photographs and black and white images to really portray not only what is depicted in the photograph but his experience of Thailand. I enjoy every one of Shultz’s images and although initially being drawn to his amazingly vibrant landscape images, his portraits of Thai people have also really impressed me and have inspired me to not restrict myself to Landscape photography when I am out there. I am aware of a documentary module next year and I hope to take a series of photographs in Thailand documenting Thai life.

Below is a series of Shultz’s images.









TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY ARTICLE
One of the photography magazines I bought is a travel issue special and it is full with tips and advice on how to get the most out of your trip. With handy gear guides and places not to miss, the magazine has really helped me plan my trip and has given me invaluable tips that have really helped to build up my confidence.