Know Your Subject
& Environment
Learning as many specific details about
the location prior to a shoot will help you
immensely when out in the field, even
when visiting a location for the first time.
All of the challenges you face—logistics,
weather, personal considerations, as well
as the technical aspects of photography—
compound on each other, especially in
remote areas.
Before I begin creating images, I must
feel fairly safe and comfortable. I’m not
suggesting that the temperature has to
be 75 degrees Fahrenheit and a cold
smoothie be within my reach. Rather, my
situation must not be dire, and I can’t feel
the need to leave the location as quickly
as possible. Achieving such comfort in
unusual places during challenging con-
ditions takes experience and demands
effort. If you’re not able to get to this
mental place, then finding images and
working your camera will be too difficult.
There’s a name for the feeling one has in
a new place with unknown challenges—it’s
called “novel space.” It’s all new to you,
you haven’t experienced it before. But there
is a difference between unknown and unex-
pected challenges. For example, if you have
experience camping, then you’ll be able to
adapt anywhere in the world fairly quickly
to the requirements and issues associated
with being outdoors in an environment
without a hotel or restaurant.
This isn’t because you know what’s
going to happen but because you have
the experience to deal with the expected.
You may not know it’s going to rain,
but you do expect for the weather to be
changeable, and you’re prepared. If you
didn’t understand the concept of rain, then
what? If you’ve never camped before, then
you’ll be faced with all those challenges
in addition to the technical and creative
issues of landscape photography.
When I captured an image at the summit
of Agassiz Peak, I had a hunch that there
would be drifting snow based on the howl-
ing wind the night before. I also knew the
high ridge would give views of the distant
peak. This came from a knowledge of the
winter snow, mountains and predominant
wind direction of the area. I was told about
a hut in which I could spend the night
during a friendly conversation with the
ski patrol the day before. All this led up
to my experience at the summit and the
capture of the final image. My success
was based on many factors, including my
comfort with being in a new environment
during extreme weather.
When we feel comfortable, we become
confident and are therefore in a better
frame of mind to think creatively in the
field. Then we are able to consider the
vocabulary of composition.Reality Versus Artistic License
From the moment an image is cap-
tured, reality (as represented in the
photograph) is altered. There’s a series
of unavoidable changes being made
to the image: lens distortion is added,
and sharpness, contrast and color are
affected. And then there’s the viewing
of the image, where the calibration and
limitations of the digital sensor and the
computer screen used to project the dig-
ital file add even more changes. As if
those weren’t enough reality-altering
steps, there’s also the viewer’s percep-
tion, which varies dramatically.
After all that, there’s even more reality
altering, as the photographic rendering
of the scene (in software such as Adobe
Lightroom or Photoshop) changes the
image even more during post-processing.
Sometimes those changes are extreme,
leaving a Grand Canyon-sized chasm
between some of today’s landscape
images and reality. This is neither good
nor bad but simply a style of work.
This final step in the creative process—Stitching. The only way to create the image (opposite page) without stitching
is with a very wide, non-rectilinear lens called a “fish-eye.” If a fish-eye lens had
captured this scene, the distortion would have curved the horizon and everything
else into very odd shapes, thus making it unusable. The component images were
captured from a drone at about 100 feet in elevation and stiched together in post-
processing. This technique is very helpful in creating wider-than-normal views and
building resolution, such as what’s being done with a gigapixel camera.52 Outdoor Photographer outdoorphotographer.com