Absolutely magnificent I love it when a landscape photography plan comes together.
By failing to prepare you only prepare to fail.
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him.
In preparing for battle I've always found that plans are useless but planning
is indispensable
Today I am back out and about after recovering from my back injury and today
I'm going to be talking about the importance of planning in your landscape photography
planning in landscape photography is absolutely vital that's my opinion I
know some of you like to just go out and shoot, and there's nothing wrong with that
but if you really want to take your photography to the next level I think
you need to have a really solid plan that has certainly worked for me..... definitely
other this year as I have started filming the vlogs and there are certain
steps I go through in order to get a shoot off the ground I will start off by
firstly thinking 'where do I want to go?' that's the first thing I think. So
location. I'll then start scouting out a location via the internet, particularly
Google Maps. Trying to look for interesting things in a landscape on
Google Maps and then start to do a little bit of research around that is
there a viewpoint on Google Maps have a look at that that might work for you and
then it's about sort of narrowing it down. You can look at other peoples work
see what compositions exist, but you do need to be careful on that point, at
least I are very careful on that point because once I know a
composition does exist in that place I will stop looking because I don't want
to be too much influenced by other people's work I want it to be my
creation I want it to be my art and for me that's really important so today I'm
at the beach it's important to look at tide times have tide apps, for
your own safety as much as anything and then Photopills, it's an app on your
phone that you can use to plan your shoot it'll do sunset times it has
augmented reality where you can sort of point your phone in you can see exactly
where the Sun is going to set you can plan it you can know what position the
Sun will set at a particular time of year it's got an exposure calculator for
your long exposures, absolutely brilliant bit of kit. So Photopills
there is also the weather. Now I have become obsessed with looking at the weather
forecast and I'm not really that interested in it it's just from a purely
practical point of view that I'm checking the weather because it is key
to what we're doing isn't it because you want to have those beautiful skies and
that's dependent on the weather. People you need to think about, if it's summer
holidays like it is now expect more people to be around if you get in a shot
where you don't want any people in it bear that in mind it there's nothing
like getting up early or staying out late to ensure that will be fewer
people around it's just a fact.
You also need to plan your gear, the travel, all
those sorts of practical things that are really going to help you then be much
more creative at the other end so I've been talking a little bit recently on my
podcast make sure you check that out and also on the video last week I am
launching landscape photography workshops and what these do for you is
to just remove all of the planning from it and I think that's why people like it
because you just come on the workshop with me I've done all the planning I've
set the day up for you so you can just come into the workshop without
any of that hassle you know exactly what's going to happen I've got
everything sorted for you and then you can just really focus on shooting some
beautiful photography and some beautiful images I think that's what's really
popular about workshops is it just sort of takes all hassle and all the planning
out of it so check them out they'll be out in the next week or so I hope so
make sure you check that out I think a lot of you will really be interested in
them and they're going to sort of follow the some of the previous vlogs I've done
do the same sort of day so you can let you know exactly what you're going to
get I hope many of you will be interested in that
so today I've got three shots planned the first one I found on Google Maps the
second one is a shot I have done before and at that time the weather just wasn't
quite right the conditions weren't quite right so I've come back today in order
to capture that shot again we'll talk through that in a little while. Third
shot I'm going to wait till after sunset into the blue hour maybe get some colour
in the sky and get a nice close in shot of the rocks just down behind me here
and that is where I'm going to take my second shot also. Today, I do have some
nice new shoes as well, check these out I am using these as my summer beach
photography shoes it's a bit like having sort of bare feet but with soles and
it's great for getting out into the water and climbing over those wet slippy
rocks especially when you don't want to fall when you've got a bad back so I'm
pleased with that very cheap investment.
okay so I'm in position for the first shot of the day and I have found via
Google Maps this area here and on the map I could see the S-shape going
into the sea where, I think it's called Budle water, sort of flows into the sea so I've
climbed up onto one of these dunes and that is kind of the composition I'm
going for it's got the castle of Lindisfarne in the background it is very
small in the frame though but to get all of that of s shape of the water in there
I need to go for a fairly wide angle so it's making the Lindisfarne castle quite
small. That doesn't actually matter though because at the moment Lindisfarne
castle has been refurbished and there's cladding and scaffolding all up the side
so there really isn't anything of interest to shoot there but it is still a nice
shot settings wise I am at f/22 at the moment just to get that exposure a bit
longer. I have shot a couple at f/16 as well. But i'm trying to get the
exposure as long as possible with the ten stop filter on the front there to...... to
do a few things firstly to smooth out the water nicely I like that it's what I
like to shoot.... also to just create a bit more interest in these clouds because
they are quite it is quite overcast and I want that nice ethereal feel to the
clouds also there are a few people down on the beach
they're moving about a little bit as well so if I use the long exposure it
will remove them from the shot without any need for extra post-processing at
the end. So I'm just shooting that now I think it will be a pretty nice shot, I'm
just going to hang around as the light starts to poke through the clouds as
they're opening up I think it will make a much more interesting shot so I hope
that happens
Yes!! The Sun has finally pushed through those clouds and it's absolutely
transformed this landscape in terms of the composition I've got here it's going
to be a much better image now as I've got some of the evening light shining
down on that scene.... my patience has paid off here and I could only do that
because I'd allowed a little bit of leeway in my plan today.
Okay so I'm in position and it's absolutely magnificent I love it when a
landscape photography plan comes together absolutely brilliant
now this shot I have Bamburgh Castle just over my shoulder here and the Sun is
then setting somewhere around here the camera is down here just about to start
getting the legs of the tripod wet my feet are starting to get wet as the tide
is coming in around me but that's where those shoes come into play so even if I
get washed into the sea a little bit I'll be able to just walk my way back
out and that has been part of my plan today so for this shot I have some rocks
down here in the foreground just sort of putting a bit of interest in the
foreground and then leading you in a little bit to the sea...... Because I'm out on
this sort of precipice I have in the shot it just looks like I'm actually in
the sea which I'm not I'm stood on these rocks but that's what the shot looks
like and the golden light from that sun is shining off these rocks in the
foreground just making that into an absolutely beautiful....... or adding at that
beautiful bit of light to the image. In the mid-ground I've then got the sea and
then in the background I then have Bamburgh Castle and hopefully there'll be
some beautiful colour on those clouds I'll get the Sun just as its setting and
I think it's going to be a really good image I'm really really happy with the
composition so I've just got a few more minutes until sunset time I am starting to
get wet feet but that's okay I've had such a good day again a little bit more
low-key than normal I just wanted to speak about planning a little bit
because I think it is important but I'd love to hear from you in the comments
down below let me know what you think I've got some great stuff coming up as
well so make sure you subscribe if you're already subscribed hit that
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enjoyed the video. I'll see you on another one very soon
I'm Adam..... this is First Man Photography in Northumberland......
Out!!!!