Photography 101: Landscape & cropping

~ Alba
The Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon

Ask any photographer (or wannabe photographer) and they’ll tell you there’s something they just can’t photograph. Some don’t like doing portraits, some still-life, some don’t like using Photoshop. With me it’s landscapes. I just can’t do it well enough to satisfy myself. I’m not being modest – I actually struggle to see the bigger picture (if you know what I mean)

Me struggling to see the bigger picture.... hint, it's BEHIND YOU NUMPTY!
Me struggling to see the bigger picture…. hint, it’s BEHIND YOU NUMPTY!

But when we went to the Grand Canyon it was gie near impossible (Good Scottish word there – gie) to photograph what I wanted. The word ‘awesome’ is totally overused, but in this case it was fully warranted. From the helicopter ride there, over the desert, the Hoover Dam, landing on the canyon floor to the flight back up the Las Vegas Strip – the whole day was wonderful. Oh and I forgot to mention the champagne lunch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon!

My new mode of transportation
My new mode of transportation

When I was a wee girl I used to think that by the time I was old everyone would be travelling by helicopter and cars would be obsolete. Why hasn’t this happened? I would travel everywhere by helicopter if I could. I absolutely loved it. When I’m rich I’m going to buy a helicopter and use it to go grocery shopping.

22 thoughts on “Photography 101: Landscape & cropping”

  3. Hmmm, I think you are being a bit harsh on yourself my friend! Ok, so the first shot could be tweaked and straightened; the second is a bit the same, but the person gives it scale; the last shot is beautifully amazing!
    Landscape can be difficult, especially when you have stood somewhere mind blowing, like the Grand Canyon or on a big mountain range. What you have to accept is that you cannot hope to eclipse the majesty of nature, but you can capture some of the essence…it’s a matter of compromise. What you can do though is take the picture with the old mark one eyeball and store it on your own built in hard drive, that way you can always go back! Dookes 🙂

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    1. I get what you’re saying…. but I get frustrated when I can’t capture the beauty I see. I guess I’ll have to use my built-in-hard-drive a bit more…. but it’s getting old and creaky now 😉

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  4. Well, landscape’s the hardest of all, I find. Especially if all you have is a crummy old pocket camera like mine. Your Grand Canyon is recognisable, mine would look like the ditch at the bottom of our garden.

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    1. LOL…. I have to disagree Curtis. No way the Grand Canyon could look like a ditch – I’m sure you’d do it justice, even with a pocket camera. Actually I only got a DSLR 4 years ago when I moved to the USA – up till then ALL my shots were with a compact SO NO EXCUSES…. Get out there and shoot something :-p

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      2. A. You may be surprised to know that most of my shots are taken on compacts. I use three, a 12MP Canon, a 12MP Fuji and a Panasonic Lumix 14MP which has a Leica lens. I do have a DSLR, Nikon D80, but I honestly don’t really use it much and anyway the smaller cameras are better on a motorbike! As they say, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s how you use it!!!! 🙂

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        1. No, not surprised at all! Half my photographs are also taken with my compact – I always have a camera on me at all times. Even my camera phone gets put to use almost daily!
          What model of Fuji to you have? It’s a Fuji I use for my compact camera 🙂

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  7. I really rate the Fuji. The Canon is a PC1586 nice lens but the exposure wanders all over the place as does the colour balance, plus is waaaay to complicated to adjust. The Lumix though is wonderful!

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  8. I love landscapes, street and still life. Actually anything that does not involve a person posing, if I was using a DSLR. I am still a beginner, and still playing and practicing around with my settings that I find it an encumbrance to take photos of people who seem to not have the patience to sit still for that shot unlike mountains and oceans do. 🙂 But if it was my camera or a point and shoot, heck, I shoot right away anytime, anywhere! The grand canyon is more than awesome, its beyond words! Great photos!

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