Landscape photography - Planning, Patience and Persistense

Clearing storm over Mitre Peak, Milford Sound

You can view a behind the scenes video about this image here: @JohnDooganphoto

For me, the photo above ticks the three boxes of light, composition, and gesture that make a great landscape photo. Light, because of the sun bursting through gaps in the clouds, composition, because the panoramic format creates visual interest and balance, and gesture, because of the timing of the boat moving through the god rays. It was a case of persistence paying off, as I had scouted this location up a steep hillside above Milford Sound; and already had several excursions up there. In this moment, it all came together.

A wider view of the same location, Milford Sound, taken at a different time on the same day.

Consistently good landscape photos require planning and patience. Sure, you can get lucky and sometimes just be in the right place at the right time. But even then, if you’re not practised with your camera settings, or take too long to find the best angle, the best shots can pass you by.

I often think of an Ansel Adams quote: “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” And you don’t always know where to stand if you haven’t done reconnaissance.

When the light is good, you need to be in your premium location. I like to arrive at a location well before I expect to be shooting. An early afternoon recce works well if I’m going to be at a location for a day or two. I can investigate the area and make notes on viewpoints and sun angles. I also work out where I want to be for sunrise, to avoid fumbling about in the early morning gloom.

Phone apps can make the planning more effective. For weather I mainly use Windy and back this up with Tideschart, metservice and yr.no. Windy has the advantage of particularly good cloud layer forecasting and graphics - low, middle, and high cloud layers, as well as fog. This gives me a good idea of the light quality to expect, although as no forecast is 100% reliable I expect some trips to be unsuccessful.

Sunseeker is a great app for showing the sun and moon position for any time of the day or year. As well as a map, sunseeker allows you to look through the phone camera with a graphic overlay showing where the sun will be at certain times of the day or year. It is great for working out the time the sun will go down behind a mountain or where it will rise in the morning.

For navigation, apart from the ubiquitous Google Maps, MapToaster in New Zealand give really good back country coverage at 1:50,000 scale, showing tracks, elevation and features. And I have recently started using Kamoot as a way to plan and record trips. Kamoot adds the ability to preview in 3D and shows an elevation profile for a particular route, as well as being able to record trips as they are happening.