Being There: The Most Important Skill in Landscape Photography

As a beginner photographer, I carried my camera with me everywhere-on hikes, on short walks, in the car-I always had that camera with me and, as a result, a number of images from those first couple of years are still in my landscape photography portfolio. Not because they are technically perfect photos but because they are photos of unique moments that I have not been able to replicate.

As I progressed from being a beginner at landscape photography to a more advanced photographer, I developed a mindset that I only needed to carry my camera when I was specifically out to capture landscapes. Or perhaps I should say that I only expected to capture portfolio-worthy images during those times, so if I only planned to take casual photos of my family, I often didn’t bring along the real camera, particularly in the last few years as smartphone cameras have become so good. What I am now realizing is that a missed photo here and there adds up to a lot of missed opportunities over the years.

In addition to always having my camera, I was motivated to head out more often specifically for landscape photography. For a couple of years, I was taking advantage of every opportunity to shoot photos during evening golden hour and was frequently out before sunrise in the mornings. As a result, I was able to quickly build my portfolio, adding to the collection of unique but maybe not technically perfect images from my earlier days with higher quality images captured during these dedicated photo expeditions. But for several reasons-spending more time with family, having less motivation for photography, the Spring Fire, plain old laziness-I largely quit going out solely to take photos.

The other day as I was reviewing my portfolio of landscape photos from this summer, I realized that almost all of the photos were either captured at a time when I did not plan to be taking photos but happened to have my camera (or at least my phone) with me, or when I had made plans with a friend to go out for landscape photography but almost backed out because it didn’t seem the conditions would be any good for photography. Fortunately, I did get in the car and drive down the road with a camera on the seat beside me and was rewarded for those efforts with some truly fantastic, stunning images (if I do say so myself).

“f/8 and be there”

-attributed to Arthur Fellig

In my title for this post, I claim that “being there” is the most important skill in landscape photography, and I think this is true. Practice makes perfect, at least perfect practice, so in order to develop as a photographer it is essential to be out with a camera. And while I don’t think it is necessary to have the newest or “best” gear to take great photos, I certainly recognize that my photos improved with the quality of my gear (just not necessarily because of it).

The aspect of the importance of gear is interesting. When I review my older images, it’s easy to see the limitations of my old Sony a58 and kit zoom lens in a lot of those photos, primarily a lack of fine detail caused by the inexpensive zoom lenses I was using. Upgrading to the a6000, and later to the a6500, with a Sony Zeiss lens provided a very noticeable improvement in the quality of my images.

But now in 2022 I’m still using that same Sony a6500 (from 2016) and lens (from 2006), and I’m not sure I would see a similar improvement if I were to upgrade again. At the same time however, I have some portfolio images in this collection that I captured with my iPhone 12 Mini that I could not have captured with a previous smartphone, and the images I captured this summer with the DJI Air 2S are a lot better than what I would have captured with my old Mavic Pro. Not to mention that the excitement of having a new piece of gear like the Air 2S provided a lot of the motivation to get out to take photos.

Better gear can produce better photos, but gear alone won’t make you a better photographer.

Each of the photos featured in this post were captured at an unexpected time when I was lucky enough to have a camera with me or when the conditions didn’t look promising but I headed out the door with my camera anyway. In landscape photography, the photos can’t take themselves, so there is simply no substitute for “being there.”

Update: A few days after writing this post I headed back to Cuchara for fall break. I had no intention of taking any photos, but as I drove over Cuchara Pass, a cloud inversion was slowly moving up the valley toward the pass. With the sun low over the mountains in late afternoon, the scene was absolutely epic! Fortunately I had charged up my drone batteries before leaving home and was able to get the Air 2S flying quickly. The views from the air were truly stunning with the low fog and autumn leaves glowing in the sunlight. Then the clouds rolled in below the drone and I was able to get some incredible video footage above the fog.