I spend a lot of time planning and researching – poring over maps, looking for interesting locations and viewpoints. then checking out any images that I can find online, trying to figure out whether the view will work for me and if so at what time of day would be best. I check times for Blue Hour, Golden Hour as well as the actual time of sunrise and sunset. I check the weather, the tides and the approximate location of the sun or the moon or the Milky Way before heading off into the landscape to do my thing.
Sometimes everything goes to plan and with minimal effort you end up with an image like the one below which I took from a small viewpoint overlooking Curtis Island in Camden, Maine a few years ago. The sunrise that morning was absolutely perfect with a decent amount of cloud as well as high level haze ensuring a long lasting and spectacular burst of colour.
However no matter how much is pre planned, the landscape photographer is more often at the mercy of the elements and has to adapt accordingly.
During the last month I’ve really been challenged and had to ride my luck as the weather toyed with me at crucial times. Patience pays off though and I’m lucky enough to have witnessed some moments that absolutely took my breath away
North Point, Catskill Mountains
My first example is from a recent overnighter that I took in the Catskills. My destination was the ledges at North Point overlooking North South Lake and onwards south towards Kaaterskill High Point. The forecast looked perfect and with viewpoints to the north / east and south I hoped for favorable images at sunset, sunrise and during the night with the milky way arcing over Kaaterskill High Point
Unfortunately, in reality, the weather had other ideas. Over the 12 hours that I spent at North Point I had pretty much everything thrown at me – Thunder, lightning and hail killed hopes for the sunset – the photo above was the best I managed that evening and was taken after the storm had blown on through taking the last of the daylight with it. Then gale force winds and clouds blew in overnight, ending any chance of Milky Way photography, finally when the alarm went off for the sunrise I awoke to moisture and surrounded by the mist of low lying clouds. As dawn broke I spent a bit of time on the ledges watching the light and hoping for something interesting ….then I happened to glance behind me and this happened……. It was quite simply a jaw dropping moment, the richness of the Spring greens and the crepuscular rays reminding me of England rather than the Hudson Valley. Then for a brief moment the sun picked out the slopes of Cairo Round Top and I had my photo.
Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England
My second example comes from my recent trip home to England and this was another moment that totally took my breath away. I’d been traveling without sleep for over 24 hours, it would have been so much easier to stay in my accommodation for the evening in order to get some rest before the following morning’s sunrise. The forecast wasn’t great and the view I wanted to photograph was more suited to morning light than the evening. However I decided to take a drive down to the beach to check out the area – if nothing else it would make it easier for me in the morning – I’m so glad I went. I watched as a huge bank of rainclouds filled in the sky to the west and could see that it wouldn’t be long before they would be over and soaking me. Instead of heading back to the car I decided to take a hike around the headland and away from the castle, more to get the travel out of my legs than anything. I walked for a while then saw the rainbow – it was huge – and if I could get back around the headland to a point where I could see the castle there might be a shot to be had …..
Winnats Pass, Derbyshire, England.
This third moment is also from my recent trip home to England when I really hoped for a chance to shoot a dramatic sunrise at Winnats Pass in my home county of Derbyshire. It’s an area I’ve always loved to visit but never achieved anything much in the way of photography. It was a big ask as I was only staying in the area for 3 days but on my last morning it looked as though the weather might co-operate.
As I picked my way across the southern slope of the gorge in the half light, looking for a suitable foreground I wasn’t sure that the morning was going to deliver. I was, however, enjoying the solitude and the chance to be outside before my long drive south later in the day.
In the end what blew me away was the quality of the sunlight as it flooded into the Hope Valley. I’ve always enjoyed utilizing backlight and just loved how the light added depth as it began to pick out the contours of the gorge in front of me. A slightly more interesting sky would have been nice but then I may have lost the warm glow of the early morning light and the depth that it added to the scene.
Aurora Borealis at Lakeside Park in Pawling, New York
This post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t add a few lines about last weeks Aurora activity that has been dominating social media.
I was late to the party, bingewatching something on the tv and not realizing that there was an even better show going on outside. I was alerted by a text message from a friend around 11pm and then took this shot with my phone from outside my front door. So now the decision was should I go out or should I stay and go to bed!!
I decided to go out and headed towards the Appalachian Trail boardwalk over the Great Swamp to the north of Pawling. Unfortunately It was quite a humid night and there was a lot of mist rising up from the wetland making it impossible for any decent attempt at photography. I drove on into the Village of Pawling where there was too much light pollution but less mist to contend with – that made my mind up and I headed up to the lakefront at Lakeside Park. I didn’t have long as the humidity was creating mist here too, you can see the mist on the lake in the image below. After taking this and by the time I had walked 5 minutes around the lake, to what is imho the prettiest view in the park, the sky was completely hidden by mist and my chance for further photography had gone!!!
Sometimes you just have to be there:
With this post I’ve tried to give a bit of insight behind the scenes and what goes into capturing the photographs that I post and sell.
Planning, knowledge and experience are all really important but most of all you just have to make the effort. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone somewhere and then haven’t even taken my camera out of it’s pack – but the thing is I plan, prepare and then travel hopefully, I choose to go out and look forward to the challenge that Mother Nature presents
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The more I practice
the luckier I get
Impressions 
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