Three Tips, Two Images, One Stunning Sky

Intro by Skip Cohen

I love these short tips from Ossian Lindholm.  While you might not be a landscape photographer, each tip has had a much broader application - helping you raise the bar on the quality of your images. 

And, if you're enjoying these short nuggets of wisdom from one of the industry's finest artists, environmentalists, filmmakers and educators - think about what it would be like to actually take a trip with him. You'll find him a regular member of the team on many of Travel Vision Journeys' trips. 

Ossian is also coming to Maine this summer, June 21 - 27, to teach The Art and Craft of Mindful Travel Photography workshop at the Maine Media Workshop. This class will fill at 12 people. Just click the link to find out more.

by Ossian Lindholm

I had so much fun with these two images and decided to add one more tip and talk about composition. 

Tip #1 Clouds:  Sometimes they are amazing. I love to use them to get a more interesting composition. While a beautiful clear blue sky means it's a gorgeous day outside, it doesn't bring very much impact to a landscape image. I'll always take a cloudy sky to photograph, rather than just a big blue background! 

Tip #2 Use a polarizer, you will achieve a nicer blue and better contrast of the clouds against the sky. Polarizer filters are available for virtually every lens and should be a standard component in your camera bag.

Tip #3 Landscape photographs are almost always framed horizontally. However, I liked the feeling of the clouds in this image and they worked nicely with a vertical composition. 

Just remember: situations will come up where you'll need a vertical photo.  For example, the cover image of a book or magazine will almost always need to be a vertical. 

But here's another instance I've enjoyed over the years -  A vertical landscape breaks the monotony in a gallery showing or exhibition. 

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