Be positive, trust yourself
When doing landscape photography in the field, try to be positive because this is the key to making compelling landscape images. Although nature is quite a big place and can be overwhelming, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to take incredible pictures. Instead, give yourself an optimistic push trying to take away the stress.
If you go outside expecting to find an incredible landscape, you tend to be more open to seeing the beauty of nature. A positive disposition will be constructive to finding something interesting while taking pictures.
Don’t be scared by failure
Failure is probably the only way to learn. We learn by making mistakes, and making mistakes is normal. By making mistakes, you get better and do better the next time you try something again.
Beyond this, you must embrace the fact that most of the photographs you capture, and most of the time you go out shooting, you are not coming back home with mind-blowing images that you will remember forever. Yet, this is how landscape photography, and photography in general, works. Failure is typical in photography. Consider if it wasn’t like this, it could be just boring because it means you don’t have anything more to learn. There will be no challenge, and it will be too easy and boring.
That’s why it is so interesting to look at the photos of other photographers to understand which way they captured a similar scene, the angle they used to capture the scene, and the exposure they used.
Through their photographs, you can understand that there is room to grow and that photography is a lifelong journey.
Push yourself
Doing landscape photography, always push yourself to try something different. It may also be a location you usually don’t go to take landscape images, or it can be a lens or trying different angles and compositions. Try to make things differently. It will help you to stay creative and enjoy landscape photography more than ever.
Study the location and get there early
Research the location you chose to take landscape photographs and get to the place as early as possible. Try to look at Google Earth to get an idea of what you will find there. Try to use “the photographer’s ephemeris 3d app” to figure out how the light will be, and check how the tides will be that day in the “aye tides app” if you are shooting on the cost.
And then get to the location as early as possible, so you have time to explore the place, walk around and find the best composition to frame in your photograph. In this way, you will find the spot for when the light is at its peak, and you will be in the right place at the right time to capture the composition you want for your landscape photographs.
It is frustrating to get to a location and don’t being able to take the compelling images you were expecting to take. And it happens most of the time you can’t get to the location early.
Always explore the location as much as possible before you start shooting seriously.
Tripod
Buy the best tripod you can afford. Photography is a costly hobby, and you may want to buy the best camera on the market, with the most expensive and fast lenses. Unfortunately, a good tripod is costly and can cost 600$ or more without any problem. Usually, the mistake is to buy a cheaper tripod, then upgrade with a slightly better one. However, as you get more experienced in landscape photography, you understand that you need an excellent tripod. This way, you bought three different tripods wasting your money. That’s why investing as soon as possible in a good tripod is cheaper.
The tripod is a piece of equipment that will last longer than cameras and lenses, and it is the best value thing you can buy. You will change the camera and the lenses more than once during a tripod’s life. So buy a perfect one, and you won’t need any change or upgrade.
Camera and lenses
As I said before, the best tripod you can afford is a good idea. On the contrary, you shouldn’t care too much about buying the best camera on the market or about your camera’s specs. You don’t need the very best camera, and it is a false myth that professional photographers always use the best quality equipment available at the time. For example, not all landscape photographers use a medium format camera, and neither all landscape photographers use a full-frame camera. On the other side, a lot use an APS-C sensor camera or even a Micro 4/3 sensor camera.
There is the advantage of traveling as light as possible. For this reason, many photographers often prefer not to take the best quality lenses, such as the f2.8 super sharp lenses, and they choose to carry something lighter because it helps when you are on the field.
Back up your images
I suggest you back up your images multiple times and in various places because I hope it never happens, but if you have a drive that can fail, those images are gone, and they are gone forever. So think about this problem and try to figure out the best solution for you to back up your pictures. You should have at least one or more copies on an external hard drive and maybe a copy in the Cloud.
Ask yourself why you are taking the photo
When taking a landscape photograph of a scene, being on the field, ask yourself why you are actually taking the image and why you are framing the scene in that way. It is not just about the focal point, the way you are framing the landscape in front of your lens, what is the actual subject of your photograph. Everything is also about the mood of the image, what the place is telling you and how you are about to capture those feelings to express them to the photograph’s viewer.
When you can answer that question, the answers will tell you how to capture the scene correctly: which lens is better to use, how to set the proper exposure, the correct depth of field, if use or not a long exposure, how to frame the location, and how to use the leading lines.
While you are looking at the landscape through your camera, ask yourself which story you want to narrate to the viewer, which is your vision of the scene in front of your eyes, what I want people to feel, what I want them to see when they look to my landscape photographs, what do I need to put in the frame and what do I need to leave out?
It would be best to make these decisions while looking at the scene, only when you are standing there. Therefore, it is impossible to answer these questions while researching the location.
Shoot for yourself
Take the landscape photograph that you like and enjoy taking because at the end of the day, photography should give you pleasure from the beginning of the visualization process, then the act of taking a photograph, until the final step of the editing process.