It is far too easy to ruin an otherwise beautiful shot by overthinking it.
How do I know this? I’ve done it, loads of times! And quite often, I’ve done it in pursuit of things unnecessary for the shot the landscape has presented.
Yep, I’ve been that photographer. You know the one….attempting to cram every technique I’ve ever learnt into one photograph, making landscape photography a tick box checklist. There’s a reason why I got like that, although perhaps that is one for another blog.
There's so much to consider for any given photograph. But you really do need to be aware that, in doing so, moments can be missed and shots can become convoluted when you start to overthink the shot.
The moment of wow! Tarn Hows, Lake District National Park, UK
Take the photograph above of the trees at Tarn Hows. The light fleetingly kissing the leaves on an otherwise stormy day with thick dark clouds as far as the eye can see. Overthinking really wasn’t an option.
When I first noticed the cloud breaks shining some light on the trees I was up on the Eastern side of the tarn. Up a hill (for those that know Tarn Hows I was by the memorial stone) creating a much wider photograph of Tarn Hows. Scouting the clouds I could see some further breaks heading towards the tarn. The light traversing across the land as if by magic, you know the kind of light you only really experience during a break in a storm, stunningly beautiful.
There was no real way to capture what I envisioned from where I was stood. Looking down at the tree line from up high would have captured a rather flat image of green on dark blue water. It had to be from the Southern shoreline.
Having tried this composition on earlier trips, I knew that this kind of light would work well, as long as it hit the trees. Lighting the subject matter whilst leaving the further shore treeline in shadow.
Grabbing my camera and bag I ran down the hill and around the path. I’m not built for running at the best of times, never mind with a bag and camera in hand but shockingly I made it to the shoreline just before the last break was about to hit the trees and instinct took over.
It was a moment of WOW, and just a moment, nothing more. No time to think, no time to overcomplicate it....Long telephoto lens to pull the background in, 1/200 of a second as I was going to hand hold, f/7.1 at 135mm. I bumped the iso to 200, underexposing by a stop so that when the light hit, it was just focus, click, create. Within two exposures, the light had passed.
I had worked hard to get it….but not with the camera. Yet it wasn’t sheer luck. In order to envision the shot to begin with required all the experience I had photographing Tarn Hows, otherwise I wouldn’t have been aware of the potential from my lofty position much higher above the tarn.
Lots of journeys out in less than suitable conditions had given me an eye for breaks in the cloud, experience had taught me that if there had been one break, there was likely to be others. The instinct borne out of countless times exposing manually, the camera in auto or semi-auto likely to have exposed for the trees in shadow before the light hit (perhaps not, but I’m glad I didn't have to rely on it).
Everything that had come before had led me to be able to capture the shot as it happened….quick! No option but to just do it. And certainly no option for overthinking.
Simplicity.
Sometimes the light and the land present a scene that demands nothing more.
Dave