Landscape photography tips

A landscape is a section or portion of scenery as seen from a single viewpoint.

Scenery is the subject of a landscape image. Typically, people and animals are

not shown in a landscape, unless they are relatively small in the image and have

been included in the composition to show scale. Some photographers argue that the

sea coast, the city and man-made structures in general should not be included in a

landscape, and images that do contain them are more accurately called seascapes

or cityscapes. From a purist perspective, they are probably correct, since a landscape

is a picture of the land and its aggregate natural features. However, if natural scenery

dominates an image, it can probably be accurately termed a landscape, even though

there may be a farmhouse in the distance, a city skyline on the horizon or a road or

path in the foreground.

The term “Urban Landscape” describes photographs of the city taken in the manner of a

landscape, using buildings and other man-made features as graphical elements of composition that are treated in the same way the photographer would treat mountains and trees.

STYLES OF LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

Three styles of landscape photography are recognized - representational, impressionistic and abstract. The representational style is also known as the straight or straight descriptive style.

REPRESENTATIONAL

This style results in pictures that show scenery at its most natural and realistic, with no visual manipulation or artifice. It is a straightforward style - what you see is what you get. Successful images in the representational style are not simple snapshots. Although the photographer adds no props or other components to a scene and does not try to “bend” reality, great attention is paid to composition and detail. Light, timing and the weather are critical elements.

IMPRESSIONISTIC

The impressionistic landscape photographer employs photographic techniques that result in images that have vague or elusive qualities. They are less tangible and more unreal, while still retaining their values that make them landscape pictures. The viewer is given the impression of a landscape rather than the clear reality of one.

ABSTRACT

This style - Abstract - could also probably be referred to as the graphic style, since the components of scenery are treated by the photographer as graphic elements, arranged for their compositional values. Natural elements may be rendered as unrecognizable or almost so. Shape and form take priority. Elements may be juxtapositioned for comparison or contrast, isolated by extreme close-up, reduced to silhouettes by severe underexposure, and so on. Design is more

important than recognizable representation.

In the landscape taken above(on the way to Hemkund Sahib, Uttrakhand), the blossom has been used in the foreground giving the landscape a distintive look

QUICK HINTS FOR EFFECTIVE LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

These quick tips are not essential to every landscape picture you take, but bearing them in mind and applying them judiciously will improve your picture-taking. A foreground object will help to frame the scene and add a look of three-dimensionality. Frame the scene so that it contains a center of interest - an object that draws the viewer's eye into the picture.Placing the center of interest off-center, in accordance with the Rule of Thirds, will create a harmonious composition.Placing the horizon a third of the way down from the top or bottom of the frame is usually much better than having it in the middle of the scene. Scale can often be important to the understanding of a landscape, and can be achieved by including an object of a known size in the scene. People, animals or other recognizable objects that would naturally belong in the scene are suitable for showing scale. The quality of lighting is perhaps the most influential attribute of a successful landscape. Waiting for interesting lighting that is moody, dramatic or diffused usually pays off in a memorable photograph. Ensure that your camera's flash is turned off when shooting landscapes, unless you require it to brighten a foreground object. Flash in a dusty, misty or foggy

scene may cause flare by reflecting off the droplets of moisture or dust particles. Use a tripod to ensure sharpness, especially in low-light conditions. In very low light, be sure to select a fast film speed or a high digital camera's ISO setting that will permit proper exposure and good depth of field. Watch for unsightly or unnatural elements such as overhead wires, hydrants, poles

and garbage cans, especially in the foreground. If you cannot easily move them, reposition yourself to a camera angle that eliminates them from the frame. Don't let the weather stop you from capturing an attractive landscape. Rain can add a degree of softness and peacefulness to a scene. On an overcast day, be sure your scene has an area of color in it to counteract the overall dull lighting.

Keep the rules of composition in mind when framing a scene. Lines, in particular, can be a strong factor in making an interesting landscape. Landscape photography is often more horizontal than it is vertical, presenting the opportunity to shoot a panorama. If you are faced with a wide vista and your camera has a panorama mode, this is the time to select it. Cropping afterwards can achieve a similar purpose.

When the wind is blowing or water is moving - waves, waterfalls, a tumbling brook - capturing that movement by using a slow shutter speed to create blur can add great interest to a landscape. When selecting a slow shutter speed, be sure you retain proper exposure by also appropriately adjusting your camera's aperture. Many cameras will do this automatically for you in Shutter Priority mode.

Dew Drops

Our love is like this porcelain rose   Fragile, yet unable to be broken.  This rose, like our love,  Will never die.   The dew kissed petals represent  The tears we've cried.  It often says the words of affection  That sometimes go unspoken.   Please do not leave our love on the shelf,  With me, you do not have to be afraid to be yourself.   As our life together begins,  I want you to hold the porcelain rose close to your heart.  And remember our love is too strong to be torn apart.

Dew drops on rose petal

Water drop clinging by the leaf of a tiny twig, used red playcard as backdrop

You have
an ornate look
as you sleep on velvets
of crimson red
demure, a heavenly drop
of liquid crystal
staid and neatly poised
on a blooming rose petal

Awakened
by morning sunshine
the bead of glass comes alive
vibrant like a well cut diamond
exquisite and ethereal
your delicate fragility translucent
that I want to reach out
and touch...
the spectral colors of a rainbow
that you freely reflect

But as day grows
I watch your splendor diminish
colors disperse,
your existence permeate
in to thin air, you then vanish
like a scrawl on placid water
leaving no mark, nor splatter

Gone yet again...
dew drop of a different dawn
when silent nights condense
will you return once again
to bless my garden, my lawn?

I feel joy at the sight of the dewdrops
Shining on the green grass,
Shimmering by the touch of the warm sunrays,
Gazing at the sky and
Settled on the cheerful blooms.

My cheerful childhood glowed
In the sylvan settlement
Capered in the friendly neighborhoods,
Shimmered by the touch of the
Gentle care and affection of the dear ones,
Gazed at the silver streak striking across the sky.

The dewdrops cuddled up by the rising sun,
Those days are in the past,
Alas, I slouch now in my office with walls of sullen gray,
Hope, will be washed by the bright sunrays.

Tortoise

Filthy tortoise living in a pit in my garden.

Turtu was zooming in and out its neck out of its shell as I zoomed in and out my lens..hehe

The Cross, the Cross
Goes deeper in than we know,
Deeper into life;
Right into the marrow
And through the bone.
Along the back of the baby tortoise
The scales are locked in an arch like a bridge,
Scale-lapping, like a lobster's sections
Or a bee's.

Then crossways down his sides
Tiger-stripes and wasp-bands.

Five, and five again, and five again,
And round the edges twenty-five little ones,
The sections of the baby tortoise shell.

Four, and a keystone;
Four, and a keystone;
Four, and a keystone;
Then twenty-four, and a tiny little keystone.

It needed Pythagoras to see life playing with counters on the living back
Of the baby tortoise;
Life establishing the first eternal mathematical tablet,
Not in stone, like the Judean Lord, or bronze, but in life-clouded, life-rosy tortoise shell.

The first little mathematical gentleman
Stepping, wee mite, in his loose trousers
Under all the eternal dome of mathematical law.

Fives, and tens,
Threes and fours and twelves,
All the volte face of decimals,
The whirligig of dozens and the pinnacle of seven.

Turn him on his back,
The kicking little beetle,
And there again, on his shell-tender, earth-touching belly,
The long cleavage of division, upright of the eternal cross
And on either side count five,
On each side, two above, on each side, two below
The dark bar horizontal.

The Cross!
It goes right through him, the sprottling insect,
Through his cross-wise cloven psyche,
Through his five-fold complex-nature.

So turn him over on his toes again;
Four pin-point toes, and a problematical thumb-piece,
Four rowing limbs, and one wedge-balancing head,
Four and one makes five, which is the clue to all mathematics.

The Lord wrote it all down on the little slate
Of the baby tortoise.
Outward and visible indication of the plan within,
The complex, manifold involvednes,s of an individual creature
Plotted out
On this small bird, this rudiment,
This little dome, this pediment
Of all creation,
This slow one.

Within my house of patterned horn
I sleep in such a bed
As men may keep before they're born
And after when they're dead.

Sticks and stones may break their bones,
And words may make them bleed;
There is not one of them who owns
An armour to his need.

Tougher than hide or lozenged bark,
Snow-storm and thunder proof,
And quick with sun, and thick with dark,
Is this my darling roof.

Men's troubled dreams of death and birth
Puls mother-o'-pearl to black;
I bear the rainbow bubble Earth
Square on my scornful back.

Snake in my garden

Blood bath: nearing its end...

The last gasp...


ShhHHHsshHHHH!!!! quiet....That's my closest encounter with a half-alive snake.

The snake was accidently sliced through in between by a grass cutter. Bleeding to death, it was gasping for air vehemently.

Trying to move around in pain, finally it was separated from the rest of its body. Poor snake, may its soul rest in peace.

the snake slithers around sneaky not a sound creeps upon his prey attacks then runs away he might be pretty look at outside hes a snake inside hes a rat beware of him he bites and does it within his rights the snake will smother even kill his own mother snakes are full of greed upon your soul he will feed the snake is a self-adoring creature humility is not a feature snakes are everywhere so beware

Bat returns

This hanging Bat was disturbed by my activities below, near the tree's base and stared at me for quite a long time. This gave me ample time to capture it in my camera. The look in its eyes said : " Why bothering me?"

They sleep this way...how do you sleep???
BhewwwOOOOOhAHaa!!! scary enough right??

Huge Banyan tree full of Bats "hanging-out" during day time. Seemed like all the bats of the entire city had cluttered onto this single tree.

No baby, dont eat my camera's lens, that's not edible!!

Ever used your wings to walk/creep?

I positioned the camera in front the bat's face and it started following the camera. I had keep up with the bat and move backward to capture the "expressions' of the creature!

It became violent for a mean while, tried to bite the lens of the camera!! It even hit against the camera's lens for a couple of times.

The grass was wet, watered with dew-drops which made it even more difficult for me to keep the camera at ground level

This baby bat fell down on the porch after gettin injured. I kept this creature in a box for the night and released it the next morning, and this was its reaction!!

By day the bat is cousin to the mouse.
He likes the attic of an aging house.

His fingers make a hat about his head.
His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.

He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.

But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:

For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.

The Bat's skin was flooded with tiny insects and ants.