Now that June is finally here, we can pretty much count summer as being officially underway. For us Northern Hemisphere photographers, summer means bountiful landscape photography sessions and long days exploring outdoors with our cameras.
For you Southern Hemisphere people, you’re certainly not left out of the fun, it’s just that your days are much shorter and cooler right now. However, that’s hardly an excuse to shy away from landscape photography, there are endless opportunities for photographic creativity no matter where you live.
To celebrate the arrival of June and inspire you to get out and shoot your best work, I’m running a month-long special on my BEHIND THE LANDSCAPE eBook.
When you purchase the book, simply use discount code BTLJUNE in your shopping cart and you’ll get this comprehensive how-to guide at a special price.
In BEHIND THE LANDSCAPE, I take you behind-the-scenes during the creation of sixteen of my favorite landscape images I’ve made in the past five years. For each example, I walk you through the entire process. I let you look over my shoulder as I outline the exact gear I had with me, the specific concept I had in mind, my creative approach, potential problems I faced, and how I solved them.
I describe my compositional techniques, my lens choice, how I used the light, specific exposure information and any other details that went into the process of bringing the image to life. I also highlight the types of challenges that you might face when shooting a similar style of imagery, and I show you how to overcome them so that you can walk away with a great photograph.
For every single image, I walk you through my own creative and technical process as I work through each of these steps. I evaluate each scene, describe the camera gear I had with me, analyze the color, quality and direction of the light, and tell you my specific approach for how I plan to capture each scene. Then I describe in detail my exact method of execution for turning my creative ideas into a successful image.
At the end of each example, I give you my final analysis for the image and describe the specific elements that I feel give the shot exceptional visual power. In addition, I share my final thoughts, reflecting on the personal, creative or introspective journey that led to the image.
Finally, I leave you with three takeaways. These are specific tips, techniques, compositional methods and ideas that directly contributed to the success of the image. The idea is that you can identify the methods that worked worked, so that you can apply to your own photography.
Years of Professional Insight at Your Disposal
Not only does BEHIND THE LANDSCAPE teach you the essential steps towards creating stronger images, it provides real-world inspiration that will motivate you to get out and try these techniques on your own.
Most of the photos in the book were shot in locations that are accessible to anyone with a basic level of fitness, and none of them required any special camera gear aside from what would be considered a normal outdoor photography kit. This means you can use these tips with your own subjects.
I’m confident that you’ll get a lot out of BEHIND THE LANDSCAPE. It’s packed full full of useful information and and inspiration and written so that you can start applying these techniques right away in your own photography.
You can download the eBook here, and remember to use discount code BTLJUNE to get your special 20% discount.
I have read you new book “Behind the Landscape.” I could not “put it down” meaning that I kept at it because each photo you presented/analyzed was interesting and informative. I am trying to develop an eye for composition (both the scene and the light).
Thank you! The examples you present and the suggestions are very helpful. Purple Mountains, McKinley River and Wonder Lake are fascinating.
I loved Behind the Landscape!
Much like Dan’s images, this book can be enjoyed on a variety of levels. Dan shows a series of landscapes and takes us behind the scenes to see how he created them.
Now you could just simply follow suite and create similar images - but where would be the fun in that? Instead I saw the book more as a jumping off point for further exploration in landscape photography. This is a book that will make you *think* about your photography and that is never a bad thing. One to read, think about, and read again. Highly recommended!