"Landscape photography"

 

The photo opposite is called "mumbles driftwood" Its one of my best sellers and is a fairly recognisable image in and around swansea and the gower. This particular photograph whether on canvas or framed has out sold all my other landscape photography by around ten to one! So whats the reason for this? well, there are several reasons, but lets start at the beginning and the fact that I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and came across this interesting piece of driftwood stuck in the sand, not only was the shape of the wood quite large and unique it also gives the picture a nice composition of having something both in the foreground and mumbles pier and lighthouse in the background. It quite simply works overall as an image and the fact that its a piece of driftwood makes the image appealling and gives you a beachy organic feel to what was otherwise just a miserable cloudy day in swansea!

There are no hard and fast rules to landscape photography, a lot of the time it is about being in the right place at the right time which the driftwood photo demonstrates more than any other. The more you go out with the camera, quite simply the more likely you are to get good photography. A good landscape photo usually is one that has some dramatic effect or feeling to it that keeps on pulling you back for more and that you will never tire of viewing. It should be above average and have that something interesting or spectacular that makes it stand out from the rest. Driftwood I have been told evokes emotions of wet winter walks on the beach, wrapped up warm with wellies on, it sells well as a canvas because when on the wall above a sofa in a house brings those wet winter walks directiy into your living room and for this reason I have also coloured the photo into beiges, greens, creams and browns so that it matches interior colour schemes to add an extra feel to the picture. There is also texture and pattern in the photo which is important in landscape photography, the sand in the picture is dotted and lumpy in the forground and very linear in the distance. These lines near the horizon and also the driftwood itself disect the image and this is what makes the composition work.

The second photograph is of three cliffs bay using a wide angle lens, from the position I took the photo I have captured the dramatic Tor bay head on the other side of the shot. You wouldnt think it was somehwere in wales if you didn't know three cliffs, and would probably think it was taken by the mars rover! What I have done here when cropping and editing the image is used the two thirds rule. For those who are unfamilar with this it simply means having your horizon line two thirds of the way down from the top of the picture. This works well for me when making panaramic photography for wide five foot or six foot canvas prints. I regularly sell this photograph as a 60" by 20" canvas print, long thin and contemporary that looks fantastic above a king size bed or long sofa. I have also added a little lens flare behind the three cliffs when editing in photoshop, this adds some much needed light source to what was again another damp and rainy day in the gower! Both of these images do look overprocessed and I will mention again that this is done on purpose so that they look great in their final form as canvas prints. When I edit I think about interior colour schemes and home furnishings as much as I do about it being a natural looking photograph. This may seem annoying and the wrong way to go for some photographers but as they say the customer is always right! and its home interiors that play a major part here. So many times I've been asked for "that photograph as a canvas in duck egg blue and beige to match my curtains" !!

Gower Photography by Karl Baker