Car Camping for Star Photos and Sunrise Landscapes

Landscape photography is not something that you can simply go out and do instantly. An understanding of how light interacts with the landscape that you’re shooting is vital to take a successful photo. Otherwise, all your effort might be in vain. In this video, travel photographer Brendan van Son spends a chilly 24 hours in Canyon de Chelly, but all his effort does not get much pay back in the end. Let’s see what went wrong:

The astro photography session didn’t go as planned for Son because of the fact that most of the foreground was under shadow. And that was quite a distraction in the image. The effort that he’d put in by staying out late in the freezing cold all went down the drain because of this.

His luck was no better the following morning either. He’d anticipated the spire to catch the early morning sun rays to create a sundial effect. But, as time progressed, it became clear that it was not happening. As a consequence, Son was again not able to take as good of images as he’d anticipated.

The key takeaway from this incident is that you need to thoroughly understand how the natural light sources behave when going out for landscape photography. Veteran landscape photographers wait for multiple days to take a perfect shot. With modern apps, you can easily visualize where the sun or the moon will be at any time of day. Make use of those resources to plan your outdoor shoot. Doing so will save you loads of time and resources.

Like This Article?

Don't Miss The Next One!

Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current: