Is Your Landscape Photography Cautious or Improvisational?

Based on how landscape photographers use their gear, you can categorize them into two broad types. The first is someone who always carries a tripod and filters with them and spends a lot of time preparing their shots. The second is more into freestyling, shoots everything handheld and doesn’t use filters. Today, photographer Jonny Keeley talks about a third kind—one he believes falls beyond those categories, which represents himself. Let’s see what differentiates his work style from the other two types of photographers:

The meticulous ones cannot leave their homes without carrying a tripod and filters. When it comes to composing a shot, they are happy to invest a good chunk of their time. You can see them very carefully lining up their compositions and using the appropriate filters to get the image right. This is sort of a perfectionist approach.

If you are not used to working this way, you may feel tripods and filters slow you down. You want to go with the flow and try out different compositions and perspectives, shot after shot. You’re happy to spend a bit more time looking at images on your computer and pick out the best ones.

But, as Keeley explains, he falls into a third category—somewhere in the grey area. He doesn’t like to walk around with tripods and filters; he, too, feels that these additions to the camera slow him down. He carries this gear anyway, however, because he likes to use them when shooting water bodies. A neutral density filter can block the light from entering the camera allowing you to take long exposures even during broad daylight and gives a silky effect to the flowing water. A tripod allows you to keep the camera steady. When executed properly, this can give an ethereal vibe to your image.

Which category do you fall into? To gear, or not to gear? Let us know in the comments below.

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