Landscapes and blood pressure

[Tannin]

It is really nice that the landscape doesn't just take off and fly to somewhere else, because that would just plain pi... annoy me.

The bit that gets me with landscapes is that the days where you get really nice light are the days when you have fluffy white clouds scooting about, The really good light days tend to have little squalls and showers to clear the air and provide that magical just-after-rain sunlight.

But you have to be quick! On a good-light-day I find landscaping more challenging, stressful and exciting than bird photography. I'm not kidding: long practice means that I can set up for pretty much any bird photograph in a few moments. Usually, I have anticipated the lens choice and exposure settings I'm going to need and have to make only the simplest adjustments before shooting. Then it's simply a matter of finding a bird in a suitable spot and putting it somewhere in the frame. Given a bird in a particular spot, there is generally only one best way to expose and frame the shot, and that way is obvious. You don't have to think about it, you just have to do it. (Yes, sure, the execution can be complex and tricky, but at least you know what you have to do.)

But there are so many variables when you landscape! Even if you don't have to think about the shot (and mostly you do), by the time you spot a photo opportunity, jump out of the car, sprint to where you want to be, set up the tripod (or even decide where to stand hand-holding), frame and expose .... the damn light has changed! Arrrargh!!!

So you wait, look over your shoulder, decide that the good light isn't coming back anytime soon, do the best you can with the light you've got (probably not very good), and move on.

Five minutes later, you are half a mile down the road and the light turns magic again ... but now there isn't a scene in front of you. So you carry on ... and on .. wasting all that magic light until you get to another good spot ... leap out in panic, rush to set up ... Damn! Light's gone. :(

On a windy day with a fair bit of scudding cloud and sunny breaks, you can lose the light in the time it takes to stop the car and open the door.

Fair dinkum, landscape photography is bad for my blood pressure.

[Geoff79]

Yep, all sounds about right. Landscape photography in Tasmania was particularly testing for me. It seemed every waterfall I visited was bathed in sunlight when I wanted overcast, and every spot in the coast I visited, where I wanted sunlight, was covered by cloud.

I remember being perched on rocks at the bottom of a waterfall, I think just south of Burnie somewhere, with spray blowing around everywhere and sunlight all over the place and it all culminated and I sat down with myself and asked how I’d tell the story of my trip to Tassie... was I actually having fun, lol? I was so frustrated at that moment, but I guess that’s photography for you... you take the good with the bad and just hope the good is worth it. :)

And for the record, I loved my trip to Tassie and have countless fond memories, and good photos, but they didn’t come without some heavy frustration.

[Tannin]

My several trips to Tasmania have all been exactly like that, Geoff. I firmly believe that Tasmania is the World Capital of Rapidly Changing Lighting.

PS: Tasmania is small. You can get from any given waterfall to the coast in about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the light changes, on average, every 20 seconds. :(

[Liney]

My experience has been:

The good days for landscapes are the days I have a day full of meetings and can't excuse myself;
The bad days for landscapes are the days I've cleared my schedule and taken a day off because the weather forecast said it was going to be perfect weather, and
The really good days for landscapes, or any other type of photography for that matter, are the days when I have great weather, a perfect composition, and I left my camera at home.

Just once in a while everything comes together.....

[ameerat42]

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[Bianca]

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Heh... You'll make a fortune on Kickstarter! [emoji23]

[landyvlad]

Liney you nailed it.

[ricktas]

My several trips to Tasmania have all been exactly like that, Geoff. I firmly believe that Tasmania is the World Capital of Rapidly Changing Lighting.

PS: Tasmania is small. You can get from any given waterfall to the coast in about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the light changes, on average, every 20 seconds. :(

You know us Tasmanians (or is that Taswegians?) ensure the weather is like that so all you mainlanders get frustrated and go home. :D

PS, we have a saying here 'Jacket on..Jacket off'. Today was one of those days, its been sunny, raining, windy, warm, cold, and calm.. and each of these in every hour. I left work at 5pm in the sun, on the 15 minute drive home, it rained. Got home and it was sunny, so considered taking the dogs for a walk. Looked at the mountain (Mt Wellington/Kunanyi), saw the next squall on it's way, so decided the dogs will have to chillax on the couch tonight, and good thing, because its raining again now. But as I look down over the city of Hobart.. there is sun in the city and on the eastern shore of the Derwent. Living a few hundred metres up the side of this 1271m high mountain certainly provides climatic (should that be climactic?) variety.

But we Taswegians are an odd bunch. We go out in -15 degrees to take photos of snow.

137231

[Tannin]

Mate, look at it this way. You'd have to be really odd to go out to take pictures of snow when it's 38 degrees. :)

[Geoff79]

You know us Tasmanians (or is that Taswegians?) ensure the weather is like that so all you mainlanders get frustrated and go home. :D

PS, we have a saying here 'Jacket on..Jacket off'. Today was one of those days, its been sunny, raining, windy, warm, cold, and calm.. and each of these in every hour. I left work at 5pm in the sun, on the 15 minute drive home, it rained. Got home and it was sunny, so considered taking the dogs for a walk. Looked at the mountain (Mt Wellington/Kunanyi), saw the next squall on it's way, so decided the dogs will have to chillax on the couch tonight, and good thing, because its raining again now. But as I look down over the city of Hobart.. there is sun in the city and on the eastern shore of the Derwent. Living a few hundred metres up the side of this 1271m high mountain certainly provides climatic (should that be climactic?) variety.

But we Taswegians are an odd bunch. We go out in -15 degrees to take photos of snow.

137231

Your pups don’t look overly impressed with your decision not to take them for a stroll. ;)

[ricktas]

Your pups don’t look overly impressed with your decision not to take them for a stroll. ;)

Not at all They love their evening walk. We usually do 6-8kms. So when the weather doesn't allow they do tend to be a bit unimpressed with the situation. Labradors loving water, they cannot understand why a little rain should stop them enjoying themselves... for them it mean puddles to splash in

[Hawthy]

You know us Tasmanians (or is that Taswegians?) ensure the weather is like that so all you mainlanders get frustrated and go home. :D

The weather in Tasmania is great really. I get the whole layers thing and I really appreciate that while the weather can be bad at times, it is so changeable that you can get a crack at getting out and enjoying the outdoors in the afternoon when the day looked lost in the morning. Queensland, on the other hand, locks in weather for weeks at a time. You might get weeks, nay months, of beautiful fine weather. Equally, you can get weeks of wet weather without a break.

Spring thunderstorms are an exception to the rule. Perfect in the morning - trashed in the afternoon.

[aussirose]

Hubby and I loved our trip to Tassie in May. Reminds me that I must post a few pix to share with you all. Got a few days off work next week so will do. Had a chuckle about the landscape FStop pill lol. Yes lack of lighting was a big problem for us especially since I wanted to get some good shots of the coloured rocks at the Bay of Fires. Took some ok ones. Will share when I have time next week :)

[Glenda]

Liney did hit the nail on the head. Even more frustrating is being someone who enjoys landscape photography and lives in Gladstone where attractive landscapes are non-existent and seascapes with no surf and boring rocks aren't much better. And, there's not much worse than rising at some ridiculous hour to catch the dawn and finding low cloud on the horizon.

Your poor labs Ricktas, they certainly look down in the mouth. My dogs could never understand why we didn't walk in rain either - it certainly wouldn't worry them.

[Mark L]

Well Tony, for your health's sake, you should stick with taking photos of birds in their landscape.