All captured with my Sigma 18-200 HSM OS lens.

I feel like my skills in portraying landscapes is lacking---comments/suggestions on how to look it would be welcomed. Should I show less sky? Should I focus on any particular elements? Should I show foreground items or only wide open landscape? I just feel inadequate for landscapes...





The mountains seemed to go on forever:



Not just a bee, but a Smokey Mountain Bee:



Another bee photo:


The Appalachian Trail is just behind this sign:




My whole series here:
[usyeh.com]

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All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2011 09:27PM by wowzer.

That second one reminds me of a Chinese Painting

Quote
Rolando
That second one reminds me of a Chinese Painting

Yeah...I only wish that my camera had more dynamic range to capture the distant mountains better...

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All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.

He's "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" -- yeah, we know what you're really doing...

Quote
MikeF
He's "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" -- yeah, we know what you're really doing...

Isn't that the trail that leads to Argentina?

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And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts

Very nice!

I am not a landscape photographer. But I will say that you could benefit from more foreground. Top pic has a hint of treetops in the foreground, but still, you get the sense that you're floating in it. Try to figure out possibly how to frame the landscape, like Hudson River School painters, on the left and right. If you need to get on your belly to be able to get some foreground elements (rocks, smaller brush) in frame, then that's what you got to do. The best landscape shots I've seen give you a good sense of place. See through the camera, not your eyes. You know what the landscape looked like in each one of those shots, the challenge is translating that through a lens.

Also, shoot as wide as you can. I clicked through to your full set and the better landscape photos are wide. (Thanks for the EXIF.) The (amish?) family walking along the trail was 18mm - and it really gives the sense that I was walking along the trail and managed to capture them. Same with the shot where there's a green field in the foreground. Looking at that photo, I can hear the quiet.

And shoot RAW. The few landscape photos I've taken, there were areas which would benefit from some exposure blending, which you can recover if you shoot RAW. Shoot JPEG and you're stuck.

Nice work. Please keep sharing!

Nice pictures!

.....did SMOKE get in.....your eyes.....???

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_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

I will try to get on my belly---but that's not easy with the kids running about. I forgot to bring the sigma 10-20...all the time I bring it, this time, I figured that I'd go light...sigh.

I'll try that foreground attempt--I just feel like my eye for landscape is not inspiring...

Quote
DRR
Very nice!

I am not a landscape photographer. But I will say that you could benefit from more foreground. Top pic has a hint of treetops in the foreground, but still, you get the sense that you're floating in it. Try to figure out possibly how to frame the landscape, like Hudson River School painters, on the left and right. If you need to get on your belly to be able to get some foreground elements (rocks, smaller brush) in frame, then that's what you got to do. The best landscape shots I've seen give you a good sense of place. See through the camera, not your eyes. You know what the landscape looked like in each one of those shots, the challenge is translating that through a lens.

Also, shoot as wide as you can. I clicked through to your full set and the better landscape photos are wide. (Thanks for the EXIF.) The (amish?) family walking along the trail was 18mm - and it really gives the sense that I was walking along the trail and managed to capture them. Same with the shot where there's a green field in the foreground. Looking at that photo, I can hear the quiet.

And shoot RAW. The few landscape photos I've taken, there were areas which would benefit from some exposure blending, which you can recover if you shoot RAW. Shoot JPEG and you're stuck.

Nice work. Please keep sharing!

---

All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.

Quote
wowzer
I will try to get on my belly---but that's not easy with the kids running about. I forgot to bring the sigma 10-20...all the time I bring it, this time, I figured that I'd go light...sigh.

I'll try that foreground attempt--I just feel like my eye for landscape is not inspiring...

Don't sell yourself short, wowser.

I think that when we invest in a camera with the intention of taking some great pictures, we often expect more of ourselves than we can actually accomplish. The problem with doing that is not seeing how good our pictures look to most other people.

I really enjoyed sharing your experience through the eye of your camera. Thanks for posting them.

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gl @ Dana Point, CA

Thanks, GeneL...it's just that I see some really inspiring photos and I think to myself, 'why can't you take a shot like that...'

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All I ever really needed to know, I learned from watching Star Trek.