Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Landscape Photography: Forgetting everything else

When it comes to photography much can be said about portraits, photojournalism and documentary work etc. which show the beauty or viciousness of the human side this world. But for me one type that makes me appreciate the beauty of capturing a single moment in time is Landscape Photography.

The land may look as if its stationary but that’s an illusion, the light, the shade, the wind everything is constantly moving and changing. There is something about how quietly the landscape changes over time, slowly and almost invisibly, and this is where the landscape photographer waits patiently watching and waiting for the perfect moment.

But landscape like street photography cannot be easily defined there are many types there is urban, nature, macro, waterscapes, mountainscapes etc. but in the end all these are broadly generalised under Landscape photography.

There are many famous and well known landscape photographers and one of widely recognised one is Ansel Adams who is well known for his black and white photographs of the Yosemite National Park.

Ansel Adams on nature and photography:

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature.

— Ansel Adams, the Portfolios of Ansel Adams


Many landscape photographers prefer to find a landscape which is completely devoid of any human presence as they seek to capture nature as it should be – unaltered.

I for one prefer nature landscape photography over Urban, where the photographer shows nature in its most basic and purest form. And without any human presence the photographer depends on the light, the ambience, the sky, the water and all these elements together to show a particular environment or mood.

For instance here are photographs by two of my favourite landscape photographers:
The first two are by Lars Van De Goor and the last two by Alexandre Deschaumes




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