Outdoor Photography How To

We’ve all captured photos that would be truly outstanding, other than the fact that colors are way off. That’s sort of like saying you’d be a great dancer if you didn’t have bad legs.

One of the banes of outdoor portraiture is that you’re always at the mercy of prevailing lighting and weather conditions. Equally challenging is the fact that, whether you’re shooting images for a client or photographing a model for your portfolio, you don’t always get to choose the time and location of a session.

Summer is a great time to photograph birds, especially during these days of social distancing, and the quick video below is designed to help everyone improve their results. But rather than discussing gear, focusing methods, or image-editing techniques, the topic of this tutorial is a more basic one: Composition.

Photographing birds can be challenging for inexperienced shooters, whether the subjects are stationery or in flight. There are focusing and exposure details to sort out, and composition can also be tough.

Drones are becoming increasingly popular among photographers because they enable us to capture images from a perspective not typically possible otherwise. We say “typically” because Polish photographer Kacper Kowalski is what you might call a “human drone” who shoots amazing images while paragliding.

Anyone who had the good fortune of traveling to New Zealand knows that it’s a spectacular place to photograph, with dramatic mountains, a stunning coastline, and beautiful landscapes in between. Locals Jo Scott and Jake Scott-Gardner spent last winter capturing some astonishing images of the night sky, as you can see below.

It's back—our annual collection of ideas to keep you and your camera happily occupied for hours.

1. Don't Go Anywhere Without It!
It's a photographic truism that you can't get the picture if you don't have a camera. How many times have you missed out on a great shot—or at least, a nice record of something...