Upon arriving at the location, your first instinct may be to start shooting straight away. However, slow down, take a step back and think about what equipment and which settings you need. Many times the scene itself will show you where the best images are. Look at the direction the light is coming from and imagine how this may change as time goes by and the sun continues its journey across the sky. What feature can I include in my photograph? The images I enjoy the most may not necessarily have been the photographs I had gone with the intention of shooting. I often find that my favourite photos are the ones I didn’t plan to take, rather than the ones I set out to capture intentionally.

Experiment and try to capture the mood of the scene.

Movement is not necessarily the first thing we think of when imagining a landscape image, but introducing movement through longer shutter speeds can have a dramatic effect on an image, especially on stormy skies.

Bonus Tip – Leading lines are an excellent way to give an image more depth, holding the viewers’ attention for longer and drawing their gaze to a focal point within the image.

Both early morning and evening light can produce optimal lighting conditions that can have a dramatic effect on your chosen scene. Shooting at golden hour will often produce the most pleasing quality of light which can lead to stunning display of color as the sun sets (or rises).

Golden hour is the period of time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the light produced by the sun is infused with beautiful red, yellow and orange tones. I like to be in position an hour before sunrise and sunset to maximize my shooting window of opportunity.