A Guide To Great Landscape Photography

Great landscape photography is everywhere. Let's face it, when you're away on vacation, what captures your eye? Yup, it's the view. That's why you go to the destinations you choose.

So you take a camera, run off a few shots and take the pictures home to show everybody how fabulous the place was and...you're disappointed with the results. Your photos don't really convey a "sense" of where you were.

If that sounds like you then join the club. I too was that soldier! Like me, you envied the folks who seem to take perfect photographs every time. Here's your chance to do exactly the same! Take advantage NOW of your opportunity to learn from somebody who's 'been there, done that' for over 20 years!

Osoyoos in Canada. A panoramic image composed of three stitched images. Gary Nugent

Coming up with great landscape photography is not an accident. There are some basics you need to master but it's all pretty simple stuff. There's a lot of really neat and helpful things I've learned throughout my time with a camera and I'm going to pass them on to you.

you'll find many dedicated web pages on the website that cover a lot of things from very simple tips on improving your photographs to discussions of exposure and photo composition to the more advanced things like how to make your camera do what you want it to and not what it thinks it should do and whether you should switch to using a digital camera.

If you already have a digital camera, then one of the best things you can do is practice, practice, practice. All those photos you take won't cost you a penny. If you don't like what you see, just delete the photos and start over. If your camera uses film, you should still practice, practice, practice but every photo you take will incur film development and printing costs. That can be a good thing as it will focus you into taking great photos since, ultimately, that'll save you money.

Something else you need to do, no matter what camera you have, is to try out every function, button and knob on the thing at least once. Don't just read the manual. Try things out so you get a more intuitive feel for what that function does. It's better to do this before heading away on holiday rather than mucking up a potentially great shot while playing with the camera on location.

How to take great landscape photography is a vibrant, dynamic subject and there'll always be something to talk about. This site is going to continually evolve to meet your needs (and mine). It's a way for me to catalog what I've learned and (hopefully) pass that on to you.

One thing I really hope will become a major highlight of my Great Landscape Photography website will be the opportunity for you to ask questions. I've set up a feedback page where readers can fill in and ask questions. If I don't know the answers, I'll know where to find them. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have.

As questions are asked and answered, a database of FAQ's (or Frequently Asked Questions) will be built up which will form an additional resource for the website.

People who send in rude comments will be summarily evicted from my database! Everything else is welcome!