Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode 37 of the Photography Explained Podcast. In this episode, what is landscape photography?
I’m your host Rick and each week I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help you and me with our photography. And no more.
Okay, this is Episode 37. And I still can’t get the intro right and I still can’t remember it. I still have to read it off the screen. I will get there.
Excuse the slightly throaty voice this morning – came out of nowhere. Don’t know where that’s come from as I’ve not been anywhere or been in contact with anybody.
Anyway, who am I to talk about this stuff? Well, I’m a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience which I share with you on my podcast.
What is landscape photography?
Here is my answer. This is the written-down bit.
Landscape photography is the art of capturing all aspects of the environment with a camera. Landscape photography can capture a wide range of subjects from wide open spaces to small details within the environment. Landscape photography can also capture both natural and manmade forms, and their interrelationships, impacts, and tensions. Landscape photography could be called outdoor photography. And some people call it nature photography.
Okay, so that’s my definition of landscape photography. Like I say it’s also called outdoor photography. And in some circles, it’s actually called nature photography. So take your pick, does it really matter? It doesn’t does it?
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
What matters is the photos that we take.
Okay, landscape photography, this is what I love to do, after architectural, construction, industrial photography and all that other good stuff. This is along with travel photography.
1 What is landscape photography used for?
Well, if you think about it, any photo of anything outdoors, anywhere, on any publication, book, magazine, website, obviously more websites now they’re in, social media blah, blah, blah.
It’s used anywhere and everywhere.
Any photo that you’ve seen anywhere of the outdoors is landscape photography. So that gives it a huge, huge market, which is the good and the bad thing.
Stock Photography
Landscape photography is also used in stock photography. This is where you submit photos to stock agencies, and they sell them to buyers who want photos. It used to be a big thing, stock photography. I’ve made about 12 pounds from it ever. However, over the years I’ve not really got into it that much because I probably embarked on stock photography right as the market was dipping.
2 Why do I love landscape photography?
Well, it’s this is how I got into photography. It was the first thing that I did. And it’s gotten me out and about to so many places that I never would have seen. And I absolutely love doing this. I’m a real outdoorsy kind of chap, I love taking photos – so I put the two together.
And yeah, another thing I’ve written here is that it is the ultimate freedom, physically and artistically. You can go out wherever you want, whenever you want, with whatever you’ve got (subject to current restrictions of course), and take whatever photos you want.
It’s so liberating.
If you’re doing lots of work for clients like me, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love doing it, I genuinely love doing work for clients, but I’m under rules and constraints. Landscape photography for me is freedom. And that’s why I love it. And once you got all the gear doesn’t cost you anything. You can take 100 photos, you can take 1000 photos, and it costs no more (assuming you are using a digital camera that is).
Okay, moving on
Dying for a sip of coffee but that would be awfully rude during the podcast recording. I’m recording this one in the morning which might be why I am a bit throaty.
3 Who do I take photos for?
Myself.
I take the photos that I want to, and I put them on my website. I use them to promote my skills as a photographer. And I sell photos every now and then. These are mainly for other people’s websites. It’s not a big money-making thing.
It’s what I enjoy doing though – if I could make a living from landscape photography I’d be very, very happy.
4 Can you make a living from landscape photography?
If I can make a living from landscape photography I’d be absolutely delighted. You can make a living from landscape photography, there are people who make a living from landscape photography.
But I would suggest that they are few and far between.
The main reason is, it’s such a broad subject, but anybody can do it. And it’s very, very competitive. You can get great landscape photos with a phone these days, which is, which is a shame, even though I do it myself. So yeah, I think I said this earlier, I sell on average, one photo a year. Having said that, it’s not really a market I’m actively working in. So that’s not that representative.
5 Do you need specialist knowledge?
No. Anyone can do this. That’s the beauty of it. But knowledge will help, knowledge of what I hear you asking? (I’m still waiting for the questions to start rolling in).
- Photographic technique
- Image capture
- Processing
Also knowledge of the outdoors and outdoor locations – let’s not forget that. There’s no point going out there with the best photography gear in the world and getting to where you want to get and not having the right shoes so you can’t cross that muddy path/ stream/ river or what have you.
And you need to do some work on where you’re going. Okay, and that’s part of the problem. Anybody can do this.
6 Do you need specialist gear?
Nope. anyone can do this.
If you’re doing photos for yourself it is not essential. As I mentioned in the last episode, if you’re a wedding photographer, you need a spare everything. Obviously, it’s good to have spares. But if you haven’t, not a biggie, you probably got a phone anyway.
Specialist gear would maybe extend more to clothing. Make sure that you protect yourself from the elements so that it’s not a cold, wet, miserable experience for you.
Yes, I’m in England.
That’s why I’m saying all these things. If you’re in California, you might just need to have a sun hat as your protection and some SPF 50. If only one day soon, we’ll have that weather here.
The other specialist gear you will need is a camera bag. A good one. I use a backpack – a Peak Design Everyday Backpack – no I’m not being paid to say that.
7 How do you process landscape photos?
Freedom, creativity, how you want to. And I love doing this. Because there’s no right or wrong answer – depends on what you want to do the photos, obviously. But what I tend to do is to do a technically correct photo first, make a virtual copy in Lightroom, and then go crazy and do whatever I want.
And it’s great fun.
8 How do I start as a landscape photographer?
Nice and easy. Get out there and take photos. But I will say this, try to take photos of different things. Don’t go to the same place that everybody else goes and take the same photo. Having said that, nothing wrong with that and having those in the bag (computer).
But once you’ve got a headline shot find different views of the same thing. Very, very important to make you stand out.
Also, share them everywhere – get yourself known. I guess in this decade that means social media doesn’t it? Not a big fan as you might have gathered.
9 Do I need to be qualified?
Or do you need to be qualified? This is the one I always struggle with.
No, you don’t
10 A word from me about my landscape photography.
As I said before, I started out in landscape photography over 30 years ago, quite a bit over 30 years. This is the thing I love doing when I am not working.
I also love travel photography.
Where does travel photography end and landscape photography start? I don’t really care. I love taking sunrise photos on holiday. I love taking photos in my local woods and everything in between. Shameless plug here for my website
I don’t often do shameless plugs, but I will do one for my own website. Rick McEvoy Photography there’ll be a link in the show notes. Are the transcript will link to a blog post 12 Landscape Photography Photos of England That I Love. There are only 12 photos, so won’t take too long. Have a quick look, and let me know what you think.
Quick recap.
Landscape photography is the art of photographing the great outdoors. I love landscape photography. That was my recap.
What do I want you to do?
1 Do this one thing.
Go out and take some landscape photos (subject to current restrictions of course).
2 Let me know how you got on
Message me on Twitter @rickphoto. Maybe share a photo there.
3 Subscribe to my podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode. This helps me
4 Rate and review my podcast
If you enjoyed this episode, this also helps me
5 Tell someone you know about my podcast.
This also helps me, and any help will be greatly appreciated.
Next episode
And then I’m back to a genre that I know nothing about.
Thank you
Thank you for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. Check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography where you can find out all about me and my architectural and construction photography work, as well as my blog where you can learn lots about photography.
Obviously, there’s also my landscape photography work which is on my website. Okay, I’ve gone over time a bit here, but I’ll live with that.
Photography Explained Podcast website
Yeah, one more thing I want to say check out my Photography Explained Podcast website, which is nearly finished, where you can find out how to ask me a question, find a list of episodes and also things I’m going to explain in future episodes. Like I say it’s nearly finished, and it’s good stuff. So check it out.
Nearly there
This episode was brought to you very much by the power of caffeine, which I’ll be having in about 20 seconds.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I’ll see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
