I’ve had a camera in my hand ever since I was allowed to try my dad’s point-and-shoot as a teen. After getting my own camera, I quickly learned the basics, but never progressed much after that. A few years ago, however, I discovered the wealth of knowledge that’s on YouTube. I’m probably easily influenced, but this really sparked my motivation, and even today my motivation keep increasing.
My love in photography has always been landscapes. Being interested in hiking, mountain biking and skiing means I also enjoy the outdoor lifestyle side of photography. This year I’m hoping to learn how to slow down. I’m easily exited when the conditions are good, and probably run around like a maniac trying to capture it all.
I’m happy to join the NPN community and looking forward to learn more from you guys!
The photo below is my rebellion against wide-angle scenes with everything in focus. I’m exaggerating, nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to explore shallow dof to better understand how I could use it in landscape photography, if at all. I remember setting my alarm clock for 3 am to reach this ridge before sunrise at 4 am. Felt ridiculously early, but we camped just 30 minutes away. As the sun rose I remember seeing cottongrass catching the light creating this glow around it. For me it represents the calm atmosphere I felt that morning.
Welcome, Julie! Glad to have you join the group. You can learn a lot from so many talented, experienced, and like-minded photographers. Looking forward to seeing more images.
I personally love this image, and I think out-of-focus elements can absolutely work when it’s done with intent, which you have achieved. It gives me the sense of sitting there amongst the flowers in this incredible landscape. Keep up the creative work. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your images and would encourage you to participate on other member’s images as well!
Welcome to NPN! Great to have you here and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on “rebelling” against the status quo (my words of course…) But kudos for stepping outside the box - Your image is a fantastic example of doing just that. I too love the image. In fact, a great example of one of my own personal axioms or guidelines and it goes like this: If you’re going to include something, include it on purpose. In other words, the oof grasses up front were not accidentally included because you weren’t paying attention - but you purposefully included them and using the shallow depth of field and I think that was a wonderful success!
Looks like we may be learning from you! Welcome aboard!
Thanks @David_Kingham! My conclusion after exploring out-of-focus elements is that it can work very well, but probably only suited 1 time out of 10. Even so, it was a fun experiment and I learned a lot. Hopefully I can go back one day and try again. I believe you can make beautiful photos even in the most boring conditions. It’s just harder.
Thanks @Lon_Overacker! Trying to position the grasses up front was difficult because the foreground was very messy, even at F1.4. I would love to go back one day and try again. This time with a bit more patience, exposure bracketing, and a tripod.
Definitely agreeing on your personal guideline. I always try to think about the purpose of each element in a scene. If it doesn’t add to it, then try to simplify it. I want to get better at this in the field because right now I’m thinking about this more during editing and forgetting it in the field. Love to get things better in camera.
And you’ve touched on another one! “If it’s not adding to the scene, then it must be taking away…” I think I learned that from a Camera Club judge many moons ago. But this is what you’re saying - if the element is not adding positively to the scene - then either simplify it - or get rid of it.
You also raise an excellent point for all of us to remember - it’s one thing to work on this during processing… but even better if we concentrate on these things when we’re actually making images in the field! Great point!
Hi Julie,
Welcome to NPN! What a nice introduction and first image.
You live in a beautiful country. That makes sense to deal intensively with landscape photography.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work. And I hope you enjoy this community as much as I do.
Thanks @Jens_Ober! Lots to see here in Norway, but I have yet to visit Lofoten and the rest of northern Norway. I’m sure I’m going to enjoy this community.
Welcome to NPN, Julie. Glad to see more members from the Nordic countries! This is a great community to grow and evolve as photographer both getting and giving comments. A great image, like it a lot and the OOF FG works very well (but I would have cropped just a tad at the bottom).
Hi and welcome, Julie - glad you found us. Taking chances with photographs is always interesting and I like that you did it and, lo and behold, it pretty much works. I hope you feel like you’ve found your tribe and that we see more of your photos and hear what you have to say about others’ work, too.
I feel certain you’ll enjoy it here.
There’s lot’s of very nice folks here with a ton of experience in all aspects of photography and we’re all eager to help.
Wonderful first post!
You certainly have a good eye for composition, to get the composition right before actually being fully awake is saying a lot
I’m curious, did you feel like going back to camp and climbing back into your sleeping bag?
I probably would have, but that’s just me.
Thanks @Merv! I’d love to learn from all you guys. As for getting up for sunrise, it was very hard to leave my sleeping bag, but once we were up and hiking it was fine. It helped with amazing views and a nice sunrise. We did get a couple of hours of sleep once we were back in the tent, but I can’t say I very energetic.
Wonderful. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.