Hi everyone! I’m Julie from Norway

Hi Julie and welcome to NPN. I’m quite new here too (a week or so) but can already tell that you’re going to love the open and positive atmosphere here.

Your introduction, wonderful photo and its story really struck a chord in me. I too used to run around “too much” but when I finally managed to slow down, I got too slow, getting stuck to my tripod that didn’t seem to have a sense of exploration. After many years, I finally managed to break that mold with a “scout handheld first, then bring out the tripod” approach. Often completely ditching the tripod has also been very creatively liberating (loving to shoot long exposures, it really helps to have kick-ass stabilisation though :wink:).

I also really appreciate your rebellious nature and believe that it can only serve you, your creativity and hopefully the whole global landscape photography community well. The way I see it, landscape photography, perhaps more than any other genre, needs ideas “outside the box” and photographers that are willing to go against the seemingly endless stream of beautiful but “inside the box” and sometimes copy-cat feeling photos.

You also remind me of the days when I loved to use shallow DOF in my landscapes, telling me that perhaps it’s time start bringing those prime lenses again, to revisit that approach again, from time to time…? :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers neighbour,
Stéphane (from Sweden)

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Hi Julie! Nice to meet you. It beautiful how you captured the sun in the cotton grass. It’s like stars in the ground

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Hey @StéphaneJean and thanks for the warm welcome! I think it’s good to walk around and explore the different compositions before you choose one or two you want to “perfect”. I’ll definitely try to use my tripod more often, and not worry too much about capturing it all.

I’ve often heard that shallow DOF is a typical beginner obsession, and while it’s definitely overused, I don’t think it should be completely ignored. It can at least be used to frame subjects or create depth in the photo. I’ve also experimented with exposing for the highlights in high contrast scenes like I’ve seen many street photographers do. It’s a fun to pull inspiration from other genres and see if it can be used for landscapes. At least online I often see people being recommended only wide-angles for landscapes, or shooting only at F8 or higher to get everything in focus. Personally, I find it demotivating to be constrained. I like to experiment, and yes, most times I fail, but I learn a lot from it.

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Thanks @Cameron_Wilcox!

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Couldn’t agree more, @Julie_Gunstensen. While shallow DOF may be overused in some genres, landscape photography definitely isn’t one of them. Do it with good taste, purpose and balance in the way you describe it, and the results will be beautiful and with a good chance of being unique and personal too. Regarding wide angle lenses being the only kind of lends for landscapes, that’s even more narrow minded, so please don’t listen to such voices. Varying your focal length is a good way of telling a compelling story and freeing your vision.

As long as you have an open mind, challenging the conventions from time to time will only take you places other’s are too afraid to visit. :wink:

And exposing for the highlights (also called ETTR (Exposingt To The Right) is an excellent way of maximizing the potential image quality of your camera and it’s often used for landscapes too and it’s the only way I shoot. You’ll sometimes need to tweak your RAW files more than usual in post, but what does that matter as you’ll need to to edit your RAW files anyway. :slightly_smiling_face:

It definitely sounds like you have a strong and sensible mind which will serve you well on your journey as an artist and I’m looking forward to seeing where takes you.