Outdoor Photography How To

Chuck Berry was right. “It goes to show you never can tell,” he wrote, and sang, and that phrase is as appropriate a way to begin this column as any I can think of. I certainly never can tell which photo will please the client, fulfill the assignment, or sell well through my stock agencies; in other words, which one will succeed in the marketplace.

Chris Perea is an acclaimed Arizona-based pro known for stunning images of the American Southwest. In the tutorial below he reveals an important secret to his success, which he says is “the one crucial concept every landscape photography should know.”

Experienced landscape photo0graphs know that their job isn't completed in the field, because thoughtful processing is essential for spectacular and realistic results. This task requires using the proper tools in the correct order, but there's another key consideration that is frequently overlooked.

We love outdoor photography but we like it even better when there’s some element of the “extreme” involved. Yes, extreme is tough to define but for this assignment we were looking for images of dizzying mountaintops shot from harrowing angles, exploding volcanoes, dangling ice climbers, kayakers barreling through rapids, or stunning displays of weather. We didn’t get all of those things but we did get some amazing images from Shutterbug readers. Check out our favorite 10 outdoor images that made us see the awesomeness and danger of nature in the extreme.

Beautiful lighting, in many ways, is what photography is all about. And as our readers proved with this month’s submissions, if you want great lighting, all you need to do is look outside your window. While it’s not entirely surprising, our 10 favorite photos from this month’s assignment are all bathed in natural light. The results are simply radiant.

Sooner or later all of us hit the doldrums and run out of fresh ideas and inspiration. The quick tutorial below will pay big dividends the next time your imagination runs dry.

Sooner or later all photographers hit the doldrums, and completely run out of fresh ideas. The next time that happens to you, try shooting abstract images using the tips and tricks you’ll learn in the tutorial below.