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On the face of it, shooting landscapes should be easy. Landscape doesn’t run away when you approach, or start pulling silly faces: it just sits there and waits to be photographed. You don’t need expensive specialised gear either: an ordinary camera and an ordinary lens will do fine.

However, shooting landscapes well turns out to be less easy. There are a number of reasons for this. Some of them are technical, but a lot of technically competent pictures still don’t really get the message across. Indeed, in their obsessive pursuit of technical excellence some people seem to forget what the picture is actually about.

It is about the place, but places change their face. It’s also about time and light, weather and season. Returning to the same place time and again, to photograph it in different moods, can be immensely rewarding.

Seeing the landscape

Landscapes are big and complex. When you’re actively involved with landscape, you see much more of this richness than you can from a car window or TV screen. Outdoor activity brings you into close contact with the landscape and makes you much more aware of its detail and texture. A kayaker will be very aware of the way a river flows, of eddies and stoppers and calmer pools. A climber will be very focused on the fine detail of rock, its cracks and holds, the frictional qualities of its texture. A walker or a cyclist will be highly aware of gradients and path or track surfaces.