Landscape photographers know that to get great photographs, they have to be in the right place at the right time. The challenge, of course, is to know where those places are, and when to get there.

For travel photographers who want to shoot great landscapes, this challenge can loom as large as the landscape itself.

One way to start to meet this challenge is by doing research on your travel destination before you get there. Look at a map and you can learn several pieces of important information such as relative distances and the orientation of the sun.

There’s no substitute for field research, however, and to do this it helps if you have plenty of time. And sometimes even plenty of time isn’t enough.

While recently traveling in the Caucasus of the Former Soviet Union, we had read about an ancient burial ground where the elaborately carved stone crosses were more than 1,000 years old. We had seen photographs of the site, and knew there were no trees or major obstructions.

We timed our journey to the site so that we would arrive just before sunrise, with enough time to set up for the morning light. It was early spring but we figured there would be snow there because of the high elevation (approximately 6,000 feet). And so we prepared by carrying polarizing filters to combat the glare, and by wearing warm clothing so that we could crouch in the snow, if necessary.

But what we had not researched was that the engravings on these ancient stones appear only on one side. And we had not known that these engraved stones are always oriented to face west. The early morning sun shined a beautiful warm glow on the smooth and uninteresting backsides of the stones. We should have visited in late afternoon, instead.

The site was compelling, so we returned the next day. The orange glow of the late-day sun was directly on the fronts of the stones, right where we wanted it, illuminating their intricate carvings. The return trip had paid off.

KEEP GOING BACK
This experience illustrates one of the keys to success in travel landscape photography: you’ve go to keep going back. Only after having seen a place can you learn when you will have the best light for the image you want to make. If you’ve found a spectacular site that you want to capture, visit in the morning, and also visit in the evening.

Try to get there in different seasons, too. Everyone loves to see the popular photographs of the Jefferson Memorial framed with the saturated pink Cherry Blossoms of early spring in Washington DC, and the pale pink and white blossoms that appear late in the season. But images of the same scene in the winter and fall are usually more dramatic. You won’t realize this until you return in the off-season.

Don’t feel that you must be limited by the magic light of early morning and late afternoon, either. On an overcast day, for example, you’ll be able to capture a super-saturated emerald green color in a field that would not be possible under other lighting conditions. Stormy skies and dark clouds can also add great drama to a landscape. Stormy skies present an opportunity to get stunning images.

When arriving at a scene for the first time, it’s helpful to restrain yourself from the urge to immediately start shooting. Instead, take a walk around and see how the light changes from different perspectives. Visualize different compositions, including different foreground and background elements.

On your second or third visit to the same site, you’ll also have a better understanding of where you would like to set up, and of what scene you would like to photograph. This means that you may not need to spend as much time performing another of the keys to great photography: wandering around. If you want to be in the right place, you will have to let yourself wander. Good landscape photographers are good wanderers.

If you arrive at your destination immediately before sunset, you’ll have rush taking your photographs. This will be warranted, because the light, after all, is changing quickly. Don’t let this happen to you. Get there early so that when the lighting is right, you’ll be ready to take creative advantage of it to make a compelling image.

ENVISION THE LANDSCAPE
It’s easy to think of a landscape as a scene that simply appears before you. Research the location, get there at the right time, and you get a great image, right?

If this is all you do, then what you may get is likely to be the same image that countless travelers before you have captured, the same image that keeps popping up on post cards and posters.

The challenge is to shoot the familiar scene in an unfamiliar way. When photographing the urban landscape of a central plaza, consider shooting into the late day or early morning sun so that the people in your photograph appear as silhouettes. If you have too much sun, use it to your advantage by shooting partly into it. The refraction of the light on a foreground subject will give added interest to the image.

When capturing an image of the landscape, be creative with your choice of lens, as well. Wide-angle images are fine for landscapes with strong features, and interesting foregrounds or textured clouds. A wide-angle image will show large angles of view, so make sure it has something there to grab your attention. A variegated outcropping of rocks might a dramatic touch. A field of flowers, or even a single flower, might provide an element of visual interest. The key is to take the time to carefully examine what is in, and what is not in, the photograph.

Longer lenses are often appropriate for landscapes, too, and will help compress the elements of the image so that the many objects within the frame appear to be close together. Including people in landscape images is an effective way of giving a sense of scale. A shepherd at the base of a mountain, for example, may also provide added interest that makes the image of the mountain more dynamic.

The forest landscape can present tremendous challenges because of the dense trees and low light. Experiment with perspectives that are uncommon—such as looking straight up along the trunks of trees—and with the sun in front of, instead of directly behind, the camera.

Include graphic design elements that will lead the eye to the subject of the image. This might be a path or a sidewalk that meanders up to the subject that is the dominant part of the image, or the line of the crest of a hill that leads to a solitary tree in a field. The viewer may not realize why, but an image with a graphic element carries the eye into the photograph will be more pleasing to look at.

It may also look more pleasing to look at an image where the subject is not bull’s eye center. Put the subject off to the side to give it a more comfortable repose in the frame. The rule of thirds, in which, for example, the sky occupies one third or two thirds of an image, or a tree in a field is located along one of the imaginary lines that divides the image into thirds, is nevertheless a rule we love to break. Sometimes, bulls-eye center really is just the best place for the subject.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT
Lugging around all your gear in a heavy camera bag can quickly get tiresome. The addition of a tripod can be burdensome enough that you’ll be discouraged from doing all that wandering that is so important. Therefore, it is important to shed some of your equipment. It is perhaps even more important to accept the reality that your bulky tripod is not going to be part of the equipment that you can shed. Aside from the lenses that you’ll need—a wide angle and a short telephoto are two key lenses—a tripod will be your most valuable tool in the field.

A tripod will permit you to have the technical advantage of using slower films (or a low ISO for digital cameras) and smaller apertures. Slow-speed films are important to landscape photographers because of the fine grain of the film. Fine grain allows larger enlargements. Small apertures are desirable because they permit greater depth of field. But the combination of slow film and small apertures means long shutter speeds. And if the shutter is going to be open for more than 1/100 of one second, you’ll get a much sharper image with a sturdy tripod.

If you use a fast shutter speed to capture a fast-moving stream or waterfall, you’ll freeze the water in time. But a slower shutter will help emphasize the movement of the water. For this, a tripod is essential. If it’s too sunny for a slow shutter speed, even when the aperture of the lens is stopped down as small as possible, consider using slower film. A neutral density filter will also permit you to leave the shutter open for a longer time, without having any effect on the color or exposure of the image.

Using a tripod for landscapes is important for another reason. The tripod will force you to slow down, to carefully frame each image, and this will give you the time to actually notice small details of what is in the frame. Watch for distracting poles and wires, a small candy wrapper in the foreground, or other items that you don’t want in your image.

When we returned to photograph those ancient stone crosses so that we could capture them in the best light, we had the advantage of knowing exactly where to go, and when to get there. We knew what gear we would need, and we knew we needed to dress warmly so that we could comfortably stay out in the cold and the snow. We also knew that we would be photographing the stones in a field of pristine snow, unblemished by footprints.

When we returned the next day, however, on a late Sunday afternoon, the snow had been trampled. A tour had been there earlier that day. Sometimes, it seems, landscape photographers just have no good alternative to getting it right the first time and saving their wanderings for someplace else.