Do you find you have limited time to head out to do landscape photography? I do, and the times I am able to carve out a few hours, when I get to my chosen location, the light is terrible. And disappointment quickly sets in, because I wanted to create a beautiful image. So now, I’ve changed my approach to landscape photography and focus on looking for a story to tell instead.
I’ve been doing a lot of street photography in recent years, where story is the key ingredient I seek. I’ve found myself looking for a story in all genres of photography, and this is proving particularly useful for landscape photography on dull days.
Chasing The Light
Great light is what excites and drives most landscape photographers, which is why we see so many stunning vistas with dramatic low light on social media and websites. The term "chasing the light" is used all the time. I find I’m seeing the same kind of photos over and over, and they’re becoming—dare I say it—clichéd and boring.
Chasing the light allows us to develop skills to see and communicate beauty. I’ve been asking myself recently, with everyone doing this—often in the pursuit of likes on social media—is this enough?
Chasing The Story
So my approach now is to seek out little stories—interesting scenes that may be more intimate, where lighting is not so important. I’ve found that dull lighting can actually be a rather refreshing change. Of course, if great light presents itself, I’ll embrace it as a nice bonus.
On a recent outing, I gave myself a purpose. A project: to photograph a large granite outcrop, where I had seen a little tree growing out of a crack in it on a previous outing. This was on the edge of a large lake and exposed to very harsh conditions year-round. Yet, despite all the odds stacked against it, this little tree was thriving. I decided to tell its story with a series of photos.
This purposeful approach to my photography was enjoyable. Having a specific intention, I find, makes me work harder to get better compositions. Having one subject, and a few hours to spare, allowed me to explore many options, and I became emotionally connected to my subject as I tried to understand it, which helped greatly. I found I had developed a need to create the feeling I was experiencing by spending time with this little tree, through my photos.
A Revelation
Spending time with the subject in poor light made me realize that beautiful light would make the subject pleasing, but telling a story would make people feel something. A story evokes curiosity and can move people. A story can make people stop and think.
Landscape photographers tend to shoot the same locations over and over, purely because of their beauty. Add beautiful light, and it’s clear why famous honeypot views are photographed over and over. Looking for a story allows us to create photos that stand out from the masses—create something different, even original.
When you chase only light, you narrow your window of opportunity and the time you can spend outside. With story, time of day becomes less relevant. I like that. It’s actually nice not to have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to rush to a location. I can take time having a nice breakfast and spend the entire day outside.
Final Thoughts
On this recent outing, looking for story and not being bothered by the weather conditions, I ended up having one of the most fulfilling landscape photography outings in many years. And I ended up with some of the best photos I believe I’ve ever created. I love the fact that it’s a simple, unassuming view with a story.
A series of images that tell a story can lead to a cohesive body of work and would make a lovely book or exhibit. I believe this is much better than a random collection of pretty pictures.
Most importantly, I find storytelling makes the photography process richer and more fulfilling. I like having a purpose beyond simply capturing aesthetic beauty. As previously mentioned, this mindset has developed from doing street photography.
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Chasing light makes you a good seeker of beauty.
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Chasing story makes you a good author of meaning.
Last of all, it's worth remembering: sometimes the small, simple things make the best subjects.
I find the buzz word of "storytelling" maximally annoying. Haven't found anyone who could actually explain what the alleged story is of any given picture. If anything, you get a description of the image, a visualization of something, but none of that is a "story".
“Storytelling” is just a shorter way of saying that you include two or three elements in a picture in a way that gets the viewer to make imaginary connections between them.
Psychologists call it “gestalt” and it uses our brains love of puzzles and looking for patterns.
The actual story itself isn’t important and the interpretation can vary from person to person.
An obvious storytelling photo would be a shot of divorce papers, a half-empty bottle of whiskey, and a gun.
Its a fun way to figure out what to include or exclude in a photo but it’s definitely not for everyone.
I explain the story of the image in my video.
Good read. I think a lot of times, we all focus too much on getting the technically best photograph. But getting an interesting story is equally, if not more, important in my view.
I do try to capture a story but you're not trying to capture 1000 word story that old saying that a picture tells 1000 words is a kind of a bit of a fable to be honest... Maybe we're trying to capture a vibe or the essence of a place and that conform the story. What did it feel like? What was it like on the day? Was it hot? Was it cold? Was it windy? And maybe that's enough for the story? You can get your head in a bit of a twist around trying to be a storytelling photographer. It's not like you can look at a photo and read it like a novel. They are different genres but what you are trying to do as a photographer or as an artist is captured the essence to feel the vibe. Those type of words are probably better words to use than storytelling and maybe all of those mixed together detail the story that's okay. I did like the videos.
Some very good points. But I think it also comes down to the photograph as well. For example, in typical landscape photography it is less about the story but more about capturing the beauty of the scene or vibe. But in street photography, this concept becomes important. There are stories that lead to certain moments which are captured as photographs. Also in the example in the article, the story of the little tree growing through the cracks is being captured. But indeed it is left to viewer to interpret that story.
sorry to be a stickler, but a little tree growing through the cracks is in no way a "story"...there is no story told in the image. It may evoke viewers to think of one, but that's probably true of any picture and has not changed since the beginning of art...
There's a story there for me, and I don't expect everyone to see what I see and agree.
You've told the story of the tree through the words spoken in your video. How much would the viewer have heard or understood from the photo just by itself? That's where I think the "storytelling" aspect of landscape photography exceeds the practical limitations of your viewer's interaction with the picture. I agree with Nev Clarke that a good photo conveys the essence of the subject, and maybe evokes an emotional response.
But singular emotions such as peace and tranquility, or even fear or anxiety from something like a tornado picture, aren't typically a story solely by themselves. Pictures are more like a few descriptive sentences to describe the characters in a book... something like: "The pretty young girl walked to school in a torn dress and a bruise on her elbow." It tells you what the character looks like, but it's only a starting point from which the author goes on to tell why she looks the way she does. Of course we could all take a wild guess, but stories involve more clues, more scenes, more words, multiple chapters; more of everything beyond just an isolated picture. If the book or movie ends with just a description of the girl, it won't sell many copies.
By the way, I prefer your vertical format... the one on the left of your pair that includes the background trees. I enjoyed the analysis of composition in your video.... especially separating the main subject tree from the trees in the background, and the formation of lines in the foreground rocks. Two really sound principles of composition. I feel though that the horizontal version diminishes the impact of the strong foreground cracks and moss, and with so much extra space for water left and right, sort of dilutes the impact of the story. Ooops... impact of the photo. One more point: flat light is good light for a lot of landscape photography. You can always add subtle color saturation and contrast in post-processing, which is what I think you've done in your picture.
Great input Ed, thanks. I prefer your vertical because it shows context, I prefer my horizontal for the same reason. My story is about the environment, not just the tree. It's down to personal preference really.
At what point does the space in the picture allocated to the environment diminish the impact of the main subject? That's the question I often struggle with.
I prefer the tighter crop of my horizontal picture. I might have preferred just a little more below the tree to where it would have become a square crop, but the vertical image loses some character and definition in the tree... although they are two different trees. The tree in the vertical is bushier, while the one in the horizontal contains more distinctive lines and shapes which attract my eye.
I look at this the same way I do when taking environmental portraits of people vs a regular portrait. What's the story or message I'm trying to communicate? Am I showing the person and their facial characteristics and trying to get bit of their personality to shine, or am I showing the environment in which they work or live, and am I including enough things in the frame to best tell their story?
Placing your subject in the centre of the frame can give it more importance, or make it look stronger. Your wide shot with the tree in the top left corner enhances its vulnerability. And I love how the shadow from the outcrop at the bottom right provides good balance to the composition.