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Author Topic: Reviews of Landscape Locations  (Read 4696 times)

JohnReid

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Reviews of Landscape Locations
« on: December 02, 2008, 02:21:30 am »

Hi everyone. This is a response to the "what a boring site this has become".

Although I am not a frequent participator in the forum, I check out the main page on a daily basis. I started photography seriously about 4 years ago and this site, more then any other, contributed to my education.

I was sad to see the post claiming that this has become a boring site. I would have to disagree.

I do however think that the site has shifted in focus over the last couple of years. The site seems more focussed on product reviews these days. From a personal perspective, I would love to see more location reviews.

I realize that the American public may be over seeing images and reviews on the American  and Canadian parks, but from someone who doesn't live in America, I thrive off of seeing images and reading stories from the American and Canadian parks.

It was the site's review of Iceland that started my passion for landscape photography. More then the gear reviews, techniques and tutorial articles, the reviews of the remote places around the world fuel my desire to get out and shoot and consequently improve my photography.
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jimhuber

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« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2008, 06:44:31 pm »

I'll second that... less gear, more shooting!

Who can afford new gear now anyway?

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jimhuber

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« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2008, 09:51:00 pm »

Actually... here's a piece of gear I'd like to see discussed in a bit of depth: gloves. They're inexpensive enough that it may still be actionable information in these tight times, and I'm sure Michael knows much more about photographing with gloves on than I.
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DarkPenguin

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« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2008, 10:19:29 pm »

Quote from: JohnReid
It was the site's review of Iceland that started my passion for landscape photography. More then the gear reviews, techniques and tutorial articles, the reviews of the remote places around the world fuel my desire to get out and shoot and consequently improve my photography.
If you're tired of tutorials a couple of resources you might look for are Steve Kossack's Photographing the Great American Landscape series and Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe.

Steve Kossack's are pretty much national park workshop tagalongs and Art Wolfes are more world.

www.stevekossack.com and www.travelstotheedge.com
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Marlyn

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« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2008, 12:06:02 am »

I would also like to see more reviews of locations, and have considered how best to present them,  hard though.  Need something more than "I took this shot, and here is where I was standing".


Gloves:

best place I've found to buy gloves for Photography is a Bike Shop.   Their gloves are either the Fingerless ones, which can be good for just Rain / not very cold or the full length ones, which seem to have good tactile fingertips.

For Cold weather (i.e. Snow), I wear these as Inners, and stick my hands back in larger ski type gloves when not actually shooting.

Regards

Mark.
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JohnReid

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Reviews of Landscape Locations
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2008, 03:15:21 am »

Thanks for commenting on this thread and thanks for the link to the sites that do reviews on travel locations.

A truley useful forum!
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jimhuber

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« Reply #6 on: December 09, 2008, 05:22:37 pm »

On gloves...

I, too, have used bicycle gloves. Racquetball gloves give fantastic feel, too (I loved racquetball when I was younger). But as many times as Michael has commented on them in passing, surely he has more to say on the subject...
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Paul Sumi

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« Reply #7 on: December 09, 2008, 06:18:23 pm »

Quote from: DarkPenguin
If you're tired of tutorials a couple of resources you might look for are Steve Kossack's Photographing the Great American Landscape series and Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe.

Steve Kossack's are pretty much national park workshop tagalongs and Art Wolfes are more world.

www.stevekossack.com and www.travelstotheedge.com

Thanks for the Art Wolfe link, I'll check it out.  

Steve Kossack has 4 DVDs - Death Valley, Yosemite, Canyonlands (Moab, Utah) and Great Smoky Mountains (the most recent).  I've attended a number of his workshops and what you see on the DVD is pretty much what you get on his trips.  Sample clips here:

http://www.stevekossack.com/DVD/index.htm

Paul
« Last Edit: December 09, 2008, 06:59:42 pm by PaulS »
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BernardLanguillier

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« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2008, 07:04:16 pm »

You'll also find some useful information in the "landscape shooting location" section of the forum.

This being said, my personnal policy is to avoid as much as possible this kind of his visibility locations.

There are interesting images to take just about anywhere, and the US National Parks are some of the most overshot locations on earth. Unless you intend to settle there, there is very little chance that you'll be able to come up with images able to compete with what "locals" are able to do knowing that the sky/weather is a key contributor to the interest of those images.

Cheers,
Bernard

Paul Sumi

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« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2008, 07:40:05 pm »

Quote from: BernardLanguillier
There are interesting images to take just about anywhere, and the US National Parks are some of the most overshot locations on earth. Unless you intend to settle there, there is very little chance that you'll be able to come up with images able to compete with what "locals" are able to do knowing that the sky/weather is a key contributor to the interest of those images.

Cheers,
Bernard


There's a lot of truth to this, but I don't think that one should be dissuaded from photographing in iconic locations.

Locals traditionally have two main advantages that others do not: proximity and local knowledge.  These days of the Internet, local knowledge is no longer local -- take a look at the "Landscape Photography Locations" forum here or on Fred Miranda for examples.  

Proximity is definitely another matter.  Nothing beats living close to the location, but information, good planning (and a certain amount of flexibility) can help improve the odds.  And luck also comes into play -- I was in Monument Valley for the first time last May and had terrific photographic conditions.  A local (Utah) photographer friend was there a few weeks earlier and had sand storms.

Paul
« Last Edit: December 10, 2008, 02:10:03 pm by PaulS »
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Lisa Nikodym

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« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2008, 12:03:28 pm »

Another comment on photographing in overphotographed places...

I live a few hours' drive from Yosemite, and visit about once a year.  I find that if you make a minimal effort to get away from the roads, and especially away from the standard popular viewpoints, you can find all sorts of wonderful photos that you haven't seen before.   As you head down trails, the density of people, and density of cameras, drops dramatically.  You don't necessarily need to be a local, you just need to be willing to spend some time wandering in interesting-looking directions away from your car.

Lisa

P.S.  I do agree somewhat with the original poster, that I enjoy seeing articles about locations more than the technical articles, and they seem fewer than they used to be (I may be wrong, but that's my impression).  On the other hand, I've seen good questions here on this forum where someone asks for good locations in Arizona, or suggestions for where to go in Europe, for example.  Maybe you just need to ask some leading questions here, and people will be more than happy to make suggestions and send links to their photos.

« Last Edit: December 10, 2008, 12:07:50 pm by nniko »
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Jay Kaplan

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« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2008, 04:26:12 pm »

I saw a promo on PBS recently and they are going to have a series on the National Parks starting in 2009.
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