Start Taking Beautiful Nature Photos Today
February 17th, 2009 by Dan BodensteinThe saying goes that every picture tells a story. When you have a nature image in your viewfinder and before you press the shutter button, think about what you want the picture to say. The most beautiful nature photos are the ones that truly tell a story. The most important thing to remember when taking nature photos is to keep it simple. This is a case where less is always more. Find your subject and focus on it and make it the theme of your pictures. If you are at a lake and want to capture some great nature shots, don’t try to include the ducks, the wildflowers, the grassy lawn and your two year old feeding the ducks. Instead, focus on one of these as your main subject and one of two of the others as your background. Before you press the shutter button, adjust the camera at different angles, either a little to the right or left or up and down, and you may find a composition that you like more than your original one.
Little Blue Heron
Getting great nature shots requires a lot of time and patience. You may have to watch a squirrel for 15 minutes to be able to get the best image of him climbing a tree to reach the acorns. Or, you might have to patiently wait for the butterfly to land on a beautiful flower. So, take a deep breath, relax and be patient and you will get some excellent shots of nature.
When you are composing nature photos, it is important to fill the image in the frame. Look through the viewfinder and make sure that your entire image is filled with nature’s beauty. You will want to avoid leaving large blank spaces of nothing. Using zoom lenses will enhance your nature photos as well. These lenses give you the opportunity to get up close and personal with subject even if you are far away. You will want your main subject to be very visible in the frame.
Most people tend to hold their cameras in a horizontal position for every photo no matter what subject they are shooting. However, there are many aspects of nature that photograph in a much more eye appealing way when taken from a vertical perspective. For example, trees, waterfalls, and mountains stand out when photographed using a vertical angle. Single flowers will also look beautiful when the image is in a vertical position in the photo. Use nature’s lines to help frame your photos. A line of trees, a winding river, and the border between the ocean and sky make excellent borders and frames for your nature photos.
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