9 landscape photography tips to get the most out of summer
posted Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 10:00 AM EST
Summer is right around the corner. For many people, it's a fun and joyous time of year. For landscape photographers who live at mid to high latitudes, summer is not so much fun. Summer means very early sunrises and late sunsets. It's challenging to get up early enough to take advantage of a 4 a.m. sunrise. However, hidden among the impracticalities and frustrations are some amazing photo opportunities.
Photographer Mads Peter Iversen has published a new video offering up nine great tips to turn possible summer frustration into lovely landscape photos. Interestingly, Iversen's first tip is to not rely on the season for your photographic subject. He enjoys shooting buildings, monuments and cityscapes during the summer, in part because it's not necessarily obvious that it's summer. If you'd rather take advantage of what summer has to offer, then his second tip is likely up your alley: include flowers. Spring and summer offer a rapidly changing and beautiful assortment of flowers, and incorporating them into your landscape images is a recipe for success.
Summer is a time of bustling activity, especially in rural areas where farmers grow and then harvest crops. Iversen likes to photograph rural landscapes, which are often full of color, patterns and activity during the hot summer months.
While forests may be a popular subject in the autumn, they are also great photographic subjects during the summer. Iversen makes heavy use of backlighting and especially enjoys photographing forests when the sun is at a 30-degree angle or lower. Depending on where you live, cold nights and warm summer mornings may result in fog, adding a lot of atmosphere to forest scenes.
Iversen's video has many more great tips, including the idea of a landscape photo all-nighter. With late sunsets, beautiful nights and early sunrises, conditions sometimes work out for an overnight photography trifecta. It's an exhausting but fun way to photograph during the summer.
For more videos from Mads Peter Iversen, be sure to visit his YouTube channel. To view more of his photography, visit his website and follow Iversen on Instagram.
(Via Mads Peter Iversen)