Outdoor Photography How To

Chuck Berry was right. “It goes to show you never can tell,” he wrote, and sang, and that phrase is as appropriate a way to begin this column as any I can think of. I certainly never can tell which photo will please the client, fulfill the assignment, or sell well through my stock agencies; in other words, which one will succeed in the marketplace.

Chris Perea is an acclaimed Arizona-based pro known for stunning images of the American Southwest. In the tutorial below he reveals an important secret to his success, which he says is “the one crucial concept every landscape photography should know.”

Here are some tips for making the most of the fall color change, including five fun filters (the physical, screw-in kind). Scientifically, the leaves of deciduous trees lose their chlorophyll and reveal the reds, oranges and yellows that were hiding beneath the green. For me it’s like a kindergarten kid getting their first box of 64-color Crayolas—so many new colors and so little time.

This assignment was simple but it was also highly competitive. Yes, we received many lovely landscape photos in our Picture This! gallery on Shutterbug.com, but we were looking for something extra special. And we got it, with these 10 images from readers offering incredible and unique vistas.

Anyone who has walked the streets with a camera (or a smartphone) has witnessed scenes of everyday life that seem too good to pass up for a photograph. But how often do you stop and actually capture them? That’s the trick to great street photography: you’ve got to be ready and you need to have no fear of shooting candid images of people on the street, most times without their permission. But there’s another type of street shooting that can be a little less stressful and that’s urban landscape photography. For this assignment, we asked you to think of your town or city as an urbanized Grand Canyon and to look for unique angles and great lighting to capture the architecture and setting.

It happens to the best of us: Sooner or later we all run out of fresh ideas and inspiration and fall into a rut. So how do you escape the doldrums and get the get the creative juices flowing once again?

I think I speak for nearly every photographer when I say going to a new location excites me, especially if it is one I have dreamed about for years. We all dream of these once-in-a-lifetime photo adventures. But the truth is for most photographers, the majority of our shooting is actually done in locations that are closer to home and allow us to return more regularly.