I don't just use clouds in many of my photographs; I actively pursue them for my images. If I hear a storm is a few days out, I'll travel to meet it. I'm not talking about hurricanes—I'll travel away from one of those; but give me an approaching garden-variety Florida storm, and I'll be there.
Somewhere along the line in a pro photographer’s career, or amid an enthusiast’s pursuit of picture making, you achieve a balance between geared up and weighed down when it comes to lens choices. You want versatility, but you also want to be mobile, even comfortable.
Color control of our photographs is at our fingertips. It's there, in the camera, all those choices about how we're going to make the most of color, to modify, intensify, or otherwise change it. We have picture controls, scene modes, special effects, exposure compensation, and white balance just waiting to help us make the most colorful photographs ever, right?
Before I answer the question above, a few words about the kinds of pictures I like to take. Simply, they are pictures that are different—different from what others might be shooting at a particular location, even different from what I might have shot at that location the last time I visited.
When I started in photography my pictures were factual; they fulfilled the “here’s what it looked like” requirement and checked off all the familiar guides: a clearly-defined subject; properly placed leading lines; the rule of thirds obeyed; backgrounds taken into careful consideration. But they were static images, and there was no real communication of what the images were about.
On a clear, blue-sky day in Florida not long ago I was out testing neutral density (ND) filters when it occurred to me that the fact that I do that routinely was an indication of how important filters are to the kind of pictures I like to take.
There are three zoom lenses I consider absolutely essential to provide the versatility that travel photography demands: the 14-24mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm. It's no exaggeration to say I don’t leave home without them, and if travel is in your plans for the upcoming season, those lenses can play a big part in how well you tell the story of your journey.