Outdoor Photography How To

Every winter something enchanting happens on the Island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan when temperatures fall well below freezing. The Tokachi River freezes over, and what was once crystal clear water breaks up into diamond-like fragments of ice that wash ashore in a spectacle locals refer to as “jewelry ice.”

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.

Tony Sweet says that smartphone photography “isn’t officially part of the show” at his photography workshops, but the subject does come up with increasing frequency. “They’ll do their big camera work first,” Sweet says of the students, “then they’ll pull out the phones and shoot a few things, discuss among themselves, and ask me some questions.”

Andrew Miller is an acclaimed adventure photographer who has traveled the world with his snowboard, looking for spectacular mountains to climb, photograph and descend on his board. The stunning images you see here are from his recent trip to Alaska.

Heading home on New Year’s Day after dropping off a family friend at the bus station, Peter Baumgarten runs into a blinding snowstorm. “Whiteout conditions,” he says, “almost impossible to see 10 feet in front of me, trying to make out car tracks to follow, but they’re completely covered.” After about 20 minutes of anxious struggle through blinding snow, he’s had enough, and he pulls over near a little park in the small town he and his wife, Christianna, are trying to drive through. With a sigh of relief, he lets the stress dissipate.

Sometimes less is more as you can see in these striking graphic images from Dutch architectural photographer Theo Peekstok. Working mostly in black-and-white, Peekstok's minimalist style reduces his scenes to their key elements and nothing more.

James Zwadlo is a London-based photographer/graphic designer/director who combines his unique vision to create an unexpected point of view with his infrared photography