Brilliant nature photos are the perfect way to showcase your artistic and authentic self. Over many years of effort and research I’ve discovered just how significantly creative photography impacts our most unique pictures.

Making brilliant nature photos requires vision, creativity and a willingness to experiment. You’ll often need to endure inclement weather and embrace beauty, in what many might consider banal subject matter, in your quest for truly unique pictures.

That’s very much the case with ethereal nature photos, like the one above, which I made at the Barkers Creek Reservoir near Harcourt while running a photography workshop in Central Victoria.

If I was to define this particular nature photo I’d say it was an abstract photograph that explores the following:

• Mystery

• Shape

• Silhouette

• Movement

Nature Photos: Unique Pictures Of The Landscape

While a pleasant enough place, Barkers Creek Reservoir is not particularly remarkable, though it does lend itself to opportunities for interesting and, potentially, unique pictures at the edges of the day.

After sunset the warm light lingered and reflected, from beneath the horizon, up into the clouds and back down onto the water. This phenomena is sometimes referred to as the afterglow, and it can occur up to about 45 minutes after sunset.

While the warm, soft quality of the light was beautiful to behold, the intensity of the light was actually quite weak and, as low light levels often require a slow shutter speed, the image had to be made with my camera securely fixed to a tripod.

The advantage of a really slow shutter speed, in this case 10 seconds, is that it enabled me to produce a lovely glowing fluidity in the water, which I find to be particularly compelling in nature photos.

I consider it to be an evocative image that, due to it’s sepia-like color, is imbued with a sense of nostalgia and timelessness.

Actually, if you’re interested in the concept of timelessness in landscape photography, I’d encourage you to take a look at the post I wrote titled Lovely Long Exposures: How To Make Timeless Landscape Photos

Fallen tree branches, and the shadows they cast, are not an uncommon sight on lakes and reservoirs. However, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s the angle and color of the light, and the way the photo was made, that makes it such a unique picture.

Nature Photos and The Problem with Auto ISO

Actually, this image is a good example of where Auto ISO can be problematic when creating nature photos.

Under normal circumstances the low levels of illumination would prompt the camera to automatically increase the ISO to arrive at a shutter speed that might produce a sharp photo, handheld, without the aid of a tripod.

But doing that would completely spoil the unique nature of the image.

I would have produced a photo where the water was sharp and, as a consequence, much of the mystery and uniqueness of the picture would have been lost.

As it is the tripod mounted camera allowed me to photograph with a slow shutter speed, so I could render the water blurred, while keeping the partly submerged tree branches sharply defined.

I think that duality between movement and sharpness is important to the success of this image.

Creating Unique Pictures Under Difficult Conditions

Despite the low levels of light the scene was actually quite high in contrast. The resulting loss of subtle highlight and shadow details in a high contrast scene can be problematic for the landscape photographer wanting to create really beautiful nature photos.

However, in this case, the distribution of light and dark tones throughout the scene proved beneficial as it enhanced the sense of three dimensional space within the image.

Without the high levels of contrast in the scene the image would have looked quite flat. But, as you can see, it’s easy for the eye to move through the image as it hops from one branch to the other, almost like you were making your own way across the water.

I also feel that the dark shapes provided by the tree branches and their reflections adds to the prevailing sense of mystery and melancholy in the image.

I do hope you enjoy the quiet beauty within this picture. While not a spectacular location, the transient and transformational nature of the light produced a quite special opportunity for workshop participants to create really blissful nature photos.

All agreed it was a great way to end a fun and informative day.

As this image demonstrates, creating truly unique pictures is based around the following criteria:

• Be there when the light’s right.

• Embrace beauty, even in what many would consider banal subject matter, in your quest to create unique pictures.

• Work hard to produce visually striking compositions in your own nature photos.

• Be prepared to experiment by taking control of the shutter speed, aperture and ISO to create the image you perceive in your mind’s eye.

Unique Pictures and the perception of Beauty

It’s said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That well known saying points to the fact that the perception of beauty belongs with the individual. While I can accept the premise, I’d argue that, nonetheless, there’s also a universal beauty to which we’re all able to connect and appreciate.

With the concept of universal beauty in mind, perhaps it’s time to consider where we are most likely to create beautiful nature photos in the landscape.

I love photographing exotic locations as much as the next person. But, like most folks, I haven’t always had the means to get to such places.

The solution is simple:

• Seek the exotic in the everyday

• Look for beauty in the banal

• Embrace the magic in your own neighborhood

Ultimately, your ability to create unique pictures is going to be dependant upon the way you perceive the world around you.

However, what you perceive as beauty may differ from more commonly accepted views on the subject.

Your mission then, should you choose to accept it, is to create images that celebrate beauty in subjects and scenes not commonly considered to fit that criteria.

This approach is at the heart of making unique pictures as you continue on your own creative journey through photography.

Great composition and technique, while important, play a secondary and supportive role in the creative process.

What matters most is your own, unique vision. Nurture and respect it and, soon enough, you’ll begin to trust your vision.

Over time you’ll more easily follow your intuition and allow your developing technical skills to support your own, unique artistic vision.

That is the order of things and something that great artists have long understood.

Nature Photos: Beauty Is All Around You

If you’re looking to make really beautiful and unique nature photos I believe it’s critical to cultivate the ability to be able to see beauty, wherever you are.

A key element in being able to do so is to ensure you make a point of recognizing beauty, especially when you find it in an otherwise mundane part of the world.

Practice makes perfect and, by making unique pictures in less than exotic locales, like public parks or your backyard garden, you’ll be so much more likely to be able to meet the challenge of making beautiful nature photos in more exotic parts of the world.

How to Create Unique Pictures

To be able to create unique pictures in relatively mundane locations requires technical skill, a good eye for composition and, above all else, the right light.

Rolling up at the Barkers Creek Reservoir near Harcourt in the middle of a sunny day may not provide you with a great photo.

What’s more, as that’s the same time of day that most other folk would photograph the location, it’s unlikely you’ll get to create particularly unique pictures.

Separating yourself from the opposition means exactly that. Don’t follow the crowd, keep yourself apart from it. Needless to say, be sure not to place yourself in a situation where being alone could be dangerous.

However, the reality remains, that you’re unlikely to make particularly unique pictures, particularly when it comes to nature photos, during the middle of the day when you’re surrounded by a bunch of other photographers.

Just remember that photography is very much about the transient, transforming and transcendental nature of light. It then follows that it’s important to try to ensure that your arrival at the location in question coincides with good lighting.

Either side of sunrise and sunset often provides wonderful opportunities for photography.

Be aware that, due to the low light levels at those times of day, the use of a quality tripod or high ISO will often be required. Just remember that the shutter speed that results from a high iso may not be compatible with the look or feel of the image you might have in your mind’s eye.

I can tell you that the sun had well and truly set when I made this image of branches breaking through the surface of the water at Barkers Creek Reservoir.

Most of the group had packed up their cameras and were ready to set out for dinner. That’s likely because they associated this site with a sunset location, simply because it was around that time of day when we arrived.

But being aware of changes in the light and staying open to possibilities allowed me to see opportunities in this location while the afterglow lasted.

It was then simply a matter of creating a reasonable composition that was at least as much about line, color and reflection as it was about a bunch of otherwise uninteresting branches poking through the surface of the water.

You see it’s the composition, in particular the light, color and lines within the scene, that makes this such an interesting nature photo.

Just remember that often the best nature photos are made well before sunrise, during what’s called the pre-glow, or alternatively, during the afterglow which, if it occurs, can take place well after sunset.

Needless to say, a powerful torch or headlamp is a good idea to allow you to see what you’re doing and help you find your way to and from the car when photographing very early or late in the day.

Inclement Weather Can Lead to Unique Photos

The reality is that the very best light often appears at the edges of, so-called, inclement weather.

This is such an important point that I wrote a special post on the subject. It’s titled Rainy Day Pics and Inclement Weather and I’m sure you’ll find it both useful and informative.

Come to think of it, a warm top and/or a fleece hat or beanie is also a good idea to take along with you on outdoor photo adventures, particularly when you’re likely to be standing around photographing from a tripod very early or late in the day.

What’s more, I often use a fleece beanie to keep my camera and lens dry when photographing on a rainy day.

There’s no doubt about it, inclement weather can be challenging when photographing outdoors. Wind and rain can create havoc when you’re trying to make tack sharp nature photos.

This in itself is a significant topic, which I’II leave for another day. But, for starters, do all you can to keep the front glass element of your camera’s lens clean and dry, and, if you find it fogging up in the rain, consider removing any filter that you’ve placed in front of the lens.

Finally, if you’re walking around holding your camera in light rain, point the lens down towards the ground, to avoid rain falling directly onto the front element of the lens, and wrap your trusty beanie over the lens to better protect it.

I can speak from experience that, being prepared and dressed appropriately for cold or inclement weather, can be enough to turn the process of photographing under less than ideal conditions into a pretty enjoyable experience.

After all, inclement weather may provide you with the conditions you need to create really unique pictures.

Of course bad weather should mean you’ll be photographing well known locations with less people around. That can be a definite advantage as it should reduce the likelihood of distracting elements, like other people’s heads, appearing in your photos.

It’s often the willingness to embrace difficult conditions and the level of preparedness that separates the images made by a good nature photographer from the rest of the pack.

Needless to say good photographers understand how to utilize light, composition and story telling to make high quality, emotionally compelling nature photos under all manner of situations.

But with practice and determination, anyone can do it.

Nature Photos and the Creative Journey

Be alert to the fact that, it’s not unusual for the best and most unique pictures from a particular trip, whether nature photos or otherwise, to be made at unscheduled stops along the way to your destination.

While it’s great to have researched a location, I think it’s also important to stay flexible and respond intuitively to interesting photo opportunities that arise en route.

It’s said that life is a journey, not a destination. I completely agree with that statement and I think it’s very apt when discussing the process of making really beautiful nature photos.

My advice is to stay alert, be active and embrace the experience in which you find yourself. When it comes to making truly unique nature photos, I believe this approach will help set you up for success on your own creative journey through the art of photography.

Glenn Guy, Travel Photography Guru