How Patience leads to a Masterpiece in Landscape Photography

Landscape Photography is all about beeing at the right place to the right time - and you'll get out a really strong landscape photograph.

#1 Right conditions

As I drove in my car I realized, that there was fog up at the hills, where I'd been a day before just for a walk with my wife. I didn't look for compositions, but I found a really strong story - about a broken tree. This is why I stopped my car, grabbed my camera and hiked up the hill - chasing for fog. This was the most important ingredient I needed to emphasise my story.

#2 Staying or leaving?

As I arrived the spot I had in my mind, I saw, that there was no fog, but there was fog, a bit higher at the hill. I asked myself if I should stay to work on a composition and just wait for the fog, beeing pushed down through the high pressure weather or if I should head up into the fog. As I knew, that there were also a couple of other interesting trees a bit higher and I wanted to take advantage by the hoarfrost everywhere on the trees and grasses in the morning, I decided to go up higher to the right conditions - into the fog.

#3 I got attracted by a ghost

While I hiked up, I realized that there was a tree in the fog, that looked a bit like a dancing ghost for me. I was totally blown away by this new story I found and I built up a composition.

#4 Working on my original planned landscape photography composition

I was blown away by my ghost tree image, but it wasn't that why I came here. So I returned down to the original spot and although there was still no fog, I used the time to work an a composition. To be honest, it was much more difficult than I thought, I had lots of troubles with the foreground and the flow in the image. The conditions were totally wrong for this story, for this composition, but I anyway took a testshot to think about it later.

#5 The power of releasing in landscape photography

As I was anyway blown away from the story itself, I didn't want to give up totally. After I took the testshot, I did one thing that really helped me out so often - I released and left the spot. As I realized that there was fog again higher up the hill, I hiked up again to work on other compositions. After a longer hike higher up I finally saw, that the fog was pushed down again. Should I give it a try again? While I hiked, I got already some rough ideas, why my original composition hasn't worked. The chance was high to get fog again later that day and so I hiked down again - working on my composition again.

#6 Hard work pays of in landscape photography

I spent hours on the spot, thinking about the composition - aligning all the trees in the right way, emphasising the story of the broken tree. I found out that the ferns in the foreground were a more important character in my story than I originally thought, so I emphasised it more, I got a working flow into my image - I just needed one thing - the right conditions - fog, which was still not there. But I had more than a story now, I had a composition.

#7 Patience is key in landscape photography

I was on the right place, I had built up a fantastic composition - just the conditions were wrong. But there was chance that there was built more fog through the decreasing temperatures and the high pressure which pushed the fog down. I waited even longer - and finally I got out something really outstanding.

Check out my gear, which I use for my landscape photography:

My Landscape Photography Gear

Nice greetings,

Christian