This week, in our last club meeting of the 2022/23 season, we joined Beeslack Penicuik Camera Club for a fascinating Zoom talk by landscape photographer Justin Minns. His talk “Interesting Stuff” was inspired by a 1947 quote by photographer Jim Richardson:

“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”

Justin began by showing us some landscape images he had captured around his local environment in Norfolk and Suffolk; mostly beach and woodland. He tended to capture his images around sunrise, but would sometimes stay longer and walk around to see what other opportunities were available in the area. His advice was to go with the flow and work with what you have. Look at the shapes and textures in the landscape. Even ugly subjects can become interesting if you apply the right technique, as demonstrated by a long exposure shot of Felixstowe docks taken during the blue hour after sunrise. The blue hour provided just enough residual daylight to balance the artificial lights of the docks. Justin advised us to compose shots carefully. Try to avoid overlapping objects in the frame. If you have taken a landscape shot which seems to look great on the back of the camera, zoom in and check it carefully for small mistakes before walking away. Justin referred us to his books “Photographing East Anglia” and “Photographing Essex” for more details.

The second part of Justin’s talk was on the theme of “Making it Interesting”. He demonstrated the following techniques you can use to enhance landscape shots:

• Using motion: Photographing a moving subject with a long exposure, or moving the camera when photographing a stationary subject, can add drama and movement to a shot. Keeping the camera still for a while and then moving it before the exposure ends can create a striking double exposure effect. Justin recommended a shutter speed of 0.3-3 seconds for creating a “swoosh” effect which emphasises the motion of water or a long exposure of 30-120 seconds to render moving water into a minimalist mist. When only part of the scene is moving, a long exposure can make stationary subjects stand out.
• Using focus: Most landscape photographers will try to make everything sharp, but you can make a shot more atmospheric by deliberately blurring part of the scene. Justin showed a woodland image where some heather in the foreground had been turned into a blurred mist by throwing it out of focus with a narrow depth of field. There was also an atmospheric shot of some blurry, back-lit seed heads.
• Using infrared: If you have an infrared-converted camera, or use a conversion filter, infrared shots can make dramatic black and white images of woodland or old buildings.
• Framing: Using a wide angle lens and including small figures in a scene can give a sense of space. Conversely, a telephone lens can pick out important details from a scene and cut out distractions. For example, woodland images look more dramatic if you cut out areas of distracting bright sky. A scene can also be improved by viewing it from an unusual angle, for example by looking down using a drone.

The third part of Justin’s talk was about “Interesting Places”, where he showed us fabulous shots of his favourite places for photography, which are:

• Yosemite National Park, USA.
• The Tatra mountains in Slovakia.
• The island of Maderia, Portugal.
• Iceland.
• Saudi Arabia.
• Venice, Italy.
• Slovenia (especially for the churches).

Justin’s final section was about “Interesting timing”; how your approach to landscape photography might change with the season or time of day. The golden hour and blue hour are good times of the day, but if you can’t visit a place at those times you can make the best of what you have. Frosty conditions during the winter can transform a landscape into something unusual, especially when the combination is unexpected, such as a frozen beach. Another example of “going with the flow” was a snowy scene where all the sky detail had been lost. Justin used the opportunity to create a minimalist image. The same thing can be done in foggy or misty conditions. In calm conditions look for interesting reflections. Some of the most dramatic scenes happen at the transition point where good weather ends and bad weather begins. Justin finished the section with a collection of images of the aurora borealis. If you are lucky enough to capture an aurora, don’t forget to include some foreground interest to make a more balanced composition.

Justin concluded that he disagrees with Jim Richardson’s quote. You can visit and photograph lots of interesting places, but the really good photographs arise from your own ideas, inspiration and creativity. He felt this quote by Henri Cartier-Bresson was closer to the mark.

“To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.”

Thank you to Justin for a fascinating and inspiring presentation, and to Beeslack for hosting it. Next week we will be holding the club’s AGM at 7pm in our usual room, G3, at the Fisherrow Centre. Please come along with ideas for set subjects we can use next year.

See you there.

Steven