Landscape Photography Practice - Learn to See

hi everyone i'm alistair ben and you're watching express to photography now we're quite a long way from home uh this week um but what i want to do today is record a video for you guys on the first installment of practice which is the topic that i raised last week in the video if you haven't checked that out go back have a look at that and what we're going to do today is start practicing so i'm in a location that i haven't actually stood in for 30 years this is a place i used to come bird watching when i was like just in my 20s so i haven't been here in a long long time and i've never made photographs here before and so what i want to do is practice seeing i want to practice discovering i'm not here planning on making photographs i might i may make photographs if i don't that's fine the ocean is just behind us there or in front of me there there's beautiful light on the water but i'm not here running around looking for compositions i'm here just taking it all in experiencing the place and what we'll do in today's video is look at ways that we can practice seeing practice discovering practice engaging and that is the first step on the road to making photographs so come with us on this little journey as we explore this new location that i haven't been to in three decades um and hopefully we'll find something interesting so what's the secret of making better photographs well i think the secret is to only photograph the things that excite us the things that really capture our imagination the things that we just can't help but point our cameras at so one of the things i've talked about in the past is the concept of note-taking so let's say i was running a workshop and we'd come down to this beach this morning and let's say i've been here 50 times before and i'm with six other people if i told people that instead of having a camera in their hand they had a notebook and they came here and just sat for half an hour or so and looked at the ocean the clouds the rocks the seaweed the rock pools the life in the rock pools and every time they saw something that they thought was super super cool they just wrote a little note about it so they've got things they're noticing is on one side of the page and on the other side of the page they could write emotions so they might be looking at the water and thinking about how calm they feel they might be looking at the clouds in the sky and thinking about how uplifting that is they could be looking at the way the light is reflecting on the surface of the water and how psychedelic that is there's no limit to the things in this landscape that are going to catch my eye and there's no limit to the number of emotions that i can feel while i'm looking at them so the note book is our note of engagement it's our diary of engagement now when we get back to the car park and we start comparing notes who has the best notes is it me because i've been to this place so many times is it the guy who's got the most expensive pen or the most expensive notebook is that the person that's got 20 years of note-taking experience or is it the person with the best imagination the person who daydreams the person who runs around just getting so excited in every little nuance of this location who has the best notes well personally i believe each of us has our own best notes we can admire the notes of other people we can admire the emotions that other people can experience but they're not our notes and if we copy somebody else's notes we're not creating we are copying so i think the power of finding and seeing and engaging is to note take so instead of having a notebook and pen i have this this is my notebook and it allows me to see to feel to engage and i point my camera at it and i include the stuff in the frame that makes me think yes that's what i'm noticing or that's what i'm feeling so that's the basic concept of today's video is using this as a notebook not a camera cameras make photographs i'm wanting to make notes now if you practice this whether with a notebook if you go out into the landscape just go for a walk carry a notebook with you write down what you feel write down what you see write down what excites you if you do that and practice that your skill at noticing will escalate to the stratosphere and you can live a far more exciting and engaging life and the more you practice the more you notice the more notes you make the better your notes will become because you become more and more you and that is what expressive photography is about in the ebooks luminosity and contrast and the colour of meaning i talk about the concepts that we'd notice so let's explore a few of those this morning not for very long because i want to go bird watching but let's explore some of those concepts and i'll just make a few notes if i find something that i think is worth making a note of [Music] so one of the things about note-taking is that they are without judgement i'm here to make notes if i like the thing i'm looking at that's all that matters as soon as i ask the question will you guys like my notes i'm that's it game over i've lost the whole point of being here is to make my own notes that feel valid that this is a beautiful place i'm not here to make great notes i'm not here to make life-changing notes i'm not here to make cover-up national geographic notes i'm not here to make 50 000 followers on instagram notes i'm here to make notes and those notes are my life engaging with this landscape is a worthwhile thing to do blue sky it's now 8 30 in the morning you know people are going to say oh well it's not optimal photography time that means nothing i'm not here to make photographs i'm here to make notes and if we stick to that if we truly believe that then our photography goes through the stratosphere because every note we make as long as we're not thinking will other people love this will other people appreciate this will other people think this is a great photograph if we get stuck in that mindset we've lost the game so i'm not here to make the best notes i'm just here to make notes and that is the biggest gift i can ever give you so i hope you found this useful the idea that you can come somewhere without the expectation of having to make photographs without the expectation of having to make something that other people are going to like without the expectation of being on your best form at any particular day of the year you know this is the day we're here it's a gorgeous day and i don't want to come away from this morning just thinking oh i haven't made any amazing photographs i don't care now whether i've made good photographs or not i'll have a look at them when i get back home but the key thing is i'm having a wonderful time i'm here with my wife we're having a just a fantastic time in this beautiful location i've made some notes i've seen some things that have excited me and engaged me i've pointed my camera at them and i've arranged them in a way that feels harmonious to me and that's going to be the subject of next week's video is how to arrange our notes to make them articulate and to make them concise so that we can begin to articulate what it was about that experience that made it worth noting down and to communicate that to somebody else so tune in next week where we start looking at the whole concept of arrangement or composition as some people prefer to call it and yeah i'm looking forward to doing that with you next week if you find this useful please do not hesitate to hit the thumbs up give us a like make a comment and of course subscribe to us with the bell notification to make sure that you're going to continue getting these videos that we're producing to really try and help you to develop as your own best version as a photographer please check out the link below as usual for the ebooks luminosity and contrast and the color of meaning and the dodge and burn master class which are the bible of expressive landscape photography and hopefully you along with the thousands of other people who've enjoyed them so far will get great value out of them the 25 discount code is still valid so please take this opportunity to grab yourself a copy of any of those products because they will kickstart your photography as hopefully this video will inspire you to see the way you have your relationship within the landscape will inspire you to do that thanks for watching i'm going to spend the rest of this day with my beautiful wife walking along this beautiful coast and making some notes and whether i make them with a camera or with my mind i haven't yet decided thanks for watching we'll see you next week bye for now [Music] you

Channel: Expressive Photography

Views: 7,236

Keywords: Lightroom, Photography, Alister Benn, Landscape photography, how to, tutorials, composition, educate, expressive photography, barriers, vision, experience, tutorial, lesson, be better, happy, motivation, inspiration, inspire, Luminosity, Processing, Understanding light, Light, landscape, emotion, personal development, contrast, Transitions, Adobe, creativity, abstraction, local, dodge and burn, masterclass, Kase Filters, Wolverine, Magnetic, K9, Grads, Polariser, remote, learning to see, seeing, looking

Id: 9EsWzhQy_bQ

Length: 10min 42sec (642 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021