Summer Photography | I Got Called Out

today's video is sponsored by squarespace if you need a website called squarespace.com forward slash heaton well hello everybody and welcome back to the channel welcome back to another video now there are a handful of photographers operating in the youtube space who i consider to be some of the best photographers working today full stop and i respect them massively so when one of those photographers calls you out you'd be wise to listen and that is exactly what's happened i've been called out by another photographer working on the youtube space photographer who i massively respect and who i think is one of the most consistent and best photographers out there today so this video can be considered as my response [Music] all right so before we get on to the topic of today's video i just wanted to quickly shoot this scene it's a very dynamic scene you can probably just see now there's a bit of light hitting this tree just here uh that light is very fleeting we have 95 cloud cover so if we're lucky we'll get a 10 15 second break where we might get a bit of light on this scene which brings it to life and without the light on this scene here it's dead it's nothing so the whole thing right now feels very rushed so the scene that i'm shooting is is really simple and it was nothing without the lights because i was walking past it whilst the light was hitting it like it is now and it just it was striking the contrast was striking and then as soon as the light disappeared the image was gone it would you know just you just walk right past it and not see a photograph so light is so important but i'm just essentially framing one tree with another tree this near tree here that's got the light on it now that tree is framing that tree in the background and it's also frantic you know the light comes and goes you might get maybe three seconds of perfect light with a two second timer that doesn't give you a very big window to grab the shot um and i can't spend all night here i've got to move on and try and get a couple more images for today's video this near tree which is beautifully framing the fartry that's this horrible dead branch hanging off it and that dead branch is cutting right through the tree in the background it's ugly it's a distraction i wish it wasn't there three options option one walk up there now knock it off it's dead won't make a difference obviously we're not going to do that uh it's never ever condone that kind of behavior the second option is to get rid of it in photoshop afterwards which is probably what i'll do if i'm honest if photoshop is up to the challenge and the third option is just to leave it which i also might do um it depends we'll see so there we go first image not bad totally spontaneous bit of a mad rush but at least we've got one in the back [Music] solar image was definitely uh what i like to call reactive oh sorry reactive photography uh where really you have no idea what you're gonna shoot you have nothing in your mind and then something happens lights or you see a subject just getting through this gate can you see that plumbing tripod leg i don't know how it's happened tripod sorted totally lost my trail of thought with that one um but yes so uh being called out now i was watching a video by a very talented photographer i mean somebody who knocks it out of the park on a regular basis every video every image fantastic and that is the very talented mr simon booth now i know simon we exchange emails every now and again and we've even had breakfast together in the pete district great photographer great guy and he made a video called learn to love summer photography and he basically called out people like me not by name but uh it's pretty obvious it was about me because he called out people that whinge about summertime and photography and you know the the early starts the late finishes the overgrown green environment and that is what i do that's my forte every summer i have a good whinge and moan about it and he made some very valid points about how you shouldn't do that you know every nature is beautiful no matter what and you should always be out enjoying photography and he's absolutely right 100 right and i am guilty of that negative mindset and i always happen i'm generally a pessimistic negative person uh certainly not an optimist by any stretch of the imagination but simon's video really struck a chord with me because he's just had a hernia operation i hope you're doing well simon and so for a period of time he's not been able to get out and now that he's got the all clear he can't wait to get out and he mentions in his video that photography is all about state of mind and it is have you ever got a new camera and you you dying to get out and use it and you're taking images left right and center because you've got this new piece of gear and after a while that fades but it is it's about mindset and i never really realized that i suppose i think i just go to default whinge which is is what i tend to do so go and watch simon's video i'll link to in the description below subscribe to his channel the two images in his last video that summer video phenomenal the second one in that video outstanding outstanding 10 out of 10 image fantastic i wish i could capture images that good so go and watch and subscribe because he's a fantastic teacher and photographer now for me i took what he said as a bit of a kick up the backside and thought i do need to stop whinge and be a bit more positive and get out and take advantage of the nice weather and and try and use everything to my you know to my advantage um but it's not easy it's really not it's still a challenge and i'll let you into a secret about today's video at the end but for now i'm gonna walk around and see if i can get at least one more image my goal today is two images for this video and i'm in an environment that i wouldn't normally shoot at this time of year in fact i've never been here at this time of year because i always just dismiss it write it off i'm not going there it's summertime what's the point well that's the wrong attitude hopefully i can kind of prove that in today's video we'll see maybe i'm not the right man for the job but simon is go and watch his video right [Music] so it probably doesn't come across on camera but it is getting dark fast we are in a deep gorge right now surrounded by hills on either side but there is a bit of ambient light coming down from the sky above and that ambient light is catching on the leaves backlighting them now in simon's video when he talks about what to look out for in summer and how it's a bountiful could be a bountiful time of year for images he does mention looking up at beach leaves now this is something that i do quite a lot in autumn i always do in autumn never think to do it in summer i'll be honest with you but i've just done it had a look up at the trees and blooming fantastic these backlit trees with this beautifully sort of dark branch that looks very much like i don't know reminds me a bit of a bonsai tree but the reason the image works is because the leaves are backlit by the sky and because we're in a gorge beyond the leaves behind the leaves the backdrop is just dark woodland so you get that kind of glow that contrast and it works really well and you know i came down to this river not really sure what i was going to find and it just just i don't know i didn't see an image but what i did do what i did do was just take a moment man just take a moment take it all in you know sounds a bit uh sounds a bit new age hippie but uh really start to appreciate the sounds the sights the smells everything absorb everything and you might then start to see images sounds daft but kind of works worked for me got this image which i'm going to shoot right now before it gets too dark and we lose it a lot of photography is about what you leave out and there are different ways of leaving things out you can move walk from a to b and try and frame your subject with you know eliminating distractions you can use your aperture to blur things out in the background the distractions or you can crop um and i love love level of massive advocate of the square crop i love my hasselblad 501 cm which is a square film camera and quite often i find myself cropping down to a screen in fact that's one of the main reasons i actually bought this camera this gfx 50r because it's it's a 4x3 aspect ratio sensor rather than a 3x2 which is what you get in normal um full-frame cameras these days so when you crop to a square you'll lose less pixels anyway that's neither here nor there the point is creatively artistically it works for me so well when isolating subjects simplifying scenes and essentially creating images that are free of distractions so what we're doing here f8 focusing on the backlit leaves it's simple it's straightforward uh it's the last image of the day but it's quite a pleasing one so yeah pretty happy with this one [Music] all right so what can the takeaway be from this video i don't think the takeaway is that summer is great for photography um i don't think that's the takeaway i know i said it wasn't gonna be negative um because at the beginning of this video i said that i was gonna tell you when to tell your secret let you into a secret well this is my third woodland in as many days i've tried to make this video three times now and have failed failed to get any images it wasn't until today the last day the last location where i started to see images now is that me was it the lights was it the conditions was it the subject the woodland honestly i don't know probably a bit of everything but the fact remains summer is challenging but it is about how you approach your photography and your mindset and your expectations just like simon says if you want to get out and you want to take photographs you'll manage it you'll find stuff you'll see stuff to shoot although i have to say i have to say this it's a bloody lovely evening and it's so nice just to escape the madness and the chaos that is just life at the minute all over the world for everyone so coming out in a woodland like this any time of year is bliss that's definitely a takeaway um so yeah there you go the the summer isn't that easy but it's also not as difficult as you think there we go that's that's a summary that's what i should have said so there you go thanks guys so much for watching uh go and subscribe to simon's channel link in the description below my book is available my calendar very soon by next week's video i expect it to be on sale so excuse me if i give it a bit of a plug in that video we'll see um big thank you to the sponsor of this video squarespace if you don't know who squarespace are there an all-in-one website building platform where you log on and you build a very nice looking website using a drag and drop system so if you're photographing you want a nice photography website with a portfolio gallery your own domain a contact page a blog post all that all the kind of good stuff that looks great in a website but you don't know how to build it you don't know how to code well sign up for squarespace it's intuitive it's easy you do it all yourself i've got 24 7 customer support and you know i've built a couple of websites myself using it and it's the way to go um if you don't want to hire you know a web design company to do it all and control it all for you basically you get the control which is quite nice so if you want to give that go to squarespace.com forward slash heaton and you can get a free trial if you like the free trial and use the offer called heating for 10 off your first purchase so you'll save a bit that way there we go summer it's coming to an end but i'm not gonna wish it away so until next time thank you so much for watching bye for now [Music] you

Channel: Thomas Heaton

Views: 96,156

Rating: 4.9230771 out of 5

Keywords: landscape photography, outdoor photography, landscape photography tutorial, landscape photography in the field, photography tips, best photo locations, how to landscape photography, hiking, outdoors, camper van, vanlife, mitsubishi delica, delica van conversion, fujifilm, gfx 50r, medium format photography

Id: ozAUC-dGcxQ

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021