Why you should try The Rabbit Approach for landscape photography
Oct 11, 2020
Ole Henrik Skjelstad
Ole Henrik Skjelstad is a Norwegian math teacher and landscape photographer. He fell in love with photography in 2013 when he got a camera as a birthday present.
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I am hopelessly pragmatic. I feel this the most when I am out with the camera and conditions are very favorable. My approach then is to shoot as many compositions as possible in shortest possible time. Depending on my mood, this may result in fits of anger when I turn a camera wheel in the wrong direction, or when the tripod legs won’t extend as fast as I desire.
I am trying to point out that I am all over the place when mother nature smiles at me,…..the rabbit approach.
I know that many others like to take it slowly at a scene and repeatedly shoot the same composition until they feel they have nailed it. For me such an approach would lead to a heart attack.
My friend, Carl, and I visited Jotunheimen in July 2019. We couldn’t have asked for better conditions. Light and colors were outstanding. I entered the rabbit approach mode. How much can you make out of a location in that modus operandi?
The rabbit approach
I started where the river made a nice curve:
Then I turned 90 degrees to the side:
For the sake of variation I also shot a vertical:
Carl and I hurried up the steep slope and half-ran across some rocky terrain until we arrived here:
The river from a lake behind that mountain widened at this spot producing perfect reflections.
A fifty-meter sprint offered this composition:
As a variation, I also shot it at 30mm:
Now ensued yet another fifty-meter sprint back to where I was when we arrived at the river. I shot a few verticals with various foregrounds:
A few low perspective shots of the river followed next:
It was around midnight when we made a stop here while trekking back to the car:
I am inclined to claim that The Rabbit Approach may yield a very decent crop. What do you think; Do you sometimes feel like a rabbit?
The images are shot with the Pentax K-1, Pentax 15–30, and Pentax 24–70. Up by the river’s widening, I also used the Nisi S5 with a CPL and the Nisi Medium filter.
Ole Henrik Skjelstad
Ole Henrik Skjelstad is a Norwegian math teacher and landscape photographer. He fell in love with photography in 2013 when he got a camera as a birthday present.
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15 responses to “Why you should try The Rabbit Approach for landscape photography”
I agree with your approach. Everyone is different, but I’m the same when it comes to landscape photography & lighting i like. By the time I’ve finished shooting i feel as though I’ve had a work out, but can pretty much guarantee i will have a whole bunch of shots which look quite different from one another. Some people will hate this approach. There is no right & wrong regarding approach, do what gives you the results you want. We all work in different ways to achieve our final visions.
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My view is simple, if you have a digital camera, a couple of SD cards and some batteries, you’re good to go for a few thousand pictures per session. No longer restricted for 24, 36 or if you had an Olympus camera that increased the 36 to 72 takes per film plus the processing costs, why not go for it.
Most modern cameras are rated for 100,000 shots before the mechanical shutter stutters, some more, so the cost of the camera body divided by the the number of shutter actuations can work out at fractions of a penny depending on which system you’re using, so if you mean by rabbit go for it, then just go for it.
The post processing doesn’t wear out your computer as far as I’m aware although the tedium of wading though a lot of the same shot might get to you.
So, this doesn’t tell me what the rabbit approach is… pointless article.
Thank you; I thought it was just me wondering why it was the “rabbit approach”
Does it involve disguise ?
Well, using my combined 50 years of FBI investigation and 20 years of mind reading experience, I have determined that rabbits move around a lot. This article also mentioned something very similar. Moving around a lot. After 48 hours locked in my office, finishing my detectives connection spider web, I have assumed the “Rabbit Approach is a simile for ‘moving around often while shooting’. Luckily you had somebody with a brain and skill pool large enough to make this near impossible connection for you. Please notify me if further investigations are needed for your 100% lack of attention and problem solving ability.
Lmao
Thank you, Jordan, I nearly spit myself with my coffee after reading your response.
I agree with the Rabbit Approach. Back in the film days, I always shot at least 3 or 4 frames of an scene and today with digital, I shoot numerous shots as the price of “film” is cheap. While I typically shoot people, I use the same approach and electrons are inexpensive. With people, you need to ensure that the one picture you want doesn’t have their eyes closed.
I don’t fully agree that the shots in the article reflected my definition of Rabbit mode as pointing in a different direction from the same spot is not multiple shutter presses in the same direction. Still, why not take ten shots of the same scene as the clouds move a little and things do change. At the end of the day, you can reformat your memory card and start all over without having Kodak on speed dial.
Great article about why I should try the rabbit approach for landscape photography. Informative post. If anyone require landscape photography editing post production service Please learn more Photo Editing Service Center
Now…you ended up with quite a lot of nice images. Can you talk a bit about your process to decide a single image that would be posted / make it to your portfolio? What are the criteria you use to decide? I struggle with that a great deal myself and would appreciate any perspective. Thanks!
I completely understand what you mean by the “Rabbit Approach” because that is how I shoot. I would be bored to death if I did it any other way. :-)
I get it, I do it frequently but yours look better than mine.
Nice article 👌🏻
Stunning photography. Where is the lake in the jortunheimen national park located? I’d love to visit this area, when I go there.
Kind regards