How the weather influences your landscape photography
Dec 12, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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I don’t really shoot all that many landscapes, but I do shoot in landscape locations a lot. I photograph people in them. Being based in the UK, my biggest issue with location work, as much as I love it, is the weather. Specifically, the bad version. At least with human subjects, there are often alternative spots we can go to with a little more cover.
Sometimes, though, weather changes are subtle, and can actually work in your favour. In this video from landscape photographer Mads Peter Iversen, we see just how the weather influences landscape photography, and how he got a photo at Glencoe in Scotland which he considers to be his best ever.
It’s those subtle changes that Mads explores in his video. How a rain in the distance can cause a nice flow of water at your location an hour from now as gravity brings it down a mountain. Melting snow, too, can have this effect. This is something that happens near me almost every year. We get a lot of snow in the Lake District, which starts a few miles down the road, but very little here. As we start to head toward spring, that snow melts, and can cause very high water levels.
Being able to notice and predict those things will help you to make more informed choices about your landscape photography. It’ll allow you to plan for these things in advance, and not just hope you get the look you want after you turn up at a particular location.
And as for Mads’ favourite photo of Glencoe? Well…
I have to agree, it’s pretty special.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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