Interview: Click & Learn Photography – Landscape Photographer & Blogger
Last Updated: February 15th, 2020
I met Alex Wrigley online earlier this year and we got to talking about our photography websites. In time, this led to a number of different collaborations, with both of us writing posts on each other’s sites to expand our audiences.
I reached out to him recently to conduct an interview as I thought his area of focus as a landscape photographer AND photography blogger could be useful for my audience to shed some light on. So often when people think of making money with photography, their mind will immediately rush to taking pictures of people or shooting photos for businesses to use in advertising. While these are definitely viable ways of making money, starting a website and talking about your experiences in photography is another really interesting and lucrative route, too!
In this interview, Alex & I talk about his background as a landscape photographer first-and-foremost, then get into detail of his website, recently released eBook, and more!
Can you give us some background on your personal experience with photography? How did you learn your way around a camera, and what are your favorite things to photograph?
I know it’s a bit cliche, but I’ve been interested in photography ever since I was a kid. It really started back in 2013 though – I was working a menial job in retail after finishing university and had a lot of time to think about potential business ideas (I always hated the idea of being stuck in a 9 to 5 for my entire working life).
A few months later I got my first DSLR as a Christmas present, but by that point I’d already been devouring as much knowledge as possible on the subject. I knew about the Exposure Triangle, all the ‘rules’ of composition and to shoot on manual mode before I even had a camera, but obviously the real learning experience was still to come.
Nature was always a big passion of mine as well, and living in a scenic part of the UK the draw of landscape photography was hard to ignore. That’s where my real photographic passion lies and what I spend the majority of my shooting time doing.
I’m pretty much entirely self-taught and continue to learn new things every day through reading, shooting, or simply thinking about photography.
What drew you most to landscape photography vs. other photography subjects (like portraits)?
As I mentioned, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a very scenic and beautiful part of the UK. To be honest, I didn’t appreciate it enough when I was a teenager, but after returning from university I rediscovered that passion for the outdoors.
I’m not a massive extrovert either, so landscape photography was a natural choice for me. Nature just has an effect on me that’s quite hard to describe. Whether it’s the exhilaration of a stormy shoot on the coast, the splendour of watching the sun rise from the top of a mountain or simply a gentle stroll through the forest – Every time I go out I come away feeling completely calm. And yes, I’m aware of how cheesy that all sounds!
That being said, I do a lot of pet and equine photography as well and love that side of my business. I’ve tried my hand at portraiture and have even been roped into shooting a couple of weddings, but I honestly hated the pressure of it. Now, any time somebody gets in touch to ask me if I photograph weddings I just point them straight to the woman who photographed my wedding!
Is there much of a photography “scene” in the UK that you get to participate in, or do you mostly explore photography as a solo thing?
Landscape photography is quite a solitary pursuit a lot of the time, but there is something of a community where I live.
The area is a hotspot for UK landscape photography so you often see other photographers when you’re out in the field. Most of them are tourists, but you come to know the local photographers just from these brief meetings.
Obviously there’s quite a tight-knit community on social media as well, and I’ve struck up friendships with a few photographers that I’ve met at trade shows over the years.
But, for me at least, solitude is part of the landscape photography experience. I find it much easier to get into a creative frame of mind when I’m just out wandering with my dog, and I think it’s the same for the majority of landscape photographers.
It’s inevitable that I ask this, so I’ll get it out of the way, what is your camera equipment setup? Is there any gear you find really valuable to creating great images? And, from your experience, what camera would you recommend for a beginning landscape photographer who wants to take great images on a budget?
I’ve actually very recently had a complete switch in systems. I spent half a decade shooting primarily with Nikon – first an entry-level D3200 and most recently the rather more professional Nikon D810.
Just a couple of months ago I decided to make the switch to mirrorless and I’m now using a Fuji X system. I wrote an article on it actually, because at first glance moving from a full-frame Nikon D810 to the cropped sensor of a Fuji X-T2 seems counter-intuitive for a landscape photographer. It was picked up by Petapixel, which obviously resulted in hundreds of people not reading the article and just assuming I’d made a huge mistake!
I could talk about this all day to be honest, but my conclusion is this: It’s very hard to make a bad decision when it comes to digital cameras these days. Image quality from modern sensors is spectacular, and in the real world the difference between 24MP and 36MP is negligible. Sure, if you zoom in to 200% you’ll see a difference, but I’ve printed the exact same image from my Fuji X-T2 and Nikon D810 at A3 size and literally couldn’t tell the difference.
This means that other features start to become more important, and for me specifically the most important aspect was the size and weight. I spend a lot of time trekking up mountains, and switching to Fuji with their smaller bodies and lenses has literally halved the weight of my camera bag!
So, if you think you’ll be hiking long distances for your photography, I’d strongly recommend opting for a lighter camera system. I’m not just promoting Fuji here either, you could do far worse than a Sony A6500 or a Nikon Z6. If you’re on more of a budget, I’d also recommend an older crop sensor DSLR such as the Nikon D5300 or Canon EOS Rebel T6i.
As far as landscape photography lenses go, I’ve always stuck to a simple system: A wide-angle zoom, a telephoto zoom, and a normal prime. It’s the perfect balance between keeping the weight and cost down and still covering all the focal lengths I need. I’m currently using the Fuji 10-24mm f/4, the Fuji 35mm f/2.0 and the Fuji 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 and couldn’t be happier.
I also place a lot of importance on a good, solid tripod and some good quality filters. To keep it short, I usually head out with my Vanguard Alta Pro 2+ tripod and my Kase K8 filter system with a 6-stop and 10-stop ND filter.
We share a similar intersection of passions for photography, blogging, and educating. What inspired you to start your photography website Click and Learn Photography?
I’ve always enjoyed writing and actually ended up making a career out of it in a different industry. That career gave me some insight into things like web development and SEO, so I thought what better way to improve my knowledge than building my own website from scratch?
I’d also had quite a few photography articles published in magazines and books, and I found that getting everything down on paper (or screen) really helped to deepen my understanding of the subject.
Thinking back to the early days of my photography education spurred me on too. I remembered an awful lot of articles telling me that I couldn’t do this or I shouldn’t do that: “Here are the rules of landscape photography and you must not break them”. That sort of stuff.
I really think this hindered me early on, and I probably missed out on a lot of great shots because I was so focused on the rule of thirds and the golden hours. I wanted to stop other beginner landscape photographers from falling into that trap and to create content that was actually insightful and helpful to them. Something that could teach them to think for themselves rather than giving them a rulebook to follow, you know? I ended up writing an article all about breaking photography rules, and I mention the importance of having fun and going against the grain as often as possible.
The one question I hear a lot from people who are into photography is…”how can I make money with photography?” It’s a natural response for many people who find a passion for the hobby of photography and would be interested in earning some extra cash with something they enjoy. This type of mindset motivated my wife & I to start a wedding photography business 3 years ago.
It would seem your answer to this question came in the form of starting Click and Learn. Can you share how this has been going for you and offer any insights into your experience for others who might be interested in starting a site in this space?
Yeah there isn’t a lot of money in landscape photography! As I mentioned before I also branched out into pet and equine photography, but the majority of my photography income now comes from Click and Learn.
My advice would simply be to dive in and give it a go! As you well know, it’s an ultra-competitive area that’s filled with huge, well-established websites, but there’s plenty of internet users to go around.
Honestly, the main thing to focus on is just trying to add value to the industry with quality content. Sure, covering the basics (Exposure triangle, f-stop charts etc) is important, but after that try to shed new light onto your subject and give your readers something they haven’t seen before.
Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to others in the industry! There’s no reason we can’t all help each other out and get our content in front of as many eyes as possible. You’ll always get ignored by some people, but genuine long-term collaborations between website owners is beneficial to both the websites and the readers.
What are some of the biggest challenges you faced while setting up your websites? Any great successes?
The whole design process was a real slog, and I undoubtedly made some rookie mistakes along the way. After that, the main challenge was getting those first readers to the site before my motivation started to run out.
Fortunately, I managed to get some traction on Pinterest quite early on which spurred me on, and then it was just a massive learning curve as I looked into alien concepts such as keyword research.
My first really proud moment came when I started getting visitors from Google and people emailing me to thank me for my articles. Knowing that people were finding my site and finding it helpful was a real confidence boost and definitely drove me on to carry on producing content.
For someone wanting to set up their own photography blog, what would be the first couple of steps you’d recommend for them to take?
The first step is to stop procrastinating and get the ball rolling. Buy a domain and start fleshing out a website rather than trying to meticulously plan everything beforehand. I spent months carefully planning everything before diving in, and then swiftly threw all my planning out the window. There’s no better time to get started than right now!
The next step is to start writing about subjects that you find interesting. Pick something you’re particularly knowledgeable on and come up with a list of article titles. You can branch out into other areas later on, but to start with I’d definitely recommend writing about something you’re comfortable with.
After that it’s all a case of constantly learning about all the other aspects of running a blog. SEO, keyword research, site performance, backlinks and everything else you don’t think about initially!
How do you approach making money with your website? What are some tips you could give my readers interested in making money with their own photography skills and knowledge?
My number one rule is that I want to make money ethically. I don’t want to deceive my readers, I don’t hide the fact that I’m using affiliate links, and I make sure that every product I recommend is something I have personally tried out (whether that be owning it or testing it). If it means a bit less money at the expense of a clean conscience, then I’m happy with that.
I’m starting to branch out from affiliate sales only now that everything is stable. The first step towards that is the release of my first ebook, and I’ve got a few more exciting ideas in the pipeline.
The best advice I could give somebody interested in monetising their photography is to specialize. I happen to be a decent writer and landscape photographer, so I built a website that is largely about landscape photography articles. Take a couple of things you’re good at, combine them, and then find a market.
Obviously that’s easier said than done. Photography is super competitive these days and full of sub-par photographers trying to undercut those professionals with years of experience. That’s particularly prevalent in the portraiture and wedding business, as you will know all too well!
Shifting gears here, you recently released a new comprehensive eBook – The Ultimate Guide to Landscape Photography – From Planning to Processing available here. This is a 150+ page instructional guide that builds on the foundation of your free Ultimate Guide to Landscape Photography blog series. How long did it take you to put this thing together? What motivated you to make it?
I can’t say I tracked how many hours went into it, but it took a good 6 months of working on it to get it ready for release. Only time will tell whether those hours were well spent, but I wanted to make it as good as I possibly could. I’ve had some great feedback on it so far, and to be honest that makes it worthwhile in my eyes.
The motivation was simple – I’ve always wanted to release a book. The long term goal is to publish a printed book, but a good, solid ebook was always going to be where I dipped my toes in the water. It tied in well with my aim of branching out into my own products as well.
Can you give us a walkthrough of what someone would expect to gain from checking out your eBook?
My goal for the Ultimate Guide to Landscape Photography was to take a complete beginner to the stage where they felt confident in their landscape photography. Basically, I cover every stage in the landscape photography process.
It starts off with the basics such as gear and camera settings before getting a bit more in depth. It includes a complete timeline of how I plan a landscape photography outing, a ton of tips on composition (including how to actually find compositions without having to resort to the dreaded ‘rules’), tips on shooting in different weather, lighting conditions and environments and a guide to getting started with post processing.
Obviously it includes a bunch of my own images too, so you can buy it for the pretty pictures alone if you want!
Anything else you’d like to share?
I just want to reiterate how much photography can affect your life. I imagine if you’re reading this you’ll already have at least a passing interest in photography, but completely throwing myself into it is one of the best things I ever did.
It’s one area of life where you don’t need an education, job experience or a degree to be successful. I started out with no idea what I was doing, and through practice and experimentation I’ve ended up with images published in award books, both an online and offline business, and above all else a hobby I truly love.
You can check out more from Click & Learn Photography at their website. For more great interviews and photography education content, stay tuned here on Formed From Light!
