Sometimes, Landscape Photography is Scary!
Landscape photography often is compared to the stereotypical image of a relaxed artist painting the trees by a lake. Or something like that. In practice, photographers who are really drawn to capturing natural landscapes fall into a few camps.
There are the photographers who enjoy taking photos of places they visit or just in their backyard. Landscapes are everywhere – you know.
On the other hand, the landscape photography that most excites us are of places far away and foreign. The advent of social media image sharing has gone a long way to popularize some specific places on this planet of ours.
The many waterfalls and fjords of Iceland.
The Cliffs of Mohr and Isle of Skye in Ireland.
The sand dunes of Death Valley in the United States.
More recently…the unique qualities of Lofoten in Norway…
This list is by no means exhaustive. You can probably add to it yourself!
So…how can landscape photography be scary?
The actual photos are not normally frightening to look at. Though, we can admit, we occasionally get some vertigo when looking at images taken with a drone over some huge vista. Or, photos of giant cliff with someone standing eerily close to the edge.
Landscape photography becomes scary when producing an image requires the photographer to put themselves in danger. Sometimes, just traveling to a location can be rough. It makes a photograph that much more worth it when the whole story behind it’s capture can be told.
Our Landscape Photography Stories
Landscape photography most appeals to us when we travel. While some people enjoy photographing cities and people in these foreign places, we are really drawn to the natural features the world has to offer. Mountains, waterfalls, rivers, sunsets, animals…it’s all a big deal for us.
So, with this in mind, we want to share a couple of our landscape photography stories in our travels. Don’t worry, you’ll have your chance to share too! 🙂
#1. Dynjandi – Waterfall in Iceland
The 10 day campervan trip we took around Iceland will forever be one of our favorite experiences in life. We loved every minute of it – including the rough parts. We knew life in the Westfjords would potentially be more challenging, but what we experienced was tough. Let’s walk through the challenges and how they got compounded:
- Long and winding roads
- Roads on the edge of large cliffs
- No guardrails
- Rapidly changing weather
- Rain and fog
- Driving for hours in this one way
- Fear of heights
We even took a little video of it while were there.
In a positive twist of fate, as soon as we arrived into the little valley where Dynjandi is located, the weather cleared up and we were able to enjoy this surreal location to the fullest.
Of course, as we began our trek back to the Ring Road, we were caught in a monstrous storm and stayed the night at a nearby campground.
#2. Astrophotography in Death Valley
Death Valley National Park is a landscape photographer hot spot. We mean that both figuratively and literally! Being in the middle of a desert comes with simple requirements: have a lot of water on hand, and take periodic breaks to avoid dehydration.
While we took some landscape photos during the day, Death Valley really shines beautifully during Golden Hour and after the sun has set. Being one of the world’s largest dark sky parks, the view of the stars above is simply stunning. Our jaws literally dropped, and we were filled with excitement like children at Christmas-time.
Where taking photos in Death Valley gets to be a bit scary is the following:
- It’s dark everywhere
- Moonlight and starlight only illuminate so much
- Hiking on desert sand dunes is tiring – doubly so in the dark
- You can’t see your surroundings
- Coyotes and other animals are on the prowl
Our main spot for the evening at Death Valley’s Mesquite Sand Dunes was roughly a half mile in. Admittedly, we didn’t really think things through. After shooting for about an hour, we decided to head back to our car when we started hearing coyotes howling in the distance.
#3. Heights from Zion National Park
Our day trip to Zion National Park is now a great memory. At the time…it was an unprecedented challenge. There are easier routes to hike at Zion, but we decided to go one of the hardest routes – Angel’s Landing. The actual hike was very difficult, with many sets up switchbacks and mostly hiking up. It didn’t help we did Zion near the end of our travels, so were already pretty tired.
The views from the top of Angel’s Landing are stunning. Being there in person, though, is entirely different. If you have a fear of heights, you’re going to feel it quite a bit. You know, that dropping sensation in your stomach.
For the most adventurous among us, the climb to the peak of Angel’s Landing involves hiking on a narrow strip of a sheer cliffs edge with a chain railing to hold onto. My hands are literally clamming up just thinking about it. You can watch a great POV video of this here.
Your Stories
So, now you’ve read a couple of our more recent stories that went into allowing us to take some landscape photographs we love. We’d love to hear some of your own. Feel free to share in the comments below!!
