I don’t think of myself as a landscape photographer. I’ll often go out on day road trips with my friend, Garrett (who is a great landscape photographer, btw), but my intent on these outings isn’t really about coming back with some great photos. I just like to get out in the fresh air; maybe do some climbing around on rocks; just good hang-time with a friend.
I’ll take a few shots, maybe a roll or two (usually just one). But I normally don’t get anything that really speaks to me. Still fun though.
But Then I Watched a Video on YouTube…
This morning I was watching some YT videos and stumbled upon a video by photographer, Jeff Ascough. He’s was talking about shooting panos with his Leica M9-P, a 35mm film camera. The video’s thumbnail was a beautiful black & white landscape that was just stunning so I decided to check it out.
It Was The Crop!
The video showed Jeff walking around Northumberland taking various shots that were cool, but the thing that really appealed to me was the pano crop of each image. It took a normal black & white shot that maybe wouldn’t have caught my attention, and made it seem much more special. It just made a world of difference to me.
This got me thinking. Maybe if I did a pano crop of some of my landscapes, maybe I would actually like them more.
So Into Lightroom I go…
I started pulling up some scans of photos I had taken on road trips with G. I started cropping. First I went with 16 x 9, but that didn’t really do it for me. Then I tried 16 x 6. That was it! That turned an ordinary photo into something I enjoyed much more. It kind of even enhanced the sense of story in the image; maybe because it more of a cinematic orientation. But it definitely made a big difference to me.
Something So Simple
I’m generally not into cropping photos. I really like getting the composition in-camera. However, I don’t own a pano camera, so if I want these kinds of photos I will need to crop. I’m okay with that.
Often in times when we get kind of stuck in our photography, this just shows how one small thing, making a small change to how you do something can really make a big difference. This kind of even inspires me to want to do more landscapes; go out with the purpose in mind that I will be turning those 35mm shots into 16 x 6 panos. Shoot with that intention in mind; visualize the shots that way.
Landscapes are cool. Who knew!? 🤓
