CAPTURE CLOSE-UP DETAILS
Seek out and shoot the little details to tell an in‑depth story about the spring season
So often landscape photography is seen as purely ‘scenic’ imaging, concentrating exclusively on wide vistas encompassing panoramic detail. When mentioning the term many people immediately think of wideangle shots of Yosemite, the Grand Canyon or an expanse of the Lake District. Perhaps more worryingly, this limited concept of landscapes is shared by many image creators themselves, who rarely stop to consider the smaller details of a scene that have the power to tell a far more intimate story.
The opportunity for intimate scenes is never clearer than during the spring months. As new life erupts in an explosion of shoots, unfurling ferns and fresh leaves, looking closer, rather than wider, can reveal textures, colours and patterns that hint at the bigger picture in a far less obvious or literal way. It’s also a good chance to try new perspectives and apply lesser-used camera skills.
Learning to pick out important detail is a core skill for any photographer, so zooming in and isolating a smaller area of the wider scene helps us to define the elements of the location that drew our attention in the first place. The morning frost on a crocus shoot emerging from the woodland floor is likely something that we recognised, but may not have thought to use as a main subject. Instead we’ll probably reach for the 1020mm lens in the hope of capturing a frosty woodland scene. In this case, such a scene may not exist when framed widely, and can only be suggested to the viewer by excluding all but the most critical detail. So don’t hesitate to reach for a 70-200mm and focus on the smaller things.
Part of the process of shooting landscape elements up close is to identify how well they represent the look and feel of the wider scene, while functioning as a composition in their own right. Since you are isolating one area of the environment, you are bringing together various objects or colours within the frame of the image. These might not seem to interact too strongly in a wider-framed shot, but up close any colour clashes and overly busy detail will be noticeable to the viewer. If improperly framed, the vignette of the wider scene you are creating may seem underwhelming – you need to make the viewer instantly understand why you chose to exclude the rest of the environment from the picture. If the reaction is one of confusion then the image has failed.
Once you’ve found something within a scene that you want to study more closely, take the time to walk around it, and observe it using different focal lengths. This will ensure that aspects such as perspective and lens compression are fully taken into account, while also helping you to identify the optimal lighting for the shot. Remember that a close-up study can be an entire valley or hillside, just shot from afar using a longer optic to isolate it from the surrounding landscape features. A beam of light shining through mist or illuminating a field is one example, and is a popular image choice when doing this.
Whatever subject you choose to focus on in the landscape, the aim is to capture the essence of spring. The composition needs to be descriptive and representative of the whole environment, successfully conveying the distinctive look, feel, sounds and smells of the season.