SHOOT LIKE A PRO
We meet Harrybehindthelens in the East of England. Find out how he captures traditional landscape shots with minimal editing
While many landscape photographers turn pro later in life, Harry Wheeler-Brand, alternatively known by his business moniker Harrybehindthelens is one of those rare people who not only knew what they wanted to do from an early age, but also had the drive to make it happen.
At just 19, Harry is a pro landscape photographer, workshop leader, and has just published his first photo book – a location guide to East Anglia’s coast. Never a “big person for school”, Harry had an entrepreneurial spirit, and was encouraged and influenced by his family to pursue photography. “I grew up around my parents who respectively had their own businesses, and my dad helped me a lot when I first set up my business years ago. The reason I got started was because my mum
used to outsource all the print and design work for the National Trust in East Anglia. So I’ve literally grown up in an office, and going to all of these nice places; country parks, houses, estates, dropping off leaflets… I think I just fell in love with it all.”
Running your first photo workshop would be daunting at any age, but Harry started at
15. “Near enough every day after school I’d be running workshops, or if I had a free period I’d be planning them. It is a bit strange running workshops when you’re that age. Even now I’m 19, people expect me to be 25 or 30.”
After school, Harry completed a diploma in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, which gave him an arsenal of practical tools to take his career further. However skilled you are with a camera, marketing yourself is just as vital for people to find your services. So when Harry first started running his workshops, he really got into the advertising side of things. “I taught myself all of that, and even did a mock online degree. Without the marketing, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you. But it proves that anyone my age can do it if they have an idea.
“During lockdown, like many, I switched to online workshops, and I’ve had 90 camera club talks booked in. In a way it’s been great, because I obviously wouldn’t be
able to get to all those places and people in person. Most people are still very wary of booking inperson workshops again just yet.”
True to his character, Harry was proactive when the lockdowns started to loom last year, and he started to put together a mailing list of clubs and clients that he’d done workshops or days out with before. “I literally spent two days sitting at my desk emailing people, which was less than fun, but it did pay off. I sent out an email to all of them offering virtual talks, and within 48 hours I had around 40 bookings come in for the next three of four months. Now I’m doing them every night. There’s a roster of six talks, all bespoke, but clubs request topics, too.”
For most photographers, success comes only with putting in the work behind the scenes. Harry started small and worked methodically, an approach which also helped lead to the release of his first book, A Photo Guidebook to East Anglia’s Coast.
“The book itself I started writing when I was 16. When I released it last year, there weren’t any bookshops open, but I’ve spent the last weeks emailing bookshops and giftshops and I’m making great progress.”
Harry has an encyclopedic knowledge of his local counties, as well as an intuitive knack for reading the weather. As we head towards our first sunrise shooting location in the Norfolk Broads, he shares that he doesn’t rely on weather apps too heavily, instead using his experience to judge it.
We start out at a spot called Thurne, which is one of Harry’s favourite spots because it’s so peaceful (and at dawn, suitably picturesque). “The very lowest bit of Norfolk is The Broads, where we are, so because of the lay of the land it’s often misty. I tend to keep the tripod at eye-level height to give equal weight to the expansive skies in the frame.”
Harry taught himself how to take photographs, but instead of turning to online tutorials or videos, he reads a lot of books and magazines at home. “I’ve got no formal qualifications. That said, I should be applying for a Licentiate or Fellowship with the Royal Photographic Society once it opens up.” He has set himself a rough five-year plan, and the RPS award features on it. “It’s a very loose plan, but I do have a general idea of where I want to go.”
After an hour or so of shooting, Harry’s camera battery runs
out, which brings the perfect opportunity for him to show me the 20 or so spares he’s brought with him. “I’ve got so many different filters and batteries for all sorts of cameras in the back of the car, which I use for group workshops.” As for Harry’s clients, it’s a mixed bag of beginners, advanced shooters, and those who want to draw on his expert local location knowledge to capture new scenes. “Some people do bring iPhones on workshops, which does slightly upset me. And while the 12MP camera might still be good, I will argue that the sensor is a fraction of the size of a camera.”
The main thing for Harry is that clients enjoy his workshops, whatever their level or choice of tool. Although he enjoys the community and marketing sides of social media, for him, comparison is indeed the thief of joy. “I think the most important thing about photography is that you enjoy it. For me, that’s one thing that gets lost a lot. A lot of people compare their photos to others, which I hate. I have some people that come on workshops, and if you entered their images into competitions, they wouldn’t get anywhere with them as they’re technically not right, but they like them, and that’s the key.”
Harry was a runner-up in the young Landscape Photographer of the Year competition last year, and his approach to imagemaking is on the traditional side.
As the morning mist sticks around, we wait for the sun to rise behind Thurne windmill – a classic landscape shot – and he shares his exposure settings.
“Settings-wise, it’s easy. I’m always at ISO 50-100, apertures are very high at f/16 and above, and then the shutter speed is dependent on where it meters with manual mode. Harry is aiming at pin-sharp scenes, and doesn’t want any focus drop-off any way through the image. “Of course, there are times that I’ll stop it down to f/5 if I want to make something deliberately the main foreground interest in the composition. “I can also guarantee a certain level of laziness with a high aperture, where I don’t have to worry about where I put the focal point.”
As we wait a few moments more for the sun to peek through and light up the wind pump, listening to the peace of the birds, Harry adds, “It’s always been landscapes, really.”
“I think the most important thing about photography is that you enjoy it. That gets lost a lot”