Learning to "see the light". This is what separates great landscape photography from the average. Just about everyone who owns a digital camera and who loves to travel has the potential to be a landscape photographer. What will make YOU a great photographer is for you to:

1) Scout out the light - check to see when the most dramatic light is... see the sunrise on a couple of mornings, or wait with anticipation for it to slip over the horizon and SNAP - you have a potentially great image.

2) Catch the weather forecasts. Know what kind of clouds there will be at the location. Anticipate the misty fog rising over the still warm lake on a cool fall morning or catch the first rays of light through the cirrus clouds of daybreak.

If you do these things you will absolutely take Great Photographs.

Nothing ruins a day of shooting quicker than the excitement of getting the right shot. You have patiently waited for the weather to clear over the peak of the mountain when the bald eagle flies right into frame, your hand shakes with excitement but, oh no, when you look at the image it’s blurry. What happened? You left your tripod back at base camp. Taking great photos takes great planning and you should invest in a lightweight tripod and not leave home without it.

You always want:

1) to carry a lightweight tripod

2) to use a cable release

If you happen to find yourself in the field without these…THINK CREATIVELY. IS there a knotch in a tree that you can brace the camera in or could you place the camera in a cleft in a rock… anything that keeps the camera still will work.