How far do you travel for your landscape photography?

Not that I do much landscape but the local hotspot for me is the Jurassic coast.
Bout a 1h 20m drive.
 
I have to confess that most of my landscape photography has been done while on holiday.
I know we live in a beautiful country and I need to make more of an effort to get out there and see it.
There was a member here who lives on Sky and she use to post some amazing photos and it's a place I would like to visit one day.
 
Skye is one of the best places on the earth to photograph
hashcake said:
I have to confess that most of my landscape photography has been done while on holiday.
I know we live in a beautiful country and I need to make more of an effort to get out there and see it.
There was a member here who lives on Sky and she use to post some amazing photos and it's a place I would like to visit one day.
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I'm very fortunate in that I don't have to travel far at all. I can get landscapes just up the street or if I'm in the mood, 2-2.5 hours in the car gets me to The Highlands and there are also opportunities to the south, about 90 minutes or less by car.

Scotland is magical, it really is.
 
In recent years I've only really been picking my camera up once a year for our holiday (US/Canada or Iceland). Then it's barely put down as landscape photography is always the focus of the trip.
 
When I was in Bristol it could be as little as 5min and it was all profitable content.

In Scotland it was around 1:40 to my preferred patch but it was amazing.

Now in the Midlands/Cotswolds it's so f*****g miserable I face min 3-4 hour drive to get anything half decent, do much so I nearly can't be bothered any more until I move out to more decent place, hopefully near Alps or somewhere in spain
 
30mins to anywhere on Dartmoor , 10mins to coast and 10mins to hour to anywhere in Cornwall. Extremely lucky but don’t really make the most of it or appreciate it enough I think
 
I'm pretty lucky, I'm about 40 mins to the stunning Gower coast (I actually live in walking distance to my local beach) and about 45mins to the Brecon beacons, maybe 20 mins or so to some nice waterfalls. I'm spoilt. Thing is I don't go much further than about 40/50 miles, I just don't get the time.
 
I’m in the middle of the lakes, Peak District and North Wales so it can be a bit of a pain. Recently I drove 6 hours up to Glencoe. I often make the 1.
Hr 30 - 2hr trip up to the Lakes or Northbound Wales though.

Skye is also on the cards for some point soon. But I would travel to the Dolomites for example, just for photography.
 
I used to live within an hour or so of Glen Coe, but rarely went. Now it seems in Hull, I'm at least 2 hours from anywhere really worthy of photographing.

Silly of me not to make the most of it whilst I could tbh [emoji852]
 
My favourite places over the years have been Knoydart peninsular, Scotland, Snowdon area, Brecon beacons, Home territory Wales, Rockies, B.C. but it's surprising what we miss on our doorstep. I bet that most people wouldn't think of what sometimes is just within ten miles or so of home. My absolute favourite is a specific waterfall and pool set in a small gorge that most people don't ever see because even though there is a path above it you can't see it, and to get to it you have to go downstream about a hundred yards and wade up to it, and from now until about late August you have to get there between 11.00a.m. and 1.00p.m. providing the sun obliges. All I can say is stunning, but you'll get your a**e wet taking pics.
 
I have done day trips to the Lakes or Snowdonia for a single sunrise or sunset in the past. Which from Suffolk is minimum 4.5 hours each way.

I do find though that you need to be there longer to get in the zone and also for the stars to align and you to be at a good location with the light you want and for me to have spotted the shot. So for those areas I normally go for minimum 2 nights and that is not long enough but sometimes you have to get away. I've driven to the top of Scotland before, and flown to Edinburgh then driven, but that has to be a week, and again is not long enough.

That's why I can appreciate this approach from Andy, where you just absorb yourself in landscape photography.

Tobers said:
I cherish my 1 week a year up in north west Scotland. I rent a cottage on the beach just north of Ullapool and explore. It’s beautiful. I want to spend more time up there if at all possible.
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justinminns said:
I can get anywhere in my local area, East Anglia, in under 2 hours which is where I do most of my photography.

Beyond that I tutor workshops as far afield as North & South America
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Interesting that you mention doing most of your photography locally Justin, it was something I was thinking about the other day when I heard you were doing the fotovue book (?) for East Anglia.

I love photography and when I can get out with my camera and I'm relaxed and the light is coming though I still get the buzz, it doesn't matter whether it is an epic mountain view, a windmill in Norfolk or a poppy field behind my house.

But, for 2 reasons I haven't done much locally recently, one is that I can look at good shots other people have taken locally and thought 'I'd be pleased with that', but then I'm not actually motivated enough to get up at whatever 'o' clock in the morning to get on location locally. I enjoy it when I do but it does not inspire me like mountains do.

The other reason is I don't think I am good enough to see the photos you do, good compositions are really obvious once you've seen them in someone else shot, but I struggle to turn an average scene into a good photograph. I need some help from the landscape more than what I get from Suffolk I think!

It's been a difficult year taking me away from photography and tiring me out but after leaving 2 jobs, self building my house and starting my own company I am starting to get some time back and my cure for inspiration is to do an @SFTPhotography and book a week in the Dolomites. End of May, start of June I can't wait.

So quite a long way I guess, but I'll fly there and hire a car!
 
Craig_85 said:
I have done day trips to the Lakes or Snowdonia for a single sunrise or sunset in the past. Which from Suffolk is minimum 4.5 hours each way.

I do find though that you need to be there longer to get in the zone and also for the stars to align and you to be at a good location with the light you want and for me to have spotted the shot. So for those areas I normally go for minimum 2 nights and that is not long enough but sometimes you have to get away. I've driven to the top of Scotland before, and flown to Edinburgh then driven, but that has to be a week, and again is not long enough.

That's why I can appreciate this approach from Andy, where you just absorb yourself in landscape photography.





Interesting that you mention doing most of your photography locally Justin, it was something I was thinking about the other day when I heard you were doing the fotovue book (?) for East Anglia.

I love photography and when I can get out with my camera and I'm relaxed and the light is coming though I still get the buzz, it doesn't matter whether it is an epic mountain view, a windmill in Norfolk or a poppy field behind my house.

But, for 2 reasons I haven't done much locally recently, one is that I can look at good shots other people have taken locally and thought 'I'd be pleased with that', but then I'm not actually motivated enough to get up at whatever 'o' clock in the morning to get on location locally. I enjoy it when I do but it does not inspire me like mountains do.

The other reason is I don't think I am good enough to see the photos you do, good compositions are really obvious once you've seen them in someone else shot, but I struggle to turn an average scene into a good photograph. I need some help from the landscape more than what I get from Suffolk I think!

It's been a difficult year taking me away from photography and tiring me out but after leaving 2 jobs, self building my house and starting my own company I am starting to get some time back and my cure for inspiration is to do an @SFTPhotography and book a week in the Dolomites. End of May, start of June I can't wait.

So quite a long way I guess, but I'll fly there and hire a car!
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Just drive down - I did and plan a few spots to shoot along the way ;)

I’m off all October to the Pyrenees:)
 
Craig_85 said:
The other reason is I don't think I am good enough to see the photos you do, good compositions are really obvious once you've seen them in someone else shot, but I struggle to turn an average scene into a good photograph. I need some help from the landscape more than what I get from Suffolk I think!
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Don't photograph what you consider to be an average scene, you need to be inspired by what you're photographing. Worth keeping in mind some areas can appear average most of the time but in the right conditions can be completely transformed. I remember stumbling across a small pond a few years ago, on most occasions you wouldn't give it a second glance but one morning it had the right mix of late summer foliage, mist, golden light and an interesting sky, had a gorgeous painterly look and it's still one of my favourite photos. You just need to be open to possibilities and not have too many preconceived ideas when you're in areas like ours that don't have obvious compositions. If you can start to see photographs in 'boring' areas the possibilities seem endless in national parks!
 
Scirocco_09 said:
Don't photograph what you consider to be an average scene, you need to be inspired by what you're photographing. Worth keeping in mind some areas can appear average most of the time but in the right conditions can be completely transformed. I remember stumbling across a small pond a few years ago, on most occasions you wouldn't give it a second glance but one morning it had the right mix of late summer foliage, mist, golden light and an interesting sky, had a gorgeous painterly look and it's still one of my favourite photos. You just need to be open to possibilities and not have too many preconceived ideas when you're in areas like ours that don't have obvious compositions. If you can start to see photographs in 'boring' areas the possibilities seem endless in national parks!
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I also do this really annoying thing where I have shots in my head, but for the mood to suit the scene and how I'd like to shoot it/portray it I have certain weather and lighting conditions in my head. Whilst I might react to the scene if it is different and then use different settings and process it to suit the mood I'm never happy because it is not how 'I picture it' if that makes any sense.
 
Craig_85 said:
Interesting that you mention doing most of your photography locally Justin, it was something I was thinking about the other day when I heard you were doing the fotovue book (?) for East Anglia.
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Done... it's already out ;) There is a distinct lack of mountains in the book though so it might not be for you!

Craig_85 said:
The other reason is I don't think I am good enough to see the photos you do, good compositions are really obvious once you've seen them in someone else shot, but I struggle to turn an average scene into a good photograph. I need some help from the landscape more than what I get from Suffolk I think!
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It's a good point, Suffolk is a challenging area to photograph, you have to work quite hard to find compositions. This was brought home to me when I started running workshops to places like the Canadian Rockies, Iceland and Slovenia etc where nature does a lot more of the work for you with such stunning (mountainous) views!

If you ever fancy coming on a workshop to help you see the shot, give me a shout ;)
 
justinminns said:
It's a good point, Suffolk is a challenging area to photograph, you have to work quite hard to find compositions. This was brought home to me when I started running workshops to places like the Canadian Rockies, Iceland and Slovenia etc where nature does a lot more of the work for you with such stunning (mountainous) views!

If you ever fancy coming on a workshop to help you see the shot, give me a shout ;)
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I remember seeing a quote once from some famous photographer; asked how to become a better photographer, reputed to have replied "stand in front of more interesting stuff!"
 
Being based in Oxford, I will happily travel to Wales for a long weekend or Scotland if I have a week or more. But there is a great deal to be said for working with whatever you have locally. It depends to a degree on what you're trying to achieve, but I think there's no substitute for being able to revisit a location repeatedly under different conditions and refine what it is about it that draws you in.
 
dave.hallett said:
here's no substitute for being able to revisit a location repeatedly under different conditions and refine what it is about it that draws you in.
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I guess - Glencoe really being my local spot and honestly I just keep going back for more and more.

Although I like going to new places and seeing new things too. There has to be a mix of local and new.
 
SFTPhotography said:
I guess - Glencoe really being my local spot and honestly I just keep going back for more and more.

Although I like going to new places and seeing new things too. There has to be a mix of local and new.
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Yes, I like the way time passes more slowly when I'm in a new place.

If I lived anywhere near Glencoe, I would certainly go there a great deal!
 
justinminns said:
If you ever fancy coming on a workshop to help you see the shot, give me a shout ;)
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In the past I would have ruled this out. Not from a lack of respect to the tutor, far from it. But because in life I have self taught myself nearly everything I have done.

Recently I have seen the benefit of training in a professional capacity and may well take you up on that offer.

Perhaps I will be in touch later in the year, thanks.
 
I'm happy to travel wherever, if I can sleep before or immediately after a long journey - great.

Based in the NE of England I'm pretty much spoilt for choice - in fairly close proximity is Northumberland, Yorkshire and the Lake District. Just beyond that is Scotland and Wales
and it doesn't make much difference once you've been driving over 45 minutes, not to me.

I don't think I'm any different to anyone else that's trying to get out and about and find images they're happy with - and just because I'm willing to travel further doesn't mean I'll be in with a greater chance of success; but I did make a conscious decision to explore more, to go to new locations and find areas that I'd never visited previously and not to led distance put me off. An example of this was a trip to Durdle Dor recently. I picked up a friend in Penrith and we drove straight to Dorset for some Astro (of which I'm terrible) and for sunset at Corfe castle then back home to the North East.
 
Leicestershire too - North West Leicestershire, so around 1.5 hours to the Hope Valley area which is where I tend to go quite often. Other than that everywhere else worth going is pretty far, been to the Lakes a few times hiking and took the camera along. Found YHA hostels fairly recently which are fantastic and incredibly cheap, so makes driving further afield a more attractive proposition that I plan on taking advantage of in future.

Love the seaside but our nearest isn't exactly awe inspiring!!!
 
jmcdyre said:
Leicestershire too - North West Leicestershire, so around 1.5 hours to the Hope Valley area which is where I tend to go quite often. Other than that everywhere else worth going is pretty far, been to the Lakes a few times hiking and took the camera along. Found YHA hostels fairly recently which are fantastic and incredibly cheap, so makes driving further afield a more attractive proposition that I plan on taking advantage of in future.

Love the seaside but our nearest isn't exactly awe inspiring!!!
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My local is the Bristol Channel. That's just mud......!
 
Craig_85 said:
I have done day trips to the Lakes or Snowdonia for a single sunrise or sunset in the past. Which from Suffolk is minimum 4.5 hours each way.

I do find though that you need to be there longer to get in the zone and also for the stars to align and you to be at a good location with the light you want and for me to have spotted the shot. So for those areas I normally go for minimum 2 nights and that is not long enough but sometimes you have to get away. I've driven to the top of Scotland before, and flown to Edinburgh then driven, but that has to be a week, and again is not long enough.

That's why I can appreciate this approach from Andy, where you just absorb yourself in landscape photography.





Interesting that you mention doing most of your photography locally Justin, it was something I was thinking about the other day when I heard you were doing the fotovue book (?) for East Anglia.

I love photography and when I can get out with my camera and I'm relaxed and the light is coming though I still get the buzz, it doesn't matter whether it is an epic mountain view, a windmill in Norfolk or a poppy field behind my house.

But, for 2 reasons I haven't done much locally recently, one is that I can look at good shots other people have taken locally and thought 'I'd be pleased with that', but then I'm not actually motivated enough to get up at whatever 'o' clock in the morning to get on location locally. I enjoy it when I do but it does not inspire me like mountains do.

The other reason is I don't think I am good enough to see the photos you do, good compositions are really obvious once you've seen them in someone else shot, but I struggle to turn an average scene into a good photograph. I need some help from the landscape more than what I get from Suffolk I think!

It's been a difficult year taking me away from photography and tiring me out but after leaving 2 jobs, self building my house and starting my own company I am starting to get some time back and my cure for inspiration is to do an @SFTPhotography and book a week in the Dolomites. End of May, start of June I can't wait.

So quite a long way I guess, but I'll fly there and hire a car!
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I definitely found this i.e. struggling to see compositions that only become obvious once you've seen someone else post it. I think getting out as much as possible definitely helps with that. I find if I have a big lull in my photography it takes me a while to train my eye again.

I'm in central London, but in recent months drove 3 hours down to Seaford for the Seven Sisters and about the same to Durdle Door. Do need to get back to the peaks at some point soon.
 
There's a question of mindset. I do usually carry a camera and hope to be able to produce some images wherever I go (indoors, outdoors, town or country), but I'm rather an opportunist without preconceived notions - I've gone somewhere primarily to be in that place rather than with the express intention of making photographs. So there's very little photographic planning involved, but I do have a certain respect for those who can orchestrate trips to deliver the photographic goods.

On the other hand, whilst in a place I do try to cultivate an alertness to photographic opportunities, hopefully connected with my gut feelings about what's around me. And guts are on the baseline of what it's all about, really. The photographic extraction, to have some power, needs to be more than a formulaic distillation, and more than an aesthetic exercise.

Given that a photograph is an attempt at communication, hopefully it will be technically competent but the main issue is that it might be artistically competent, and find an accord with the viewer - a recognition. This might be an echo of something they're quite familiar with - or a vision of something that they come to as if for the first time through your photograph, which is the best shot as far as I'm concerned.

How far do I travel? I go as far as I was going to go anyway for life's main purposes.

But the longer you spend in a place, the more you might be able to mine its artistic potential - you can build up a composite of detail that can contribute to a deeper knowledge with a wider resonance - a good argument for making images of somewhere close by. To illustrate that point, and I know it's not landscape, look at 'Small Town Inertia' by Jim Mottram. In other words, forget the lure of producing a single killer postcard image or two, but think more about a coherent body of work.
 
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I'm based in South Yorkshire & pretty much have a minimum 2hr journey to get any where that offers the kind of locations I like . Currently got an addiction to the Wirral /West coast area ( 4 trips in 2 months) , Lake District is 3.5hrs,Scotland is 5 or 6hrs but what the hell...it makes me happy
Newfoundland is probably the furthest I've travelled purely for photography along with the Dolomites.
But I admire travelling so pretty much will drive whatever distance I need to .
 
Nearest City to me is London, 30 mins on train or car however I seldom do streets. I had done landscape around London between 3am - 6am then home time. I prefer empty space where I can feel the whole city rather than swarm of humans walking around the City. Again, pity I don't do this often but being working in the City doesn't really encourage you to go out over weekend though.

I always envious folks who live close to nice locations.

My next travel for Autumn is in September - Sweden (hiking) and October - New Hampshire, the white mountain.

I am aiming to do either Skye or Lewis and Harris in April/May next year.
 
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