Landscapes

This fantastic photo, taken on a D7100, shows just how much detail you can capture in entry-level equipment. The complex storm clouds, and lightning bolt are contrasted by a simple, monochromatic foreground. The lone tree in the distance is kept company by the single lightning bolt which powerfully punctuates and otherwise spacious landscape.

A forest, backlit by the sun creates beautiful silhouettes which are also doubled in the still pond-like puddle in the bottom-right of the photo. As the clearing disappears off the the left of the picture, so too, do the puddles, in gradually smaller points of light.

The precipitation you see in the centre of the frame is a phenomenon called virga, which is rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground. Although for us, it looks like ghostly souls ascending to the clouds.

It’s the symmetry of this shot that makes it so attention-grabbing. The clear, sharp, vivid double rainbow arches out over a similarly shaped hill, with an calm low light skimming across the grass in front.

It just goes to show that there’s no such thing as a ‘landscape lens’. Shot with a 70-200mm the photographer has compressed this gigantic vista and thereby granted focused depth to an otherwise unwieldy scene. The shafts of evening light help to separate the rocky peaks with increasing levels of clarity, the closer they are to the camera.

The rock formations on this coast gently bend and curve in a graceful ‘S’-shape all the way out towards the sea, bringing the eye through the entire frame. And a low hanging-sun in the sky provides a vanishing point for the eye to settle on. This is a nicely composed shot that has solid structure.

An iconic scene to film and TV afficianados, this avenue of beech trees in County Antrim, Northern Ireland is known worldwide for its beauty. Here the photographer has captured it in full autumnal swing, with deep oranges and reds vibrantly bursting through the pale grey tousled trunks that lean out over the road.

A rich sunrise over Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in Indonesia shines brightly on the volcanic landscape. The tree on the right of the frame overhangs the scene, creating a frame within a frame, adding depth to the photograph. A shutter speed of 1/20 sec manages to blur the wafting plumes of smoke that emanate from a crater.

There’s magic in this scene, with the thick fog and gnarled, moss-clad oak trees and stones one can almost visualise fairies flying through the frame. The photographer’s choice to limit the colour palette to blue and green tones complement the emotive content of the subject.