P#12 Q7A: As a Master Landscape Photographer, What Are Some Secrets You Can Share with Us?

Secrets of the Pros

Jennifer Wu: Secrets... Let's see. Maybe my best advice isn't necessarily a secret as much as it is a way of thinking.

I was out photographing with my sister in Hawaii. She doesn't do photography, but after a couple days, she said, "Whoa, now I have that photographer's mind. I can think like a landscape photographer and I understand what you do."

While she was with me those couple of days I was constantly talking about what I was doing. I would say, "Okay, we want to create the mood." By "mood" I'm referring to the light and the clouds and the time of day.

When I am shooting, I go out and look for a spot. I say, "I wonder what this is going to look like if it's cloudy in the morning or if it's sunny." Then I come back to that location again and again -- not just once.

As a landscape photographer you just have to keep going back over and over until all of those scenes come together.

Many times things just happen and I go out and shoot and say, "Oh wow, those are great." There are many times, however, when I've done a lot of preparing beforehand. I've gone on the Internet and researched the location, found out when the flowers are going to be in bloom or when there's going to be fall colors, or I've called up a ranger and said, "Okay, what's it like right now? I'm coming over. It's good? Great."

Creating that mood is going to make the image much more interesting than that midday shot would. Come when there is cloud pattern and find out when the clouds come in. In San Francisco, we've got our foggy summers but in the fall, we have the secret summer where it's warmer and clear. Know the weather and what mood is set.

Depending on what you want to photograph, create a mood with either the fog or with the clouds and go back to that location over and over again until you get it right.

In Conclusion

According to Jennifer Wu, mood can make the difference between good landscape photographs and great ones. If you want to become a better landscape photographer, learn to find the right moods -- and recognize that it often means coming back to the same spot time and time again.