Our latest blog post brings you some inspiration from the very best landscape photographers.
Landscape photography can be a great reason for our Smart members to pick up their cameras and get amongst nature.
Whether photographing the rolling hills of Colorado or the cityscapes of Hong Kong it is a very appealing profession.
It is not only rewarding to capture beautiful images but can also be great exercise for both the body and mind.
In addition to some of the best landscape photographers in the industry we have a whole host of tips and tricks for you. Hopefully these pieces of advice will go a long way to helping you improve your landscape photography. Transforming you from snap shot images to stunning frame worthy photos.
If you are just starting your journey in photography and want to get the very best out of your camera you could always sign up to our photography course. We have a range of modules suitable for amateurs through to professionals.
101 of The Best Landscape Photographers and How to Improve Your Images
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What is Landscape Photography?
The very best landscape photographers have the ability to capture the heart and soul of a particular location. They invite the viewer in to new and exciting worlds and through their use of the camera they allow us to glimpse phenomena that is often unseen with the naked eye. Each landscape photographers style varies massively as well as the particular subject matter.
Wikipedia describes landscape photography as “showing spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes.”
Ansel Adams famously said “I hope that my work will encourage self expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us”
This appreciation for beauty in landscapes seems a constant theme with most landscape photographers. They seem fascinated with recording the ever changing scenery. The fact a landscape will look completely different from one day to the next seems to be a driving force that keeps them shooting.
The Best Landscape Photographers
Here is our list of the best landscape photographers.
We haven’t included photographers from the history books such as Ansel Adams etc. Instead we have concentrated on some of the best modern and active landscape photographers.
The majority of these photographers utilise digital photography and digital processing. However, we have found that there are still many who operate with traditional tools. Needless to say that whatever tools they use the photographers listed below capture simply breath taking scenes.
Ted Gore
Ted is a landscape photographer based in southern California. He has gained massive international acclaim for his development of a highly sophisticated style of photography. It is characterised by a combination of ambitious compositions and seductive processing.
Daniel Kordan
Daniel has been fascinated by the possibilities of photography since his early childhood. He grew up in a beautiful lake region under Moscow. Here he would spend his free time exploring and photographing nature.
Max Rive
Another of our best landscape photographers to check out is Max Rive. After almost losing his life in an aeroplane accident he decided to travel the world. Consequently he ventured to Chile, Argentina, Greenland, Sweden, Scotland, Norway and New Zealand. Max is the proud owner of an IPA award. This is one of the biggest awards in the landscape photography community.
Stacy White
Stacy is a landscape photographer living in Sarasota, Florida and spending as much time as possible in Driggs, Idaho. She loves abandoned places and enjoys stumbling upon the beautiful ruins of forgotten places. Stacy enjoys traveling as often as possible, and wherever she goes, her camera goes. She always aims to capture the beauty she finds around her.
Michael Shainblum
Image by Michael Shainblum
Michael Shainblum is a landscape, time lapse and aerial photographer based in San Francisco, California. He has been working professionally as a photographer and filmmaker for 11 years. Michael first made a name for himself through his unique creativity and the ability to capture scenes and moments in his distinct style of surreal, visual story telling. You will be able to find Michael’s work published widely by media outlets such as National Geographic, Wired Magazine and The Weather Channel.
Something to consider:
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Callum Snape
Callum Snape is an adventure and travel photographer from Vancouver, BC. His work is a reflection of his passions and is layered with landscapes, lifestyle, adventure, sports and personalities. Additionally with just under 1 million followers on Instagram it’s easy to see why he has made our list of the best landscape photographers. His landscape images are vibrant and awe inspiring you should definitely check him out!
Sean Bagshaw
Sean Bagshaw is an outdoor photographer, digital image developing enthusiast and photography educator based in Ashland, Oregon. He spends about a quarter of each year in the field on a quest for magical light. Typically he will be sleeping in his truck or on the ground, stumbling around in the dark, eating bad food and avoiding showers. Combining modern techniques with a traditional darkroom sense of pre-visualization, he approaches photography as a two part creative process. Sean gives capturing images and developing them equal importance and attention on the path to the final piece.
Juan Pablo de Miguel
This landscape photographer uses photography as a medium for inspiration and a means to understand the world. He specialises in European and American fine art landscapes and admires the works of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Carleton Watkins.
Guy Tal
Working predominately in the landscapes of his home, the high deserts of the Colorado Plateau. Guy Tal considers his work to be expressive art, in the sense that its primary purpose is to offer visual metaphors for thoughts and feelings, rather than to document appearances. He doesn’t consider himself a photographer who creates art, but rather an artist working in the medium of photography.
Jaewoon U
Jaewoon U has a gained a great following as one of the best landscape photographers on 500px. His work is always crisp and bright and he seems to have a great affinity to capture reflections. Jaewoon is from South Korea and he has around 130,000 followers and amassed nearly 11 million photo views on 500px.
Michael Frye
A professional photographer who specialises in landscape and nature photography. Michael has written several books and been a major contributor to articles in highly regarded photography magazines. This landscape photographer puts emphasis on light which allows him to create a mood which might be lyrical, playful, or mysterious.
Joshua Cripps
For Joshua photography is a medium through which to experience and share the wonder of the planet. His camera has enchanced his sense of beauty and made him more finely attuned to the ever changing interactions of patterns and shapes, light and shadows, drama and subtlety which make up the natural world. Being one of the best landscapes photographers allows him to capture the feeling of a moment, to preserve it, and to share it with others.
Erez Marom
Erez is a nature photographer who concentrates on landscape and wildlife imagery. To him both of these fields are all about the intricacy and beauty of our natural world. His goal is to show this beauty in his own unique way.
Colby Brown
Image by Colby Brown
Specialising in landscape, travel and humanitarian photography, Colby’s photographic portfolio spans the four corners of the globe. Throughout his work, one can see that he combines his love of the natural world with his fascination of the world’s diverse cultures. Each of his photographs tells a story of life on this planet.
Matt Donovan
In 2013 Matt started taking things more seriously and set the goal of taking his landscape photography to a much higher level. That’s when he started his website. Matt wants to share his experiences with the world, whether it be educational or inspirational. His images are simply breathtaking perfection and we’d definitely say he is up there as one of the best landscape photographers in the industry. His website and Instagram account are great places to check out his latest and greatest work.
Paul Zizka
From the peaks of the Canadian Rockies to iceberg-laden seas off the coast of Greenland, Paul’s journey to capture the “under-documented” is a testament to his passion for exploration, his creative vision and fierce sense of determination. These qualities, combined with his keen eye for unique compositions, have resulted in an exhaustive portfolio of cutting-edge images.
Dylan and Marianne
Join this duo of best landscape photographers as they take you on a journey to the amazing places they have seen. From breathtaking waterfalls in Iceland to the ridge lines of Scotland’s munros. These types of places are inspirational to Dylan and Marianne and through their landscape photography they want to share this wonder.
Timothy Poulton & Tim Donnelly
Timothy Poulton is a landscape photographer from Sydney, Australia, with a big passion for the outdoors. His photographic heart beats for hunting down the very best light from the very best locations. Timothy’s business partner also happens to be one of the best landscape photographers around. For Tim Donnelly the construction and composition of photos meant new endless possibilities for visiting and exploring the beaches that he loves. Timothy and Tim of One Of A Kind Photography Adventures offer the landscape photography industry affordable tours and workshops around the world.
Ole Henrick Skjelstad
Ole Henrik Skjelstad is a mathematics teacher and photographer from Norway. He fell in love with photography when he received his first camera as a birthday present in 2013. His preferred subjects revolve around landscape photography and include auroras and the milky way. He has had many features in magazines and the majority of work is available to view on his 500px page.
Lars Van De Goor
Lars’ prime source of inspiration comes from the mysterious encounter of nature and light. The main theme of his landscape work is the trees of his native Gelderland. He respectfully depicts these in their old power and timeless energy. Their mingling with the famous Dutch light yield landscapes with dragons as well as mysterious cathedrals. At times eerie in their sublime other worldliness his images open a window to air and time, even sound and smell. Only occasionally will people appear in the frame. Equally the rare inclusion of man-made objects remind the viewer that they are still on their own planet.
Joe Cornish
With over thirty years working as a photographer and twenty years leading tours and workshop it’s easy to see why Joe Cornish is one of the worlds top landscape photographers. Joe’s imagery has been widely exhibited and he has been a contributor to many photography publications.
Ross Hoddinott
Ross is one of the UK’s best landscape photographers. He has worked as a full time professional since 1997 and supplied photographs and undertaken commissions for a wide range of clients worldwide. Based in North Cornwall, Ross is best known for his exquisite macro and close-up images, and for evocative landscape photographs, particularly of Devon and Cornwall. He co-runs Dawn 2 Dusk Photography and also offers bespoke 1-2-1 tuition and workshops.
Manuel Dietrich
Manuel is a photographer, filmmaker and self confessed travel addict from western Germany. You can keep up to date with his most recent travels on his social media accounts and in particular his Instagram. He simply could not imagine a life without his camera in his hand and a passport in his backpack.
David Noton
David’s passion for photography, travel and the world’s most beautiful locations are the defining influences that have shaped his life, work and creative approach in photography. David is a renowned travel photographer and one of the best landscape photographers in the industry. Additionally he runs his own highly successful freelance photography company and publishes the acclaimed f11 Photography Magazine.
Elizabeth Gadd
Image by Elizabeth Gadd
Elizabeth is a 24 year old photographer based just outside of Vancouver, Canada. Having grown up in this beautiful area, she fell easily in love with exploring the surrounding forests, hills, mountains and ocean. She incorporates all these elements in her photography. Elizabeth combines landscape photography with portraiture to create fairytale, dreamy and peaceful imagery.
Mark Bauer
Mark is one of the U.K’s best landscape photographers and specialises in atmospheric images of the South West of England. He supplies stock images for editorial and advertising use. He is the author of 5 books, is a regular contributor to the UK photographic press and is a multi-award winner.
Thierry Bornier
Thierry is one of China’s most famous landscape photographers. His career and reputation have surged in the last 5 years. His work has featured in The Telegraph, Wired, and many more high profile publications. In 2015 and 2016, Thierry earned a nomination for China’s Landscape Photographer of the Year. Equally, National Geographic’s ‘Photo of the Day’ page often places him among the highest rated photographers. Thierry has also won many international awards from The Epson International Pano Awards and One Eyeland. His best photos sell for upwards of $15,000 and inquiries are constant.
Mikko Lagerstedt
A self taught fine art photographer from Finland. Mikko loves to capture night images and he enjoys creating atmospheric photography in simplistic landscapes. His images are dark and moody evoking the tones of movies.
Sandra Bartocha
Much of Sandra’s work was created using analog but more recent photographs are captured with a Nikon digital camera. She is not concerned with the general documentation of nature and landscape. Instead she is drawn to the aesthetics of natural contexts in detail. The spectrum of her nature photographs range from classical to individual perceptions of moments attempted by alienation.
Art Wolfe
Art Wolfe has cemented himself as one of the worlds best landscape photographers with a career that spans five decades. This is a remarkable testament to the durability and demand for his images, his expertise and his passionate advocacy for the environment of indigenous culture.
Hans Strand
After a long career as a mechanical engineer Hans Strand decided to make a dramatic change and devote his life to landscape photography. Hans has always found himself drawn to the untamed and manipulated that he finds in nature. Photographing everything from the vast expanses of the Arctic to steaming rainforests and dry deserts. His work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions and published in many international photography magazines.
Tom Mackie
Tom Mackie has been a photographer all his working life. His degree in commercial photography took him first of all to Los Angeles, where he spent five years as an industrial and architectural photographer. Moving to the UK in 1985, he pursued a full-time career as a landscape photographer. Working with digital, panoramic and large format equipment, Tom’s understanding of light and bold use of colour became a hallmark that established his reputation.
Valda Bailey
Valda’s approach to photography is heavily informed by his background in painting. To create his unique style he uses in camera multiple exposures as well as intentional camera movement to blur detail and make shapes abstract within the landscape.
Alex Noriega
Alex Noriega has an appreciation for dramatic imagery as well as smaller quieter scenery. His goal is to blend those attributes in the art that he make although he primarily seeks to create images that mean something to him.
Jonathan Chritchley
Image by Jonathan Chritchley
Jonathon is one of the best fine art photographers in the world today. His instantly recognisable work is seen in world exhibitions, galleries, magazines and books. Jonathon’s regular clients include Ralph Lauren, Hilton International, Fortuny and P&O Luxury Cruises. He also speaks and presents his work at photography and sailing events worldwide, and is the founder and owner of Capture Earth and Ocean Capture, two companies that specialise in luxury photography workshops and tours. His style is very minimalistic often utilising negative space as well as black and white imagery.
Kilian Schonberger
A professional photographer and geographer from Germany. Despite being colourblind he recognised that he could turn this so called disadvantage in to a strength. Rather than concentrating on the tones of an image he concentrates on patterns to achieve an impressive structure to his images.
Tiger Seo
A nature, travel and landscape photographer who is based in Goyang Korea. The images on his 500px page have had over 20 million views and his use of light within his imagery is absolutely stunning.
Vincent Favre
Vincent wanders the mountains, the seaside and the landscapes in general in the search of magical moments. His overall goal is to convince people to make the necessary effort to respect our beautiful environment.
Peter Lik
‘Island in the Sky’ by Peter Lik
Australian-born Peter Lik has spent over 30 years pushing the boundaries of fine art. A self-taught pioneer in the field of landscape photography, he is internationally renowned for captivating images of Mother Nature’s raw beauty. Thousands of dedicated collectors and a myriad of award wins from the world’s leading institutions have marked a successful career – which also includes an impressive 15 galleries around the United States and record-breaking sales. In 2014, Peter shattered a world record by selling his famed image, Phantom, to an anonymous collector for $6.5 million.
Darren White
Born and raised on the Oregon Coast is where Darren’s love for beautiful landscapes began. When he moved to Colorado he quickly fell in love with the majestic mountains and the outdoor life style that Colorado is known for.
Daniel Ernst
Daniel’s work as a photo-creator and story-teller takes him to many remote places around the world, always reflecting his passions. Inspired by nature, his photography mainly focuses on the outdoors, adventure and lifestyle. To offer a documentation of his travels on a daily basis, he started using the social media platform Instagram and now has over half a million followers.
Kate Holstein
Kate is based in Aspen, Colorado. She shoots a variety of material including travel, weddings, lifestyle and celebrity portraits. Her insatiable wanderlust has taken her all over the world, and it’s through the lens of her camera that she seeks to share the incredible beauty she sees everywhere.
Kyle Kotajarvi
As a photographer, Kyle has contributed to projects for major companies such as Alaska Airlines and Volvo, as well as lifestyle brands such as Urban Outfitters, MVMT Watches, Penfield USA, Fjallraven, and Keen. Seriously go and check his Instagram account out! It will make you want to book a holiday and go on an adventure.
Andy To
Andy describes his reason for creating as a gateway away from his problems as a child. When he is creating everything around him is bliss. Whilst more of a travel photographer rather than a specified landscape photographer his imagery is stunning and instils the wanderlust in his viewers.
Charlie Waite
Image by Charlie Waite
His style is unique in that his photographs convey a spiritual quality of serenity and calm. He has established a worldwide reputation for his particular approach to his work. Charlie’s photographs are held in private and corporate collections throughout the world. A long and successful career in photography has now established him as one of the best landscape photographers in the world.
Tiffany Nguyen
Tiffany focuses her photography on travel, adventure, landscapes, and lifestyle and is fuelled by discovering new places and immersing herself in unfamiliar cultures. Traveling has become such a huge part of Tiffany’s life over the last few years and by capturing her adventures she hopes to inspire others to get outside and create their own adventures.
Pete McBride
Pete McBride has spent two decades studying the world with a camera. A self-taught photographer, filmmaker, writer, and public speaker, he has traveled on assignment to over 75 countries for the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, Outside, Esquire, Microsoft, The Nature Conservancy, and many more.
Travis Burke
Travis Burke’s diverse and creative approach to outdoor adventure photography stems from his own perspective on life. His dedication to conquering anything thrown at him and living life with no regrets shines through in his photographs. Whether it’s walking a slackline over canyons, freediving through caves in the ocean or capturing the Milky Way Galaxy in remote locations, Travis is constantly pushing himself and the boundaries of his craft.
Mark Gray
Mark is a completely self-taught photographer and specialises in stunning panoramic photography of fine art landscapes from Australia and beyond. The majority of Mark’s photographs were captured with a medium format panoramic film camera. The end result is fine art photographs that can be printed extremely large. By large we mean over 5 metres wide, while retaining outstanding quality and sharpness.
Antony Spencer
Antony is a fine art professional landscape photographer based in Dorset. He specialises in Aurora Borealis and UK landscape photography.
Chris Burkard
Layered by outdoor, travel, adventure, surf, and lifestyle subjects, Chris is known for images that are punctuated by untamed, powerful landscapes. Through social media Chris strives to share his vision of wild places with millions of people, and to inspire them to explore for themselves.
Dave Butcher
Dave is one of the industries best landscape photographers utilising black and white film photography to achieve the highest quality prints. His approach to photography is based on a belief that every photograph he takes forms part of the historical record for that particular location.
Evgeni Dinev
In a constant search for new and fascinating landscapes, Evengi is constantly on the road and not limited by photographing just sea and mountains.
Don Bishop
Based in Somerset Don has travelled all over the UK, often covering many miles in a day. Making images of memorable landscapes is now his profession with special attention being made to capturing these in wonderful lighting conditions.
Guy Edwardes
Guy has been a professional landscape photographer for over twenty years. His images are marketed by several leading photographic agencies and his photography has been published in a wide variety of publications.
Simone Bramante
Simone is a man, daddy and photographer based in Italy working on six continents. He was the first Italian photographer on Instagram to gain more than 800 thousand followers.
Leeming and Paterson
Ted and Morag work both collaboratively and as individuals and lead dynamic and friendly photographic trips and workshops in association with Ocean Capture. These are currently based in the UK as well as Iceland, Italy, the Faroe Islands, Croatia, South America and China. Popular public speakers at a variety of events, their work has been exhibited around the world, and is saught-after by private collectors. Most recently they’ve conceived and launched the global Zero Footprints initiative.
Colin Prior
Image by Colin Prior
Colin Prior is without doubt one of the best landscape photographer in operation today. He has photographed the greatest mountains in the world for more than 30 years. Colin started out in his home country of Scotland but his passion and profession has taken him all around the world. His imagery creates an immersive feeling and makes you want to visit these incredible landscapes.
Hubert Leszczynski
Hubert’s relationship with photography has lasted for years, but recently has matured and gained a new, deeper dimension. A favourite theme of his work is landscape. The beauty of passing moments are captured by his camera and he can then go back and look at it at any time.
Jarrod Castaing
Jarrod Castaing is an internationally award-winning fine art photographer specialising in breathtaking landscape photography. His passion is capturing those moments of light that only last for a few minutes, twice a day, celebrating the incredible beauty of our world, both natural and man-made.
Paolo de Faveri
Paulo’s aim is to produce appealing images with stunning natural or man made scenery. His website showcases a selection of his work from some of the best locations on the planet such as Italy, France and many other European countries. Paulo’s imagery has been extensively published on a large variety of media such as tourism brochures, magazines, calendars, books, home décor and wall art reproductions.
Chip Philips
Given that Chip has had a lifelong love of the great outdoors, he naturally made the progression to be one of the best landscape photographers. Chip’s images have been published in various books and magazines. These include Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic, Popular Photography and Imaging, Digital Photography, Digital Photo, and Digital Camera Magazine.
Paul Sanders
Paul is passionate about landscape photography and loves being outside surrounded by the beauty of the world we live in. Of all the images he creates, long exposures are his favourite. Leaving the shutter open for 5 – 45 minutes to allow the light and elements to move gives an ethereal quality that adds a painterly quality to the images.
James Frost
James is predominately a wedding photographer but his regular Instagram posts revolve around the solid theme of landscape photography. He takes you to some of the most picturesque locations on the planet through his imagery in particular Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
Martin Rak
Martin is a renowned Czech landscape photographer based in Prague. His work has been published in various periodicals, publications, magazines and calendars all over the world. He contributes on a regular basis to Black and White Photography Magazine, Practical Photography, Digital SLR Photography, GEO (Germany) and many others.
Cuma Cevik
Turkish photographer Cuma Cevik organises adventurous trips to a wide range of countries after being inspired to shoot incredible landscape photography around the world. Bringing along curious travellers, they set out on photo safaris to capture the magical landscapes of each setting.
Tom Klocker
In 2015 Tom broke his ACL while shooting for a movie project, after the surgery he had to rest for a long time because of his bad injury so he decided to start an Instagram account. He used the account to upload all the landscape photos he took over the years. In less than one year he reached 15 thousand followers. He is now working as a professional freelance photographer who specialises in action sports, outdoors and landscape photography.
Alexandre Deschaumes
Image by Alexandre Deschaumes
Alexandre sites his influences as Ansel Adams and Vincent Munier. However, one that particularly stands out is JRR Tolkien as this landscape photographers images resemble imagery straight from the pages of his famous books. His landscapes are beautifully mysterious and instil a sense of wonder at the same time.
Thomas Heaton
Thomas loves being outside and loves the never ending challenge of portraying ‘that feeling’. The feeling of warm evenings at twilight, the sense of isolation when you have a mountain to yourself, the sound of waves lapping the shore of an empty beach. His images are all about the outdoors and telling a story. Thomas has over 200,000 subscribers on his Youtube channel. He uses this to share his photographic experiences with his audience.
Sebastian Scheichl
As a photographer Sebastian always likes to be outside and exploring new and different places. He loves to catch a sunrise on a mountain top, go swimming in a freezing lake or watch the sunset at the sea. Capturing these moments is what he lives for!
Mark Jinks
Mark Jinks is an internationally published and award winning landscape photographer with a focus on the Canadian Rocky Mountains, based in Alberta, Canada. He can often be found exploring the vast landscapes of Western Canada and beyond. He likes to specialise in long exposure images, showcasing the beauty of Alberta.
Sarah Medway
Sarah is an outdoor, fine art photographer. You will find her mostly in the beautiful undulating Eden Valley countryside in Kent and also along the South Coast of the UK searching for light, storms and weather events. Her coastal photography is very striking as she captures violent waves crashing on the shoreline.
Argen Elezi
Argen Elezi is a Toronto based photographer who’s passionate about capturing the beauty of nature. From a young age he loved to draw and paint, and that continues to drive his inspiration with photography today. His work has been featured by Canadian Geographic, Lonely Planet, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Huffington Post, and CNN Travel. Additionally he has worked with a number of recognised brands, including Fairmont Hotels, Arc’teryx, and Canon Canada.
Martha Suherman
Martha is a visual artist with a specific passion for landscape, digital composite and portrait photography.
Ben Green
Ben’s landscape work brings him a great sense of peace and tranquility in an otherwise busy schedule. His style has seen his work used by the BBC numerous times as well as enabling him to travel around Europe both on business and pleasure photography expeditions. Ben shoots with a Canon 5DSR along with a host of filters which enable him to specialise in long exposure photography.
Eric Rubens
A Southern California based photographer who enjoys traveling the world and working with clients. His Aerial photography is particularly spectacular as it breathes new life in to a landscape and offers a different perspective.
Dan Bailey
Dan strives to create dynamic imagery that shows the power and mystery of the greater scene. He does this with a style that can be defined as a cross between the raw immersion of first person photojournalism and the focussed creativity of high end commercial photography.
Mark Price
Mark is one of the best landscape photographers in the UK and is based in Brighton. He specialises in landscape photography with a particular interest in seascapes and architecture.
Ruairidh McGlynn
Ruairidh is a mobile photographer specialising in landscapes, working internationally and available for photographic commissions. He is based in Scotland and when he’s not at work, he can usually be found exploring the mountains eyeing up his next big photo.
Kyle Kuiper
Kyle is a freelance photographer lucky enough to be living out his dream job. 5 years ago he made the leap into the full time photography world and hasn’t looked back. His website is used to show a collection of his favourite shots from his travels around the world.
Marc Adamus
Image by Marc Adamus
Marc Adamus is a landscape photographer based in Western North America. Marc’s pursuit of landscape images have taken him around the world almost continuously for well over a decade now. The visual drama and artistry of his photographs are born of a keen eye for the many moods of nature and a life-long passion for the wilderness. This passion shines throughout Marc’s work and has attracted a wide audience around the world.
Ryan Browne
Ryan has had an affinity for creating with his hands from an early age. He satisfies his desire for exploration by traveling the world.. Ryan’s aerial landscape photography is simply breathtaking, the perspective of colour and texture provide a whole new vision to otherwise unseen landscapes.
James Menzies
James Menzies’ work encapsulates everything that the best landscape photographers try to accomplish. He seems to have a particular ability to capture storms and in particular lightning. Some of his images look like something from a sci-fi film and capture weather elements that are not visible to the naked eye.
Az Jackson
Az Jackson is highly regarded as one of the best landscape photographers with countless awards to his name. His artworks have featured on prime-time TV in the USA, graced the pages of many books, magazines and mainstream media newspapers and outlets.
Long Nguyen
Currently living in Seattle, Washington this landscape photographer has the opportunity to explore numerous areas of this evergreen state. He believes it is a true blessing to be able to capture unforgettable moments and express thoughts through photography. His goal as a landscape photographer is to showcase images of the natural world in a more unique perspective that you might not have seen before. He attempts this through careful composition, attention to detail and the creative use of beautiful light.
Michael Ryan
The goal of Michael’s images is to not only to evoke a sense of wonder, but also a sense of urgency. He wants to inspire the viewer to connect or even re-connect with the natural world around them. He believes that nature misses us, nature need us, and we need nature now more than ever.
Jennifer Vahlbruch
Jennifer is a self taught photographer who has a passion for travel. She creates remarkable images of the world as she travels and explores.
Adrian Evans
Image by Adrian Evans
Adrian is a self-taught photographer with an eye for natural light and colour. His art consists mostly of Landscape, Seascape, Architecture, Vintage, Religious themes and Long Exposure using Digital Blending, HDR, Textures and Painting styles to achieve his goals. He predominantly takes images in Snowdonia north Wales.
Kyle Wolfe
Photography for Kyle is simply a practice in patience and visualisation, he uses it to train his senses and calm his mind. He currently lives in the East Bay area of California and is an award winning landscape photographer.
Sapna Reddy
Living in California Sapna loves immersing herself in the natural beauty that surrounds her. Photography has trained her to see and appreciate the wonders and miracles of mother nature. Being able to capture some of this beauty and share it with others enhances that joy.
Gareth Wray
Gareth has a deep passion for Irish landscapes and in particular those along Donegal’s Wild Atalantic Way. His main goal is to boost tourism by creating awareness towards Ireland’s hidden beauty. Maybe its selfish of me but if I found places as spectacular as Gareth photographs I would want to keep them all to myself!
Margaret Soraya
Working in some of Scotland’s most remote areas Margaret photographs and makes time lapses and short films about some of the most peaceful places she can find. Margaret hopes that her photography gives you the same sense of calm and tranquility as both the scene before her and the way it felt to capture it.
Kyon. J
Kyon became enchanted by the beauty of the snow covered fields she encountered in Hokkaido back in 2015. Since then she has been photographing the emotional moments of natural landscapes.
Lidija Kamansky
Lidija’s photography conveys her passion for being in nature and spending time in the great outdoors. The desire to experience wilderness, nature’s changing moods and seasons, and to observe the creatures that inhabit this earth in their natural environment, are the motivations that get her outside time and time again. She hopes her work motivates others to explore and protect the natural world that surrounds us.
Raiatea Arcuri
Image by Raiatea Arcuri
Raiatea was born and raised on the island of Hawaii. This great location has diverse and great landscapes that never cease to amaze him. His imagery of lava and volcanic eruptions is worthy of particular attention.
Diane Varner
Diane hikes the coastline and mountain trails taking photos of the beautiful Northern California terrain. She brings these images back to her studio and uses them as inspiration for her art. It is her hope that these images will ‘take you away’ for a brief moment and you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the mystery and magic, finding peace inside yourself.
Stas Bartnikas
Stas is an aerial photographer based in Moscow. For him photography combines his love of travelling with his passion for aviation. The past few years have seen him actively engaged in aerial photography whilst flying light aircraft and helicopters. He has also won multiple awards in several prestigious contests such as IPA, MIFA, Siena International and ND-Awards. His mission is to capture the beauty of nature in its perfect form.
Fabrice Petruzzi
A photographer and nature lover Fabrice has travelled all around the world taking stunning images of the natural world. His goal is to show his audience the wild with the least possible human foot print.
Hamish Mitchell
Hamish gravitates towards landscapes where there is either beauty in simplicity or symmetry in chaos. He also likes to capture scenes with bold, rich colours and textures. Equally Hamish is drawn to strong graphic elements that lead the viewers eye through the image.
Pradeep Raja
Pradeep loves shooting subjects that excite him and give him opportunity to explore nature, people from different cultures and traditions. Apart from capturing travel images he also does aerial photography. This allows him to share a unique perspective of the changing landscapes.
Bart Heirweg
Image by Bart Heirweg
Bart describes nature as “surprising him with beauty every time.” It gives him moments of stillness, pure awareness and a connection to nature that plays an important role in our well being. The best landscape photographers seem to be able to capture the peace and quiet of a scene and Bart can definitely do that.
Landscape Photography Tips
A great excuse to get amongst nature seems to be the driving force of many of the photographers listed above. Photographing beautiful landscapes is very popular and it is easy to see why.
Landscape photography isn’t just a great creative outlet but it is also a great lifestyle choice. As you stroll around the countryside you can enjoy the great outdoors as well as getting some fantastic exercise.
Obviously if you want to really excel at landscape photography you will need to have patience, creativity and a bit of technical know how. Having the ability to read the landscape the weather and light will really benefit your images.
Here we have listed some of our best landscape photography tips which should help you get great results every time.
Golden Hour
Landscape Photography Tips: Golden Hour Image
Dusk and dawn can typically be the best times of the day to capture landscapes with epic lighting. Make sure that you get to your location approximately an hour before sunrise and stay and hour after sunset. This will give you plenty of time to capture gorgeous lighting and will allow you to produce a variety of shots.
Foreground
Allowing foreground details to enter in to your shot can be a great way to lead the view in to your images. Flowers, rocks and trees can be a great way to add interest to the foreground of your photos and can be very effective at adding a sense of depth and perspective.
Lines
As with most types of photography leading lines can be very effective. Leading lines are simply natural lines that the photographer has chosen to capture in order to lead the viewers eye in to the image. Typically your leading lines will work in conjunction with your foreground details. These can make you image appear more 3D and real rather than flat and dull. Your leading lines want to lead the eye to something of interest within the landscape such as a building, person or natural form.
Rule of Thirds
In a similar way to leading lines the rule of thirds can apply to all types of photography. Rule of thirds can can be a really good way to add balance to your compositions. Placing objects of interest on the rule of third intersections allows the eye to naturally fall in that position. When people view your images they shouldn’t be searching around for the point of interest. They should just naturally find it.
Tripod
A strong and steady tripod will help you to get sharp shots as well as allowing you to get creative with the shutter speed. This can be great for creating movement in water and skies giving your image a more stylish and professional look. Equally a tripod will slow you down. This will allow you to give more consideration to the landscape in front of you.
Depth of Field
Typically with landscape photography your aim is going to be to get as much of your image in focus as possible. You will want to choose as small an aperture as possible such as f/22. Please keep in mind that a small aperture will increase both you ISO and Shutter speed. If you are using a tripod then you will be able to get a slower shutter speed which will allow you to also lower your ISO settings. Equally there will be certain circumstance where a shallower depth of field will be preferential. A shallow depth of field will also allow you to capture and isolate certain details within a landscape.
Take a Coat
Whilst golden hour can produce stunning results a bit of bad weather can make for dramatic results as well. A dark and moody sky can be off putting to most but it can result in some of the best landscape photography. Most amateurs will see a blue sky and think it’s a great day to get out with their cameras. However, this type of lighting and sky can produce some of the most boring landscape photography. If you want to be one of the best landscape photographers then you will need to brave the worst of the weather in order to get the most dramatic shots.
Straighten Up
One thing that can really make or break an image is where you place the horizon. Utilising the rule of thirds here will really benefit your image. Placing the horizon on the top line or the bottom line will really balance the photo and it will look compositionally correct. There will be occasions when these rules should be broke. However, a landscape will generally look best adhering to the rule of thirds. Additionally if you make sure that your horizon is straight this will 100% make your image look more professional.
A Different Point of View
Landscape Photography Tips: Aerial/Drone Image
The best landscape photographers aren’t just setting up a tripod at eye level and clicking the shutter. A lot of what they will be doing to get great shots wont be using the camera. They will be observing the landscape, the light and looking for potential shots. Another great landscape photography tip is to get creative shooting from a completely new perspective. Drone and aerial photography has really changed landscape photography. It offers new and interesting perspectives on the landscapes and can create some striking and often abstract imagery.
Mirror Mirror
Using reflections within your imagery is a great landscape photography tip. Reflections are also an exception to the rule when it come to composition techniques such as rule of thirds. If you are photographing a lake for example it can often be interesting to place the horizon exactly halfway up the image. The lake will create a mirror image and provide perfect symmetry. Using a slightly slow shutter speed might also create an element of movement on the water.
Devils in The Details
You know that problem where you adjust your settings to get the foreground correctly exposed but then you loose all the detail in the sky? Or you try to capture the colours of the sky but your foreground becomes a black block of nothing? Well! that can all be fixed with the landscape photographers best friend, the neutral density filter. ND grad for short this handy bit of kit will reduce the amount of light that enters your camera at the top of the frame. This distribution of light is graduated hence the name and allows you to get a much better exposure in camera.
Landscape Photography Tips from Professionals
Sarah Medway takes some interesting items on her trips that you wouldn’t necessarily think are vital to landscape photography. However, in her interview with Shot Kit she had this to say about what can be found in her camera bag
“I carry with me a picnic blanket, a small bean bag, a couple of bin liners and supermarket carry bags. All have proved useful. The picnic blanket is thick and waterproof on one side so I can lie/kneel on it without getting muddy or wet. The bean bag is perfect for resting the camera if it isn’t practical to use a tripod. The bin liners and carry bags have saved my kit and camera numerous times when I been caught in storms. My Iphone is used constantly to check forecasts, use as a compass and sat nav.”
Thomas Heaton had this to say in his most viewed Youtube video ‘The Ugly Side to Landscape Photography’
“Waking up in the darkness of early morning to howling wind and heavy rain is never encouraging as a landscape photographer. However, I do believe that the best conditions often happen just after the worst weather”
This is a great short video which gives some real insight in to the process of one of the best landscape photographers. It shows that landscape photography isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Thomas also has a very interesting tip regarding batteries towards the end of the video..
If you are interested in improving your landscape photography then we recommend signing up to Smart where you can also earn your photography diploma certification.
Further Reading
- 10 Tips for Better Landscape Photos! – Kai W
- 11 Free Apps – Fstoppers
- Worlds Best Locations for Landscape Photography – Forbes
- Best UK Locations for Landscape Photography – Country File
