Landscapes of Solitude

I often just go out driving around the lower mainland looking for places of interest to shoot various sessions be they wedding portraits or engagement portraits. A lot of times I visit these landscapes by myself and just get to spend a little time alone with my camera.

They say the best way to become a better photographer is to shoot every single day, so for the past year that has really been a focus of mine and for the first time I’m starting to churn out some landscape work, which was something I had never really considered shooting before (mostly because I find it painfully boring in comparison to documenting people!) That being said it has really forced me to change the way I shoot. A lot of photographers default to shooting wide open at f1.2-f2.8 and just throw the background out of focus because it’s a safe way to make sure there isn’t a bunch of unwanted crap in the background of your photograph. When you are shooting landscape photography however, you have to be really choosey about what apertures you  shoot at because you can really make or break a scene with a shallow depth of field.

Anyways, I’ve never really been one to share my personal work, because I’ve really just been too shy, but it’s a new goal for me this year. I shot the following landscapes near Minnekhada Lodge in Port Coquitlam which is one of my all time favourite wedding venues in the lower mainland (it’s perfect for small, intimate, rustic weddings). It’s also only about 5 minutes from where we live, so I love swinging by there to see what the foliage looks like at various times of the year. I shot these images back in February this year when there was still a little bit of frost on the ground. Check ’em out.