What Landscape Photography Taught Me About Seeing

Most of the time, I'm photographing people. But every so often, I end up somewhere quiet with a camera and nothing to point it at except a tree line, a field, or a still lake — and no one to direct, pose, or wait on. Just me and whatever's actually there.

It changes how you look at things.

When there's no subject telling you where to point the camera, you start noticing what you'd normally walk past. A reflection that doubles the whole scene if the water's still enough. The way light hits one specific branch instead of the whole tree. A shape that only reads as interesting from one exact angle, three feet to the left of where you were standing.

That kind of looking doesn't turn off when I go back to photographing people. It's the same skill, pointed at a different subject. Most photographers are trained to look for the obvious shot — the smile, the pose, the moment everyone expects. Landscape work trains you to look for the thing no one else would have noticed. A hand resting a certain way. Light catching someone's eyes at an angle you'd have missed if you were rushing.

I don't think you get better at photographing people by only photographing people. You get better by learning to actually see — and sometimes that means standing in front of a lake for twenty minutes with nothing to do but pay attention.

Curious what that kind of attention looks like turned toward you or your family? Let's start the conversation.