I think that one of the hardest things to do is be a landscape photographer. In William Albert Allard's course last year he really emphasized that the photographer is responsible for every single square inch in the frame. When I'm photographing people- that's a relatively easy responsibility because I can simply get them to move, move myself or control what is distracting or extraneous through a shallow depth of field. When you're shooting landscapes you don't have these options. You cant change your perspective dramatically without taking a long walk. Blurring out unnecessary elements in the frame isn't an option either because it has to be sharp throughout...
I always thought that you had to put together a foreground, midground and background but during our honeymoon to Kauai I realized how much more complex it is. I would take a photo that I thought had perfectly arranged layers and when I'd look at it in the LCD I was inevitably disappointed. I succeeded at making extraordinary landscapes look dull and unspectacular repeatedly through the first few days of our trip.
I think I learned some lessons during our two week adventure because the compositions of the photos got steadily better but it sure did give me a lot of perspective on the years of practice and the learning involved in shooting landscapes. It was a spectacular adventure and I hope some of the photos did it some justice!
