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Landscape and Travel Photography Hierarchy Of Opportunities

Death Valley Milky Way night photography
spring landscape photography

Sand verbena in sand dunes, spring 2016.

I was recently interviewed by Alex Schult of PhotographyTalk, and he had some great questions, some of which uncovered things that you do as a photographer, perhaps so automatically now that you don’t even think about them. One of the questions was, “What is your best photography tip?”

Mono Lake landscape photography

Sunrise reflection at Mono Lake, California, with fresh snowfall on the Sierra Nevada

My first inclination was to say something safe, perhaps even obvious. The classic photographers’ adage “f/8 and be there” would have worked, it’s still great advice. But while a safe camera setting and getting out more can deliver you fantastic moments that you wouldn’t have anticipated, even many of those opportunities can often be anticipated and maximized by arriving in a great location in a peak season. Ideally you want to be in a great location, in a peak season, in times of great light (weather or sunrise, sunset), and have interesting subjects to place in strong compositions.

My planning adds another layer: event, or ephemeris. Ephemeris is a term astronomers and astrophotographers use to describe transitory events: moon or sun rise or set, a lunar eclipse or solar eclipse, and so on. It turns out that once you start paying attention to and looking for these sorts of opportunities, they’re pretty common. Landscape photographers can use the position of the moon or sun to anticipate rainbows or lunar rainbow “moonbows” in the mist of a waterfall. You can capture that night shot you’ve been wanting to capture during a meteor shower. When the moon will have a conjunction with a planet or two in the sky, you can capture them rising or setting together.
Mt. Whitney moon set with planets Mars and Venus

The moon, Mars and Venus set over Mt. Whitney.

So which do you look at first, in what order? When you’re planning a photography outing with your limited time, to set yourself up for the most unique opportunities with the most visual impact, a more complete summary of the hierarchy of factors to consider might be: Location, Season, Event, Light, Subject, Composition.
 
Location
Plan on going to a location with many iconic subjects. For landscape, travel and night photography that might be national parks, locations with interesting geology, historic towns, places with interesting cultural features, and so on.Yosemite landscape photography workshops with Jeff Sullivan

Season
What are the best seasons for peak conditions in that location? Spring wildflowers? Fall colors? Summer storms? Snow? Fall in Yosemite offers fall colors, but also possibilities for storms, ground fog, and potentially a sunset moon rise near Half Dome.

sunrise in Yosemite National Park

Double rainbow in Yosemite fall morning mist (licensed by National Geographic)

Event / Ephemeris
Is there an additional astronomical opportunity that can help set your image apart from the rest? Moon rise at sunset, moon set at sunrise, meteor shower, an approaching  comet expected to be particularly bright? If a travel location, is there an event that will provide extra cultural opportunities or location access?For example, low angle “winter light” is particularly good in December and into January, on either side of the winter solstice. On December 12, 2021 Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) will be closest to earth. On December 13/14 the Geminid Meteor shower will peak. Then on January 3 the Quadrantid meteor shower peaks. So we’ve planned two trips for winter light, one December 10-14 and another January 2-7. The full moon on December 18 provides opportunities for sunset moon rise and sunrise moons et shots, but that’s 3 days of opportunities, without dark sky night photography, so we’ve planned a shorter, targeted December 17-19 workshop at Mono Lake for that. All three workshops have the inherent landscapes of the location, sunrise and sunsets, and winter light, plus additional rare astronomical opportunities. Why settle for less?
Moon photography instruction.

The nearly-full moon rising at sunset in calm winter conditions at Mono Lake.

Light
Is there a predictable time of day when the light will be best? Sunset, sunrise and “golden hour” are often considered to be obvious choices. But combine the desire for low angle sunlight with season, and there may be certain months that offer low angle sunlight for much of the day at far northern latitudes. In mid-northern latitudes, “winter light” close to the winter solstice may have the sun rising at most to about 30 degrees in elevation, compared to 60 degrees just a few months later in March, so the sun rises at a lower angle and produces high quality light for more of the day. There also may be a time of day when light enters a slot canyon or lava tube. Or the sun may align with sand dune ridges while low in the sky, to provide shadows to accentuate their undulations.

Death Valley landscape photography workshops

Death Valley landscape photography workshops with Jeff Sullivan

Subject
Once you have optimized your opportunities with a great location, a prime season, any bonus events and the best time(s) of day for great light, are there iconic subjects that you want to cover in peak conditions and light? Are there strong non-iconic subjects which you can use to provide your own unique take on the location or region?
Strawberry moon

Summer solstice full moon at sunrise.

Composition
Composition is one of our best opportunities to express our own unique style or take on a given subject. In many cases, ten photographers can stand in nearly the same place and capture many unique results. differences may come from changes in camera position and perspective.
Canon moon astrophotography by Jeff Sullivan Photography

Sunset moon rise alignment anticipated in January, 2009

Style
Can’t your composition be part of your photography “style”? What viewers perceive as your style may involve a wide range of elements including your compositions, frequently used focal lengths, and definitely carry through the digital photographic process to your post-processing. While style includes many aspects of getting to an image on your card, for most of us it’s probably not generally applicable to planning for maximizing new opportunities, like the other elements discussed in this article. Since style also carries over into post-processing techniques, I’ll cover it separately.
The problem with a primary focus on major events
Now can’t you just go for the shots of events like Horsetail Falls in Yosemite, or moonbows in Yosemite, or timing your trip to Death Valley for a meteor shower or possible super bloom? Of course you can. But what I find it at if I go primarily for the event, I capture that and consider myself done. I leave a lot of opportunity unexplored, unexploited and uncaptured. So if I time my Horsetail Falls trip to instead also involve potential moon rises and waterfall mist rainbow shots (which are predictable by the sun’s position), and if I time my spring Death Valley trips to also enable pursuit of Milky Way shots, I’ve set myself up for a much wider range of opportunities. I’m much less likely to capture the dramatic shot and stop, satisfied, missing dozens or hundreds of less obvious opportunities put potentially stunning results. By adding a wider range of opportunities to your objectives, you’ll be out more and pursuing more, including when serendipity strikes and nature surprises you with additional stunning things that you couldn’t have anticipated. All of my workshops are planned this way.
Yosemite National Park moonbows

Moonbow and star trails at night in Yosemite’s Upper Yosemite Falls.

So in summary, while most visitors simply go to place like a National Park and take what they get for conditions, light and weather, photographers can to pursue a greater number of unique opportunities within peak seasons. By doing this you can set yourself up for more total opportunities, more unique results, and a greater diversity of results. Every year we plan workshops around winter light, lunar rainbow “moonbows, meteor showers, moon rises and moon sets, even an occasional comet. If you think of a national park as a cake and a peak season as “the icing on the cake”, these additional opportunities are extra decorations on top. So don’t settle for a bare cake, or just cake and icing, when you can have even more. Let’s face it, The most valuable commodity we have is our time. Allocate it wisely, for maximum opportunity. Serendipitous, unexpected bonus opportunities will still occur, on top of everything else you’ve anticipated.

I’ve added examples from the Mono Lake Basin and Death Valley below.

Our upcoming workshops are planned this way, with opportunities coming up for the comet, meteor showers, moon rise and set, Milky Way, and more, in addition to our pursuit of peak seasonal conditions in the stunning locations that we visit.

For more nuggets of wisdom, here’s that recent interview that I referenced at the beginning of this article:

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