LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to go over something that has transformed my landscape photography and this little trick will help you with your images.  The first step to this is to leave the camera at the house and go for a walk at sunrise.  This tip has helped me to be able to actually see and hear the sounds of sunrise so much more.  There is nothing that I enjoy more than listening to the world waking up at the crack of dawn.  

You could be on location and hear all the different noises that are happening around you at sunrise and man oh man it puts your mind at ease.  This one thing of just walking and listening is something that I do when in a city or out in the woods.  This helps me to see the world for what it is beautiful.  I love hearing the birds starting their days with a wonderful little song.  I connect with nature more this way and I never even take a photo. I am just in the moment listening and watching everything that is happening around me. 

The way to use this to get better at taking photos it comes down to feeling.  You have to invoke the feeling that you are having right there in that moment in time and put that into your images.  Sometimes when shooting at sunrise I will have my camera ready to go.  I will then close my eyes and just listen to all that is happening around me.  That gives me a since of what is happening and then I put that feeling into the image that I am taking.  This comes down to how you edit your images once you take them.  

I will think back to the moment when I was closing my eyes and listening to the sounds around me and interject that feeling into the edit.  The only way that I have found to truly allow myself to bring that feeling into an image is to let my mind guide me for the edit.  I remember how warm or cold it was that morning and adjust the tones to match that.  I also remember how soft the light was and how it changed the landscape with every passing minute.  

The best part about this is that you are connecting with the image that you are taking to the point that when you look back at the image you will remember the feeling of being there. The experience of the wind moving across your face. The crisp air on a early morning fall shoot.  The way that the breeze carried the falling leaves to the ground and the frost that has covered the leaves on the ground.  

There is something magical about how the first rays of the sunlight kiss the tree tops that make a photo just pop.  The cool air from the morning is warmed up with every second that passes by. The way that the sun feels on your face for the first time at sunrise is amazing.  I love being a photographer and sharing those moments with you but at the end of the day I cannot tell you how many sunrises that I have just sat and watched.  The feelings that I get being in nature is more than any photograph will ever tell you.  I can edit the images to give you a sense of being there but it will never be the same as watching it unfold before your eye.  

When I first started in photography I would try to figure out what it is about the image that I am taking that makes it pop more than others.  I thought it was how you edited the image.  I was right to a certain degree but I was so wrong at the same time.  When you are out on location take the time to slow down listen to the natural sounds that are out there and put yourself into the scene.  Let the sounds bounce off you around you and become part of the scene.  This will help you connect with the image that you are taking.  I love doing this to remind me that I am just a person with a camera capturing the moment for others to feel what I am feeling when standing there in awe of the scene that is before me. 

The whole point of this blog is to show you that photography is food for the soul through the experiences we get from being out in the field shooting.  Nothing we shoot will ever truly tell the story that you will have when getting the image.  The world is moving fast and the experiences we have today are so different than what it was ten years ago.  The tools that we have to capture the experience are so good that it is so much easier than it was five years ago.  Now in the next ten years more tech is going to take over how we see our images but the one thing that they will not take away from us is the experience of being out there shooting.  The feeling of being out there getting the shot cannot ever be put into an image if you are not there to give your story of what happened. 

The feeling of the sunlight kissing your face for the first time is like mother earth saying good morning my child.  The warmth of rays hitting the landscape is like her hugging the trees saying good morning my child.  I am at one with myself when watching this event happen.  No AI image will ever have that because you will not ever have the experience of seeing these things unfold before your eyes.  The real aspect of shooting the photos is something that a AI image will never have in my opinion.  I love how we as a people are growing and how fast tech is getting but the one thing that tech will never replace is the feeling of being there.  Its your job as the photographer to give that since of being there for the viewer.  If you can do that then you my friend have accomplished why you are taking the photos.  Enjoy from St Johns AZ y’all