The difference between amateur and professional portraits can be vast…
Everything Is Better Now: 22 Glorious Nature Photos
Feeling a bit blue? Time to put down your smartphone, pick up your DSLR camera and go for a walk outside.
There’s something regenerative about being part of the natural environment. The wonderful thing is that, with the perfect nature photos up your sleeve (or in your memory card), you can bring them home, print them to canvas and decorate your interior with wall art courtesy of yourself and Mother Nature.
Everything will be better with works of nature art hanging at home. Almost as good as the real thing. Absolutely glorious.
Backyard bliss bombs
You don’t have to go far to discover Mother Nature at her finest. Whether it’s birds who’ve come to visit, insects that are hiding away or a piece of garden furniture hiding in the foliage, Mother Nature makes an easy muse.
Idea #2 has potential for so much awesome. Take a photo of something special in your garden across all four seasons to see how much change takes place.
1. Working with Mother Nature
From Max Pixel
2. Capture different seasons
From Pixabay
3. Get up close with macro
From Flickr (Derek Keats)
Park life
Take a stroll to your local park or botanic garden and treat yourself to wide, open spaces full of green.
The wonderful thing about parks is the sheer number of trees that often line the paths and the unique way sunlight dapples through, a wonderful opportunity to photograph exciting perspectives.
Often there’s so much natural beauty – flowers in abundance – that you don’t even need an expensive camera to make magic happen.
4. Make the most of tree paths
From Flickr (Micolo J)
5. No need for an expensive camera
From Unsplash (Khürt Williams)
6. Play with sunlight
Fabulous forests
Go wild with experimentation in the thick of the forest. No matter what the season, forests are a fabulous place to find something new and exciting, each and every time you visit.
Take in a lush landscape or get up close and personal with a leaf, appreciating every detail. Your camera will just lap it all up.
The result? Wonderful gifts for family. Check out ideas on how to print presents like this in our Gifts For Men and Gift Ideas For Women features.
7. Experiment in the field
From Pixabay
8. Work with the weather
From Pexels (Jaymantri)
9. Edit carefully
From Pixabay
10. See the details
From Fotolia
Beach beauties
Look up. Look down. Your camera’s falling down! Oh no!
The key to exquisite beach photos is taking the time to look up to the sky for the beautiful sun, clouds and birds and look down to the ground to where all the detail lives – the shells, the crabs, the flotsam and the jetsam.
Everything’s more beautiful at the beach, so be patient and wait for that perfect moment then capture it in time, to adore forever.
11. Capture movement
From Pixabay
12. Golden hours
From Max Pixel
13. Be patient
From Pixabay
14. Look up
From Fotolia
Country practice
Whether you live on a farm or take regular trips to the country, keep in mind that the things you take for granted are rare treats for others.
It’s time to revel in the peace, solitude and pure joy that country life can bring – and convey that through a lens.
And remember, there’s nothing everyday about farm animals, particularly when you take the shot from a wacky angle.
15. Look for nature in the everyday
From Pexels
16. Be prepared
17. Change your point of view
From Max Pixel
18. Capture the stillness
From Fotolia
Travel treasures
Last but certainly not least, escape to the world of travel photography.
Before you go travelling, take time to get to know your equipment. You don’t want to miss out on savouring the experience because you’re busy trying to work out how your camera settings work.
The only problem you’ll have when returning home is figuring out which photos to use to build a travel canvas collage – for memories that will live on and on.
19. Use the sky as a background
20. Maximise your depth of field
From Max Pixel
21. Know your equipment
22. Explore different angles and perspectives
From Fotolia
