I feel incredibly fortunate to live in Northumberland. I often tell people that it is truly a photographer’s paradise. Nevertheless, capturing great images of our beautiful county takes more than just lifting a camera to our eye and pressing the shutter release.

Creating a unique photograph requires proper planning and thoughtful composition.
I guess most of us want something to hang on the wall, rather than just a simple record of the scene we captured.

I used to take my camera everywhere. When I went for a walk, it would hang around my neck. Similarly, on my early-morning bike rides, it was packed into the panniers. Back then, on family trips, I always made space for my camera bag in the car’s boot. I considered it pointless to be a photographer if I didn’t have a camera with me. I knew that if I left it behind, Murphy’s Law would ensure perfect subjects and magical light appeared.

Over time, I discovered that, despite always carrying my camera, almost all my best photos come from planned shoots. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. There are so many considerations, such as journey time to the location, the sun’s position, the state of the tides, the weather, including the direction the clouds will be moving, the terrain, and the camera and lens settings, to name but a few.

Things still can, and do, go wrong. That notwithstanding, planned shoots generally produce far better images than spur-of-the-moment ones.

There have never been better tools available for planning photoshoots than now.
If you come to one of my landscape workshops, you will discover the ins and outs of planning a shoot and how to place yourself in the best location for it.

I have also written articles for PetaPixel about planning. You can find the first of these by clicking here.