Snow before Halloween... What?

I can't remember the last time there's been enough snow to ski before Halloween in this area. I'm not talking about hitting some rails or dinkin around on a backyard setup, I was actually able to get some good turns in this past weekend and it isn't even December.

(C shoot, not quite enough snow yet but its close)

With all this snow in such a short time and so early it has drastically changed the landscapes in the area, it's just what I needed to get me back out there shooting my favorite aspect of photography, landscapes. With landscapes there's no people to deal with and you can't change your subject. It's not like portraiture or action sports... when shooting a landscape no matter what I say or how hard I try I can't turn down the suns power, move a large body of water or change the position of a cloud.

I feel that with landscapes your technical understanding of light is extremely important because you have to be able to work with what you got. Working with the light is huge but just as important is finding the composition of the photo. Its not always difficult to get a composition that works, but unless your watching a volcano explode or something of that nature your composition needs to be able to show the landscape in a way that the will make someone want to view/buy that image. I feel like experience is a big factor with composition, every time I go out to shoot landscapes I learn something new about how to use fog, how different clouds filter light, how and when ridge lines or outcroppings catch light, etc.

This week has been devoted to landscapes and I have lots of images but first off here's my 3 favorites:

When viewing landscapes images there's usually a whole lot more in the frame than there would be in another type of photography, so when your looking at a landscape image its good to pay closer attention to detail. That being said I'll give two words that are why I chose these three. #1 ridgeline light #2 natural pastel #contrast clouds.

And here's the rest: