Breathtaking landscapes are really fun to make because most of us have to leave home and travel a long way to arrive at the place where those breathtaking landscapes live. How many photographers have photographed in their homes, their backyard gardens and scenes from their everyday life and made great photographs? Ansel Adams lived in Yosemite Valley and Edward Weston lived almost next door to Point Lobos and they made some great photographs in their respective backyards. Gee, maybe I picked two really bad examples to illustrate my point. We can’t all live in photogenic places, so what can we do in our own backyards?
There are a number of great photographers that made wonderful photographs in their hometowns. Josef Sudek made great photographs in his yard. Late in his life, Paul Strand spent many hours in his garden photographing. Eugene Atget never stopped photographing the back streets and out of way spots in Paris.
What can you find within a couple of miles your house that is just waiting to be photographed? We are so used to where we live we take it all for granted and are so focused on what we are doing we fail to see what is around us. Suppose you decided to make your next photographic trip a local one? Approach the exploration of your town as if it was Yosemite, or Death Valley or some other American Landscape destination. What would you see differently?
Your world is ready for you. All you have to do is bring your camera and powers of observation.
Not quite in my backyard, but I didn't have to travel this far to make a nice landscape photograph. This pleasant August afternoon was spent in Buies Creek, North Carolina. Specifically, it was made on the eighteenth fairway at the Campbell University Keith Hills golf course. This is the second golf course landscape to appear in the blog this summer. This just might be the start of a new project, landscape photographs on golf courses. It could be a nice project combining two things I really enjoy. Hmmmm.
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