Spirit of Place

How Water Drops can accentuate your Photography

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By Nils Leonhardt | April 17, 2019

Nils Leonhardt

Life is a collection of moments. And a photographer is the agent who has the power to capture these situations. In the second he portrays the light the moment is already gone. The mechanism and indeed art of photography aims to interrupt the constant progress of change that is life in order to create long-lasting memories. It always involves subjective judgement about the situation at hand. I am simply an ordinary photographer who is in love with natural light.

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We as landscape photographers have all experienced the vast amount of patience that our beloved genre demands. From finding the perfect spot and special light to dealing with some really harsh weather conditions. This last variable is always there because we find clear and crisp skies too dull for our taste, and on the other hand, we consider heavy clouds in the sky a more pleasant scenario. This comes with something that could be seen as a problem or as a creative element depending on the concept behind your photographs, and these are drops.

Obviously, not every landscape shot is well suited for having water droplets on the lens-front, and today I want to share my personal opinion on this feature – or artefact. For me, there are two types of general landscape approaches: the distant and the immersed one. Distant landscape photography for me is like a perfect portrait of a natural venue in front of our eyes and is perhaps the best way to go in many cases.

Then there is a more holistic approach that I personally define as the immersed approach in landscape photography, where close elements (like water and foreground) are also integrated parts of the frame.

Then there is a more holistic approach that I personally define as the immersed approach in landscape photography, where close elements (like water and foreground) are also integrated parts of the frame. In recent years I have started to get closer to the landscapes I photograph. Finding the distance-sweet-spot has been quite a challenge indeed.

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