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Matt Payne
Matt Payne is a landscape photographer and mountain climber from Durango, Colorado. He’s the host of the weekly landscape photography podcast, “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen,” co-founder of the Nature First Photography Alliance, and co-founder of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. He lives with his wife, Angela, his son Quinn, and his four cats, Juju, Chara, Arrow, and Vestal.
- What is the best camera for landscape photography? What lenses should I buy?
- How can I make my photographs look like [insert photographer’s name here]?
- What’s the best time of year to photograph [insert subject here]?
- Which roads and areas should I go to when I visit [insert location here]?
- What list of locations should I photograph when I visit [insert place here]?
These questions dominate magazines, chat forums, discord channels and are the focus of many YouTube channels, popular websites, and blogs.
Yet, these are generally not the most meaningful questions to ask if one is to seriously improve their photography and grow as an artist. It’s completely understandable that these are the questions that get asked the most often since there’s a constant stream of new photographers emerging into this craft daily, and it is, after all, part of the journey of the modern landscape photographer; however, consider the subject of this essay, landscape and nature photographer Brent Clark, an excellent longitudinal case study as to what other questions might be more relevant if one is to improve as a photographer and make personally-meaningful work. .