Planning your landscape shoot

Albert Pedrosa
Photo Mania

AFTER weeks of preparations and some few additions to my gear, I was ready and excited to take landscape photos in Surigao del Sur. My plan was to insert a trip during our holiday vacation, but like any other landscape photographer would know, weather is one major factor. Unfortunately, I’m inexperienced when it comes to landscape photography.

I was lucky because the storm came a day early before my scheduled trip. Later, I realized that even if there were no storm to hinder my landscape escapade, the timing was not right since many people would travel during holidays and swarm every local tourist destination there is. It would have been a disaster either way.

I decided to walk around the city instead and capture the festive atmosphere in the city of gold, Cagayan de Oro City. I would not go home without taking a few snaps. This is of course apart from the mandatory family portraits of cousins and relatives that I have to take every yearend.

As the New Year starts, I made a list of photos I would like to add to my collection. Hopefully, I should do better when it comes to planning and execution. Definitely, weather is on the top of the list of consideration when it comes to planning a landscape shoot.

Oh and some bloopers I had shooting events last year. I’m not an event shooter and I should leave this type of photography to the experts. I was once faced with a dilemma trying to understand why my Canon 580EX was blinking like crazy. I can’t seem to make it work.

I start blaming the TTL, which I barely use, but even after resetting the flash, it was still blinking. I didn’t have an alternative strobe to save me so I have to deal with it and figure it out as fast as I can. Maybe this is my 580EX’s way of getting back at me for using much CDR-King in my set.

It turned out that my diffuser in my flash was dislodged as it was pulled open a bit. By accident as I was trying to resolve the issue, I nudged the diffuser back in its place. Everything was working perfectly after that. Moral of the story? Know your equipment like the back of your hands.

Hoping for a good year to all the photographers out there and good luck on the upcoming Sinulog Photo Contest. Keep on shooting, everyone!

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