On Assignment: Glowing Scenery

by | Feb 3, 2023 | Assignments | 0 comments

Yes! A landscape photography assignment. My favorite! But the weather put an interesting twist on my plans as I set out to find what I was looking for before the deadline.

I had so much fun exploring with the Farrells. I took pictures of all sorts of random things!

230121_James Staddon_2745 Canon EOS 7D Mark II, 55 mm, 1-800 sec at f - 2.8, ISO 400

Don’t you just love this photo?!

But it doesn’t make for a very good “glowing scenery” submission.

After exploring the lake a bit, we hiked out to the road. There were some nice vistas out that way. And the way the road twisted and turned, I knew there had to be some great photos somewhere of it “folding together”, with a telephoto lens.

But we walked and walked and never reached the unique twists and turns. They must have been further up the road than I remembered. Plus, the sky stayed as cloudy as ever. We didn’t let the clouds and cold dampen our spirit, though! Off down another road, we ran into this really neat abandoned farm house.

230121_James Staddon_8653 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 19 mm, 1-50 sec at f - 8.0, ISO 100

Great subject!

But it doesn’t make a very good “glowing scenery” submission.

Then we explored an old abandoned church building.

230121_James Staddon_8655 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 23 mm, 1-50 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 200

We climbed all around. We peeked through the cracks to see what we could see inside. It was a sweet place to explore. But without sunlight it's not quite the "glowing scenery" option.

Then the sun magically popped out! We hurried to the church at the top of the hill.

230121_James Staddon_8659 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 138 mm, 1-40 sec at f - 8.0, ISO 800

And the glowing sky was on the wrong side of the overlook.

That was disappointing. But having waited all day, I wasn’t going to give up easily.

We went back down the hill to the first place we actually saw the sun. This spot had to work!

Here’s the original shot of the best angle I could come up with at that location.

230121_James Staddon_8667 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 25 mm, 1-30 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 800

And here it is edited the way I would normally edit a landscape photo.

230121_James Staddon_8667 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 25 mm, 1-30 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 800-3

Maybe it’s a little bit neat?

And here’s it edited to be all overexposed and glowy.

230121_James Staddon_8667 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 25 mm, 1-30 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 800-2

Blah! I am embarrassed to even show this photo! Everything that has nothing to do with the assignment is accentuated. Incredibly awful. No. Not a “glowing scenery” submission. By any stretch of the imagination!

Now it had been a really disappointing day. But such is landscape photography!

Well, the next time I saw the sun was a couple days later. And this time it was out in its full glory!

230124_James Staddon_8672 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 16 mm, 1-200 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 100

I’m not the greatest at this backlight, glowy stuff. It’s an effect that my brain is not used to wrapping itself around in the context of landscape photography. But I was very grateful to get some shots at this cemetery, a few of which I think should work well as “glowing scenery” submissions.

230124_James Staddon_8674 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 16 mm, 1-200 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 100230124_James Staddon_8677 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 16 mm, 1-200 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 100230124_James Staddon_8688 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 35 mm, 1-200 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 100

After the sun had set behind, I did try shooting two more scenes that evening in hopes that I could edit them to look like they were glowing. Here’s the original photo of another church.

230124_James Staddon_8701 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 23 mm, 1-50 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 100-2

And this is the edited version.

230124_James Staddon_8701 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 23 mm, 1-50 sec at f - 4.0, ISO 100

It’s not that I was trying to photograph churches for this assignment. In fact, they aren’t really “landscape-like” at all. But they happened to be the most readily available subjects around when I was out looking for westernly facing images for this assignment.

This second location is a road that I travel multiple times a week. I knew it faced toward the West in this picturesque spot so I knew it would be a good location. Unedited:

230124_James Staddon_8715 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 30 mm, 20.0 sec at f - 5.6, ISO 50-2

And edited.

230124_James Staddon_8715 Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 30 mm, 20.0 sec at f - 5.6, ISO 50

While this heavy editing does make these post-sunset photos look more glowy, I do prefer the natural backlit glow of full-sun at the beginning or ending of a sunny day.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Shooting toward the sun an hour or two after sunrise or before sunset will ensure that there will be a warm tone in the glowing areas of your photo. This will be an easy assignment, but don’t be fooled the weather! Go and get the details for this month’s assignment, Glowing Scenery, and go shoot it while the sun is shining!

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