Pierre Steenberg

Photographing Arches

March 17, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Rock arches almost always seem to be candidates for good imagery. They almost represent victory, they stood standing. They are interesting. They evoke questions. I for one love to photograph arches. The little space I am in is very small. I am right at the end of the arch. My tripod legs are totally flat and my camera is only a few inches abov...

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Balance and weight

March 10, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Visual object carry weight. The darker the they are the more visual weight the represent. The larger they are the heavier they seem. Closer objects carry more weight than distant objects. So a smaller object close by can balance out a larger object in the distance. Our images are more appealing when the are visually balanced both by the position of...

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Reset the Sun

March 03, 2019 • Leave a Comment

At our Namibian photography workshop (2018) we were shooting a sunset. I got some very nice images. However, all good things come to an end. Before long the sun set. The opportunity to include the sun in my images was over for the day, or so everyone thought. No, the sun was not about to reverse and come back up where it had just gone down. In the...

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Lines and Texture

February 24, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Look at this image for a little while: Typically I want to go with the color and where the action is. In this image the action and color is in the top third of the image. Why then would I devote more than half of the image to the bottom part of the image? Before we explore the answer to that question, does the image work for you as it is? I actu...

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Movement and life

February 17, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Movement and life add a lot of interest to landscape imagery. While in the desert in Namibia photographing I took this image: Other than the tree on the right there does not appear to be much life around in this place. The tree on the left has already given up the fight to survive in this harsh environment. Having both trees in the scene tell a...

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The human element in landscapes

February 10, 2019 • Leave a Comment

I shoot for a major photo stock agency. My agency will not sell an image with a person in it without me having and supplying a signed model release from that person (unless it is used for editorial use only). Well it is just not always possible to get these model releases taken care of. At times I am using a telephone lens and there is just no way...

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Curved lines

February 03, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Some images are static while others are dynamic. Great compositional tools to help us make more dynamic images are curved lines. Our eyes always follow lines. So we can use lines to make our viewers track through an image. Straight lines help to create depth and they will take the viewer's attention into the image but they are not so dynamic as cur...

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Shutter Speeds and Landscapes

January 27, 2019 • Leave a Comment

For a lot of landscape photography the shutter speed plays second fiddle because depth of field tends to be more important. There are times when the shutter speed is crucial to get the look you want. For example, if you want to show water drops frozen in the air you will need a fast shutter speed and when we want to smooth out water we use long shu...

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Capturing the essence of a place

January 20, 2019 • Leave a Comment

The late Ron Levy, a great photographer and friend, always said that he does his best work after just being in a place, observing it, feeling it, until he realizes the essence of the place. It is only then, he often said, that he felt really inspired. It is then that images seem to just jump out at him. It is then that his creativity peeked. How d...

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Using Shadows

January 13, 2019 • Leave a Comment

I am still writing about the desert this week. This is a harsh place and I attempt my best to capture and show that feeling. To do so, I once again shoot into the sun. I also emphasize the dry and cracked crust. I wanted to add something to this image, and for that I played with shadows. My camera is at a low position again to show of the crust...

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