Does your neighborhood (or region) offer too few landscape opportunities?

**Drew Wiley** · 4-Sep-2015, 08:28

Guess I'm spoiled, always have been. Grew up right smack between three National Parks and multiple designated Wilderness areas, not to mention just walking out the front door, across the road, and heading into canyons so rugged that hardly anyone knew about them or ever bothered to classify them as anything until fairly recently. Now here on the coast, they're adding more Regional Parks and open spaces so fast that I'm never even set foot in half of them. I'm a five minute walk from over 7000 acres of Park, if I'm not in the mood to drive at all. Then there's the State Parks and NP holding like Pt Reyes just a short drive away. And many Sierra destinations are only a three or four hour drive, the desert just past that. Still, if my rear end could survive it, I would live to drive clear across the country sometime. I've seen the Flatlands from the air, and once one goes East from the Rocky Mtn front, it's an alien world to me. I got claustrophobia once, literally, sweaty palms and all, looking out a high hotel window in Dallas on a business trip. Nothing. nothing. No mountains, no forest, no canyons. Just flat. Trapped in, in nothing.

**Heroique** · 4-Sep-2015, 09:43

Originally Posted by Chuck Pere

The places I go to are usually pretty quiet in the morning hours.

Yes, "going early" is one of the best ways to shake the "no-landscape-here" blues.

Good light mixed with silence and solitude.

LF senses seem sharper.

Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

No mountains, no forest, no canyons. Just flat. Trapped in, in nothing.

Sounds like a panicked mountain man on the Chisholm Trail!

**Vaughn** · 4-Sep-2015, 09:55

Duane Michals came out from NYC to Humboldt to give a workshop...his words (approximately), "No wonder people do landscapes out here. Wherever one points the camera there is beauty." It did not sound like it was necessarily a good thing.

http://www.faheykleingallery.com/pho..._pp_frames.htm

**Corran** · 4-Sep-2015, 09:59

Originally Posted by Greg Davis

In Georgia, I got a lot of good stuff at Providence Canyon out near Americus. Are you two anywhere near that part of the state? I also got a lot in Savannah during grad school that I liked.

I've been to Providence many times, it's a very interesting area. It's a bit far away from me down here. Definitely different than anything else in GA.

**Heroique** · 4-Sep-2015, 10:07

Originally Posted by Vaughn

Duane Michals came out from NYC to Humboldt to give a workshop...his words (approximately), "No wonder people do landscapes out here. Wherever one points the camera there is beauty."

Curious if Duane thought all the beauty was in the eye of the beholders, or in the landscape.

Probably the latter since we're talking Humboldt County after all!

But I'd enjoy hearing his reply.

**David_Senesac** · 4-Sep-2015, 10:15

Well not much of interest in my "local neighborhood" as I live in the vast nauseating urban world known as Silicon Valley. A land of jobs where as a peon I can make enough money to buy optical tech toys and wheels to drive off to the many world class natural areas not far beyond. Same world Drew mentioned and totally spoiled to the point if I was stuck in some of the places other members on the board are living, my cameras would be collecting dust.

Heroique >>>"The top five are: Ventura County, Humboldt, Santa Barbara, Mendocino and Del Norte... Washington Post."

The Washington Post's list would not quite reflect those of actual landscape photographers. That list doesn't have a single Sierra Nevada county listed and my coastal county list would be different. Parsing up the state by county is in any case a flawed scheme because our county boundaries were drawn up for ancient political reasons that today look like the work of a couple of apes with crayons.

David's California world class scenic list of larger California regions:

Redwood Coast region between Trinidad Bay and Crescent City and watersheds inland.

Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino immediate coastlines from Point Reyes to Westport but little of those areas inland beyond just a few miles because most was mutilated by logging interests and later real estate companies with little still in the public domain.

Monterey coast from Monterey to Pismo Beach including the Santa Lucia Range inland.

Tuolumne and Merced River basins of the Sierra Nevada above 4,000 feet plus areas east of its crest.

San Joaquin River basin of the Sierra Nevada above 4,000 feet plus areas east of its crest.

Kings River basin of the Sierra Nevada above 4,000 feet plus areas east of its crest.

White Mountains across into Death Valley

David
http://www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Tri...onicles-0.html

**Two23** · 6-Sep-2015, 19:11

The map is just dumb. It only reflects that person's preference for weather and mountain scenery. Rating the Northern Plains as "low" in scenery just shows he does not understand the beauty of the prairie. I was in the Tetons last month and was a bit bored with them. Anyway, as to how to once again begin seeing the opportunities of where you live, my solution was to begin shooting at night.

Kent in SD

**RodinalDuchamp** · 13-Sep-2015, 06:13

Landscape is a vague word. There are good photos everywhere. Look at HWJ or Robert Adams. They lived in sprawling towns/cities and still managed to find impressive if not provocative photos.

**Willie** · 13-Sep-2015, 07:02

If you can't make excellent images where you live, why do you think you will by going 1000 miles away?

Traveling to take the same old stuff that has been done already is a waste of time and effort. Develop your skills by learning to interpret the landscape and locations nearby so when you travel you will be more open to what is not 'same old- same old'.

**Vaughn** · 13-Sep-2015, 09:15

Originally Posted by Willie

If you can't make excellent images where you live, why do you think you will by going 1000 miles away?

Traveling to take the same old stuff that has been done already is a waste of time and effort. Develop your skills by learning to interpret the landscape and locations nearby so when you travel you will be more open to what is not 'same old- same old'.

True, but the reverse is also true. Working with a very different light and landscape is educational. I have found it to be of great help when coming back home. In my case, photographing in Death Valley has benefitted my work back home under the redwoods (about 700 miles apart). As an example, the below image, taken near home, was influenced by work I was doing in Death Valley (working with large areas of light and dark). I was not very successful in DV, but I think I was here.

Dora Creek Falls
11x14 Carbon Print