Offroading Home: GEO-tography: Forest

Without a doubt, most of the Utah offroad ATV trails run through our wonderful mountains. And, it just so happens that the most downloaded post of any we've ever done on Offroading Home is the GEO-tography post about mountain photos.

However, much of a mountains granduer has to do with its dressing: forests. It is true that often we don't stop to see the forest for all the trees, like these aspens near Old LaSal by Moab.

I ran across a photographer who had some great tips for us the next time we're out photographing trees. And from what he seems to say, it's not that difficult to obtain a great shot: "Take time, find a point of interest and shoot any season" – now those are things that I can do!

Take Time

"One of the beautiful things about landscape photography is that there is no need to hurry. Take your time and get a real feel for what it is you want to capture. Time is on your side. Lighting conditions can change dramatically throughout the day, and if you’re really fortunate, the perfect shot may find you!"

He say's for us to "wander through the forest and consider all the possible vantage points" which is something that most of us have down pat! Then he advises us to "try out both wide and telephoto lenses" or, I guess, to at least try zooming out and in if we have cameras without changeable lenses. Pointing a wide angle lens upward emphasizes size and scale. A telephoto lens compresses a row of tree trunks and captures patterns.

A Point of Interest

While we are doing the wandering we sould find a good point of interest, like a unique tree, an unexpected splash of colour, or a pattern. Then, walk around it to find the angle that looks the best.

We've all seen rays of sunlight spiking through the canopy and highlighting something on the forest floor.

In Every Season

One of the nice thing about forests, he says, is that photographs are always available, all year round, every season, any weather and any time of day. "From the bright colours of autumn and the bleak depths of winter, to the thriving life of spring."

Now let's look at some ideas for photos that we can take the next time we're offroading through the trees.