Landscape photography is very nice, but it depends on being in the right place at the right time and having a camera with you. It’s not commercially viable, because you either live in the wrong place, don’t have a camera with you or something else doesn’t fit. You can only plan this if you know the place and the landscape you want to photograph very well. But then again, nobody commissions that. So it all depends very much on chance: you either have to match the time/place combination exactly or be commissioned to photograph something that you know very well. And that is then rather unexciting or totally unlikely.
Stricter conditions
In addition, it is often not easy or even uncomfortable to take photos outside. You get wet (you can’t take photos in the rain), freeze or sweat, stand around pointlessly and wait. Waiting for the sun, for the clouds to disappear, for the light to finally come from the right direction, for people to get out of the picture. If all disturbing elements were given the same (negative) sign, landscape photography would become mathematically impossible. The sheer existence of thousands upon millions of landscape photos disproves this theory, of course. Which is a good thing. Be that as it may, it’s all too uncontrollable for me and clients don’t appreciate such imponderables either. Which is understandable from their point of view. And I don’t think I’m really good at it either, others are better at it. Which is fine as long as they’re not working in my specialist areas, of course…
Lucky
Nevertheless, you always have to drive around with your eyes open and then face up to the opportunities. That’s what happened to me this morning. No haze, fairly clear air and the sun was coming from the east. And I was also in the right place, so I pulled over quickly, put the 300 on the camera and captured the view over Rösrath to Cologne. The power stations in Frimmersdorf and Auenheim are clearly visible in the background. But what I find even more amazing is that the wind turbines near Grevenbroich are clearly visible. So I was in the right place at the right moment and didn’t ignore it. I wouldn’t even debate whether this is a good landscape photo. It’s simply an interesting snapshot and that’s why I’m publishing it here. Simply for documentary reasons. And I didn’t freeze or get wet.
