Maximize Your Summer Photography

Ah, summer. The season of vibrant sun, colors, and long, long days. As a landscape photographer, this season offers a wealth of opportunities to capture this vibrancy in the outdoors, in many ways. To truly make the most of this time, it's crucial to have the right tools and techniques at your disposal. These are some of my favorite tips for shooting during the summer, focusing on the importance of using a tripod, the purpose of filters, and the best times of day to shoot.

Let’s go about this from the beginning. Before I’m even onsite, before I’ve even left the house, before I’ve even started my van, we’ll start with two of the most important steps: packing gear and location scouting.

Gear

There are a few accessories I simply refuse to leave home without. Of course I’ll prioritize my camera and lenses, but how I pack them is extremely important. I cannot use gear that I do not trust to carry all of my investments, which is why I love my Cityscape 75 Backpack. Not only does it have multiple compartments for storing my lenses, cameras, and calves, the spare pockets and holsters achieve that little extra bit of efficiency I need to use for storing batteries, SD cards, filters, and more. Anything I need to have while on the go can fit in this backpack. (Oh, and it’s quite stylish, too.)

Filters, batteries, and SD cards are a few of the other tools I take with me on every outing. Especially when it comes to landscapes, it’s so important to have a set of filters that you can use to alter the landscape in a way that you cannot when post-processing.

My all-time favorite filter will forever be a circular polarizer (CPL). If you’ve ever wondered how some photographers manage to capture such deep blue skies and rich green foliage, the secret often lies in the use of a CPL filter. Especially in the summer, one of the greatest challenges is dealing with a tremendous amount of light that often brings unwanted glares and reflections across your shots. Now don’t get me wrong, I think there is absolutely a time and place for both of those, but when I am shooting in a forest and I want the deepest greens, I will always use a polarizer to maximize the potential. The HGX Prime series of CPL filters are phenomenal for not just their build quality, but their polarity, too. With a simple turn at the thread, I can entirely manipulate my scene in a way that looks more true and gentle to the eye. Below is an example of two shots I took at the Redwoods in California. No editing, no color adjusting, nothing.

The only difference here is my polarizer. If you look at the pathway, the leaves, and even the highlights in the background, everything has a much, much deeper boost of saturation and realism to it. These are things I cannot adjust in post, nor can I create these looks with masks. Without my CPL, this wouldn’t have been possible.

Aside from a forest, when are some other times I use my polarizer? Shooting in bright sunlight is a great opportunity to recover some of the deep blues of the overhead sky. Finding a body of water that has nice tones on its surface gives you the chance to use a CPL to remove the shine from the surface, especially at sunrise or sunset when the light is softer. Another great opportunity is during road trips. If you’re fortunate enough to be in the passenger seat during a scenic point in the drive, you can adjust the polarity so the glare from the window is removed. You’ll get shots that you may not have even considered going for.

To complement the use of a circular polarizer, I often pair it up with my Epoch tripod. You might think a tripod is only necessary for astrophotography or studio work, but you’d be surprised by the benefits of having a tripod in any landscape scene, too. Whether I'm capturing a serene sunrise or an afternoon thunderstorm, having a stable base for my camera ensures my shots are sharp and clear. In addition, this also gives me more flexibility with my settings. I can slow down my shutter speed, decrease my ISO, or find a sharper F-stop, such as f/8, f/9, or even f/11. The benefits of using Epoch are how meticulous I can get with my adjustments. Having a system of degree markings, bubble levels, and an axis to control each angle of my camera makes this tool crucial for fine-tuning my shots.

Plan

Now that I have my filters and tripod taken care of, I need to move onto the planning of where and when to shoot. Growing up, my family would always go on hikes together in the middle of the day. Ideal for hikes, but suboptimal for photography due to the harsh light. Nowadays when I plan my outings, I look for cloudy days, and I love waking up early to catch the sunrise, watching as the first light of day transforms the world around me. Similarly, the late afternoon sun can turn an ordinary scene into something extraordinary.

Don’t pack up your gear as soon as the sun goes down, though. Blue hour (the period just after sunset) offers a unique and tranquil look of light that’s perfect for capturing serene scenes. The deep blue sky and the soft, diffused light creates a calm, peaceful mood in your photos and is hard to achieve any other point in the day.

Night photography can also be incredibly rewarding in the summer. Warm nights are perfect for experimenting with long exposures with starry scenes, galaxy shots, or even on rare nights, lightning and storm structure.

On a perfect day, it’s not impossible to shoot a brilliant sunrise, soft morning light, golden hour afternoon moments, and then capitalize with a sunset. After a day like this wraps up, I’m never short of hundreds of shots. The most important reassurance I have is that my images are safe. I only trust Rugged SD cards, and to double up their protection, I place them all in my Rugged card case. I can keep tabs on which cards are empty versus full, and at the same time I know things are secured. Oh, and did I mention they fit perfectly in that Cityscape backpack I talked about earlier? It works like a charm.

Summer is such a prime time for photography, offering a wealth of opportunities throughout the whole season. By using a tripod, incorporating a polarizer, and choosing the right times of day and optimal atmospheres to shoot in, you can elevate your images to the best heights. Remember, photography is all about experimenting and finding your creative style. Don’t be afraid to try new techniques, explore different perspectives, and shoot as much as you can. Most importantly though, have fun and enjoy the process. These long days don’t last forever, so make the most of it while you can.