Skies in landscape images

I am becoming renowned for my dramatic skies and this week certainly allowed me to pursue these. For me the sky is what makes the landscape, after all it is where the light for most images comes from, yet landscape photographers often cut it out of their images, or at least have it occupy less than a third. 


When I see a landscape I see a feature on the ground that is dominated by the vast expanse of the sky and I wish to convey this dominance in most of my images. If the sky is dramatic itself I will often freeze its movement. 

Trees V
Kingussie, Highland, Scotland

On other occasions I need to capture some movement and in other circumstances I like to capture vast movement of clouds by using exposures of several minutes. The only trouble with this is that the best skies have a lot of drama and there is a variable amount of light and shade which can be very unpredictable. Therefore one often has to experiment to some degree. Long exposures therefore demand a knowledge of how the clouds are moving and in which direction ie across the shot or into or out of it.

Sea sweep
Bridlington, East Yorkshire

Headland light
Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England

So a landscape photographer wishing to use the movement of clouds needs to be aware of winds, cloud movement and, if one is at the coast, the tides, as well as the direction of the light. This all sounds complicated but like everything, if one practices correctly many of these things become second nature. The internet and smartphones have made this all so much easier than it used to be. I find my iPhone and iPad are now indispensable tools in my photographic armoury. For those who are interested I shall discuss the apps I commonly use in another post.