Photographing Tips: Historic Sites and Panoramas

Some subjects are just tooooo freaking big in scope to get a good picture of. Try photographing the Grand Canyon without looking like a post-card photography wannabe.

Upon occasion on vacations we go to historic sites, monuments, huge panoramic overlooks with enormous vistas. The scope of such places can be daunting to photograph.

I'm not one for full-frontal shots (well, perhaps in porn, but not in scenic shots). I don't like to take a picture of a mountain and say, "look, here's the mountain, nicely centered, straight on, no perspective other than that of a lazy ass photographer standing up straight and holding the camera to her eye." (yawn)

Y'all know my bend about making everyday life an adventure. I like to tackle these places as adventures. It's how I felt when I was there, what I noticed, the encroachment of man or animals or nature on the site, the seasons changing around me, making the scene unfold with a different tone. If I recall having to hike a vigorous trail, I want to show the long arduous hike's perspective. If I want to photograph the Grand Canyon, I get someone to hold a stick to the edge and poke at it. I want the memories I take from the place.

The day Julie and I went to Montezuma's Castle on last Sunday, I remember the bare Arizona Syncamore trees, the large green wash, the ground squirrels, and the one thing I find at every Indian monument--one insane big bird squawking at the crowd with anger. Usually it's a hawk or owl, this time it was a huge blackbird.

Here's how I remember the trip on a crisp clear day...




And, since I only need one picture of the monument to remember what it looks like, I took it from the perspective of the day, a dead tree overhead, bright sunlight, crisp air. That's how I saw the monument this time. Other times I've seen it, it was hot and dusty, snowy and cold. This time, it was like a late fall afternoon.


Don't waste your time taking a hundred shots of a statue or a famous building. Get one shot from the perspective of how you saw it, whether it looked super tall and intimidating (take the shot from underneath looking straight up) or if it was a bright day and you take the shot to let some of the sunlight rays impart...


(There was something almost magical about a giant chicken statue in the red rocks of Sedona, rays of light shining towards it made it kind of go "ahhhh" in an angelic way and it went from being a statue outside a gift shop to the chicken that defeated Sedona.)

Sometimes, with a huge vista, all you can do is give it a perspective that grounds it from being so far away and so majestic to encroaching on human territory...




Happy photographing those epic situations from a perspective driven by your emotions being there, the surrounding nature, the people and their reactions or the seasons. Don't just remember the "thing," see it through your eyes.

Now, do y'all feel that you just went to Montezuma's Castle and the red rocks of Sedona with me--through my eyes? That's how I remember it. That's how I experienced it. Take a breath and take a moment in such overwhelming places and "feel" the pictures before you take them.