Mountainscape with Layers

Characteristics of this type of shot: A mountain landscape with lots of depth.

Ingredients: There are two main compositional things going on here: (1) There was not a cloud in the sky, and in situations like this, we try to show as little of the boring thing (the sky) as possible. So, take a look at my composition. I framed the shot to show just enough sky to give a little bit of background for the mountains to sit in front of. (2) The other thing is creating that foreground-to-background depth. The foreground element is the sheep in the field, and then you have lots of interesting layers from there, with the tree line behind them, then a tree-covered hill, then some darker mountains to the right of those, then behind them, some snow-covered mountains, and finally the sky. Lots of depth and layers going on here, and luckily, all the colors work so nicely together (I’m totally cool with getting lucky at a shoot).

Location: On the road between Queenstown and Auckland, New Zealand.

Camera settings: Shot in aperture priority mode; 70–200mm f/2.8 lens at 145mm; ISO 200 at f/6.3; shutter speed: 1/125 of a second. Why f/6.3 and ISO 200? This was a handheld shot. We were driving, and I had my camera in hand. We pulled over and I hopped out for a sec to take the shot. At a higher f-stop, my shutter speed would have been too slow for me to hand-hold and get a sharp shot, which is also why I raised the ISO to 200—to help me get up to 1/125 of a second. The 145mm length was to get past the fence along the highway.