The Bahamian landscape

When I first took an interest in landscape photography I was mesmerized by the towering mountain peaks and rolling green pastures I had seen as boy. I remember flipping the pages of National Geographic saying that someday I would be able to the same thing. In my defense I was young and I did not realize that I lived in an island paradise where blue skies and crystal clear turquoise sea water were the local currency. For many this is the place where dreams come true, but for a landscape photographer it a place of nightmares. You see in the Bahamas the weather is typically the same the entire year. It fluctuates from warm to hot. The skies are almost always slightly peppered with speckles of white clouds. These facts make it excellent as a vacation destination, but lacking for the landscape photographer. The skies aren’t filled with dramatic clouds and frosted tipped mountains. No lush green fields here, just the occasional palm tree. The white sandy beaches don’t provide an scene grabbing foreground. So I had to learn to be creative. I started to experiment with shutter speeds and neutral density filters in order to provide some interest to my images. I looked for beaches with rocky foregrounds and I shot primarily at low tide. I also looked for low lying clouds to add an element of drama. The clouds and sky were my mountain substitute.

Be Creative

I began to use wider angle lenses, because beaches and shorelines by themselves are just flat in my opinion . Most of the images are taken during the sunrise or sunset to maximize any color that my be in the sky. Lastly I focused on composition. It could be a leading line created by where the sea met the sand or the way the water pooled during the flow of the tide. This would be my foreground element. Ultimately you have to be creative . You have to take the elements given to you and create your image.