Art Wolfe is an incredible landscape photographer who excels, much like Ansel Adams did, in taking advantage of the variability of the outdoors to get some of the best location shots possible. In this video I found on his blog of a recent talk he did, he discusses how he utilizes natural light. By planning but also reacting quickly to take advantage of situations as they arise, he turns the outdoor world into a studio, producing amazing photos.
For instance if the lighting is frontal, coming from directly behind the photographer, he prefers a high perspective such as an aerial once if possible, in order to reveal the shadows extending behind the subjects. Soft, front lighting is also th
e safest bet when shooting animals, as it takes out the variable of dark shadows that could obstruct details of an otherwise good shot. It simplifies the shot in a way, presenting the subject unobtrusively and allowing you to really connect with it. If possible he will then try to move around to get the same subject with back lighting, skipping side-lighting altogether. He prefers cloudy days because great lighting is off and on but possible through out the entire course of the day, while on clear days you can only get good lighting in the mornings and late afternoons.It's a long lecture and I'm only about a third of the way through it so far (22:34 to be exact, so I can come back and finish it later) but hearing him talk about these locations really reinforces my desire to travel and see as much of this as I can while it's still around. And I say 'while it's still around' because in discovering mountaintop removal I've really lost confidence in the fact that these places will be preserved in any way.
I also know from his galleries that Wolfe excels in low-light and night photography as well, so hopefully the video will get to that too.
http://www.artwolfe.com/
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