I'm moving to a new shopfront/studio and want to set it up also as a gallery. Though Weddings are our "primary income" I am looking forward to getting creative with landscapes etc that can be sold.

The studio is in a heavy tourist area. I am going to my landscapes and abstracts framed with rustic handcrafted frames and display them for sale in my new gallery. Also have teamed up with a rustic furniture maker and they are going to provide shop furniture and rustic easels (these will also be for sale). I also plan to make cards etc from the images.

I need to get some more local ones, these were taken across the bay. But still in my state.










My inspiration - Ken Duncan - great Australian landscape photographer.

I think they are pretty good

But for that time of day, it almost looks like there were probably more colors in the sky than what the camera could see? (yeah I don't actually know since I wasn't there ) Maybe doing some HDR could capture all the beauty that was really there and make them 'pop' out more to the tourists?

Good job

Actually there was less colour than what shows.. It's the middle of winter here, I wanted to capture that feel, but boosted the colour. In reality, it was a lot darker and the light was fading than what I brought out in the images.

As usual, I love your work. I think you have a intuitive eye for the composition of landscape photography.Your images do have a 'Ken Duncan' flavour about them, but it's good to develop an 'Emerald Eye' flavour too!
The rustic frames and furniture sound absolutely charming. I can't wait to see your new set up in the new studio....what an exciting adventure ahead of you! The gallery idea is awesome as I think that would be a definite draw-card for more potential clients and customers of your work. Go for it!! Chase those dreams!!! With God's blessing and provision, you'll achieve them, I'm sure.

Oh my! Well, I think they are wonderful!!!!!

Karen,

These are beautiful! It looks like you have lots of senic opportunities. Have you thought about shoot using a High Dynamic Range (HDR) technique. It's great for landscape photos and is starting to make its way to portrait and other genre's of the photoworld. If you are not familiar check out this entry at ProPhotoShow. Gavin Seim has lots of info on HDR.

These are gorgeous! I echo Terry's comments about HDR. I love capturing landscape via HDR- tis so much more alluring (but of course, there's always exceptions). I actually just posted a pic a few minutes ago on my blog of a stormy sky- it's hdr. But anyway, lovely pics!

Beautiful settings and images!

Quick tip...when shooting landscapes, remember two quick "rules" for instantly better pics.

1) "foreground, middleground, background." Having points of interest in each of these three planes enhances the dimensionality of your images.

2) "The rule of thirds." Place a center of interest (the subject of your image...whatever feature makes this landscape unique) at one of the four power points (divide the image into thirds horizontally and vertically. The intersection of these imaginary lines are the "power points") of the image will result in a stronger composition.

Thanks for your feedback guys.

I have been getting out over the weekend and shooting a few different local landscapes - and capturing for HDR. I edited a couple on Saturday in the studio, and think I'm getting there, and really liking the look I'm producing.

I have shot several more landscapes (with multiple exposures) with fantastic sunsets, and can't wait to get in the studio tomorrow and put them together. With HDR you really have to visualise the finished product.

I think it is an awesome niche I can get into here in Victoria, There are a lot of Landscape Photographers that are so fantastic, like Ken Duncan (my hero) and Steve Parish, but not many professionals really focusing on the HDR and more "surreal look" and it's something I like, and I love the editing process. So I'm going to do quite a few of these and sell them in my gallery

I'll post some soon! Thanks for the ideas and links.

By the way I have purchased a Lightroom plugin that does HDR. It seems to work ok, but I'd like more control. I also tried the bridge method but don't like it. I want a program that will combine smartly, but leave me the layers to play with after. Any suggestions?

maybe photomatix pro will give you some more level of control over your LR plugin. It can run as standalone / or plugin for CS. Anyway check out their website and download the trial. I like the detail tone mapping it has.

Good luck with the landscape side of things. My friend does landscapes full-time and it takes ALOT of work to make any money out of it.

Looking forward to your results!

Jonathan

Those colors are soooo silky and wonderful!

I really adore that first one! Great stuff.

I think these are gorgeous - HDR is so common now and often so poorly done. There is much to be said for a regular landscape image that relies on the actual beauty of the scene and not artificial over-enhancement.

Honestly I'm a bit taken aback by some of the comments here, I think you nailed these.

Thanks Lynn

I agree about the HDR's that are done poorly. I've spent much of last night on the Deviant Art website, just looking through all the HDR images. Some are awesome - inspirationional. Others just look wrong. I think it will be a mix of making them look a tiny bit "surreal" but still real and wonderful at the same time!



Thanks Jonathan! I did download the trial of Photomatix pro last night and it gave me more control. I'm wondering about the Photomatix plugin for photoshop though, it may be better suited to the way I do things.

As my primary work is weddings and somewhat portraits, I'm not worried if these landscapes don't even sell It's kind of "bonus" work for me, something to attract people to the studio, let them know I'm there. Get people talking - encourage word of mouth. It will be interesting to see how it all goes.

I have posted the new HDR Landscapes I did on a new post: HDR LANDSCAPES THREAD

and then after you think about the rules... forget them.

be a rebel and create your own rules.

i think your definitely on the right track here, these are great.

Thanks Tami

Yeah, I definately know the rules, I teach them in the photography courses I have developed, I wrote about them in my book. I reserve the right to be a rebel I like trying things that are outside "the box"

Those prints printed on metallic paper would look flipping amazing!!! They are already fantastic, but the first thought when I looked at them was "metallic paper"!

These are so very calming... love them.