1. Pick a Tree — Don’t Photograph the Entire Forest.

It’s human nature. We’re surrounded by an incredible landscape, and we want to capture all of it in one image. Yet, some of my most underwhelming photography has come from the most beautiful places. These incredible places make it all the harder to acknowledge that what looks good in person doesn’t look good in a photo.

In most cases, the difficulty lies in subtraction. There’s some sense that we wouldn’t be conveying the full beauty of the moment if we can’t fit it all into one photograph. But we don’t look at photographs like we look out onto a countryside sunset. As a photographer, you need to make decisions about what is important to focus on. We need to pick a tree in the forest, and tell the story of forest from that tree. Taking a photo requires deliberate subtraction.

The two images below illustrate the difference between photographing the forest and picking a tree. In person, it’s often the 360° immersion which provides the beauty of a scene — yet we can’t pass along this perspective through photos. We have to acknowledge that we can only take a tiny portion of our surroundings with us. For me, I am much more effective when I dedicate that tiny portion to fully capturing a smaller scene, rather than being all-inclusive.

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