Nature is full of fascinating and beautiful things; however, creating stunning nature photographs requires much more planning and preparation than simply driving to geotagged Instagram spots and hoping that something great appears on screen. Award-winning wilderness photographer and Canon Explorer of Light Erin Babnik has been creating beautiful landscape images since long before social media existed; her journey into natural environments began as curiosity which she strives to maintain today in her work.
Here, Babnik shares her favorite places and essential gear for photographing landscapes – as well as why its preservation is vital to future generations.
How did you begin landscape photography? Before becoming a photographer, I worked as an art historian specializing in Ancient Greek art primarily and also working as an archeologist – I participated in excavations across the Middle East. As part of my dissertation research and to create an archive for teaching and research purposes, they required photographing objects for use in my dissertation and creating an archive of photographs to use in teaching and research. I found myself going out of my way to make these photos as good as they possibly could be, something which gave me great satisfaction and pleasure during this process. As I became frustrated with all the restrictions associated with taking tripods into archeological sites and having to gain special permission for special access, it dawned on me: I used to love just heading out into the mountains and backpacking; perhaps taking the camera along would add another fun aspect; this was before social media existed!
As it sounds, your passion for nature began long before you started taking more formal photographs in its environment.
As I became increasingly involved with academia, my film camera became just another means of documenting what I was doing. Unfortunately, as soon as academia took hold of me and all my free time became consumed with spending it in dusty libraries instead of doing the things that brought joy in life outside – something which shattered any hope for an active lifestyle!
While still in academia, I was slowly transitioning into becoming a working photographer. People started hiring my photos as they did for them or stock photography work; eventually my fine art landscape photography even garnered requests for workshops or post-processing instruction that weren’t even part of my offer!
At some point, I decided, “Well, the iron’s hot and perhaps it is time to strike while doing what feels right to me. Maybe this is truly what I want.”
Making the transition from academia to full-time photo work was quite an emotional decision for me, after investing so much of my life into one career field; but in retrospect it proved to be one of my wisest.
At first, the idea that I was giving up an alternate career held me back for so long. Once I realized that all that experience – lecturing, teaching, traveling to exotic locales – had prepared me well for what I do now: still teaching, still traveling and still getting dirty: all were invaluable preparation. Everything is still the same just repurposed!
How important is timing when it comes to taking beautiful landscape photographs?
Landscape photographers frequently hear that lighting quality is of utmost importance, yet timing often depends on your target environment. Say you want to photograph a slot canyon; when the sun is high and providing indirect bounce lighting into it during midday would be ideal. Conversely, mountain scenes require lower sidelight and would likely benefit from shooting towards either sunrise or sunset for best results. Timing may matter but motivation also plays a part.
