Introduction

Do you ever see epic photos from places like Norway or Iceland and wonder if that’s what it takes to get top class images? It’s a pretty common thought around landscape photographers, especially as beginners and there’s a huge temptation to book expensive trips in the hopes of getting those shots that you’ve always dreamt of.

When I started doing photography a bit more seriously, I was so disappointed and completely uninspired by the general landscapes that Denmark had to offer, while I kept chasing those super dramatic places thinking that’s where the gold is to be found.

While going to an epic location with tons of potential undoubtedly has a lot to offer, more often than not it will present you with the challenge of being creative and coming back with something original and special. Not to mention, the limited time you have while traveling and the often very busy schedule not allowing you to deep-dive into one place for too long.

So here are a few great reasons why I absolutely love photographing Denmark, my home country which I hope will inspire more of you to explore your local area.

It’s always available when conditions are right

Perhaps the biggest advantage of photographing your local area is that you can always react when the conditions are right. If you get fog, moody clouds or an epic sunrise, you can react to these conditions pretty much on the spot and go out there when you have the best chance of capturing something great.

A difficult part about photographing abroad is that you get limited time which means you have to adapt based on the conditions you get. At home, it goes a bit the opposite way.

When you get the right conditions, you go out to the places you know you can get something great for those particular conditions.

And when it’s just a regular day, you go out scouting new locations when you have the time so that you know where to go when those opportunities arise.

Left image is taken in the middle of the day when I scouted this location. You can see the garlic wasn’t blooming yet, the composition wasn’t right and light was flat. But I returned on an evening with good soft light, garlic and leaves in bloom and a much better angle. And this is how I went from boring to one of my favorite images I took last spring.

I can scout my own locations

I believe one of the most rewarding feelings as a nature photographer is when you find a little hidden gem or a scene that isn’t already all over Instagram. Depending on where you live, this may be harder in more popular places but nevertheless, when it is your home, you have the advantage of time.

Scouting new locations isn’t easy and Denmark is probably one of the harder places objectively speaking, due to being almost a completely flat country. So in comparison to what’s out there, Denmark seems like it has nothing to offer.

However, with enough time, perseverance and work, I am able to find my own beautiful spots or scenes, or even angles within a known scene that few (or no) others have found before. Whatsmore, the more places I scout, the more I realize that there is a lot more out there to discover. Don’t get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with going to a popular place, but there are many advantages to going off the beaten path.

I use a combination of many sources to research new locations but the easiest way to start is to look for satellite images and terrain maps to find places with potential. You can also consult different sources from nature blogs and articles in your local language to social media accounts of your local nature agency.

There are plenty of resources online to help you with finding new places, but the most important part is that you go there and see for yourself. Take time on a day when you don’t have the pressure to take photos and use it to find compositions that will work when the conditions are right.

Tip: I tend to keep a record of what locations are best for what type of conditions but it isn’t very strict. However, when you need to react fast, it helps to know your spots really well.

***Summer foggy poppy***

This image is my most loved photo on Instagram that I took this summer and it was taken at a tiny little spot that I doubt anyone else has ever photographed before. It’s such a special scene that feels even more special when I discovered it myself and is most certainly unique.

I can return to one spot again and again

You might think that you need to always find a new place to photograph so you don’t get the same images over and over again. But in fact, returning to the same spot will render better images and more creative compositions.

One aspect of this is the fact that you are already familiar with the place from previous visits, so you don’t need to spend the time scouting, looking for compositions. It helps you focus on the good compositions you found and perfecting them. The more time you spend in a place, the better photos you will find.

Returning to the same place doesn’t mean you will get the same photos. It will mean that you get acquainted with a landscape on a deeper level, you understand the way it interacts with light, the weather, the changing of the seasons, you observe more and ultimately you increase your chances of capturing something special.

These two images are taken at the exact same spot, but a few months apart. Despite having more atmosphere, the left image is okey but quite unbalanced, whereas the right image is much stronger. The swamp had completely dried out allowing me to step right where the water used to be and get a much better angle, which made all the difference.

I can take really special and unique photos

This is in fact where the gold is to be found. The combination of time, finding your own locations and being out when the conditions are right will, in time, result in special photos and unique perspectives.

I’ve grown to really appreciate the possibility of discovering a place in many different conditions and above all, to take my time and not rush. I believe this is one of the biggest advantages of doing local photography - that you don’t need to run and you can take the time you need.

You can also learn from your previous photos at that location. When you start editing, if you notice your angle wasn’t quite right, your focus was off or you didn’t exactly nail a certain subject - you have a chance to correct all of that. I really recommend spending some extra time thinking about how you want to capture a place you know well, imagine your photos before you take them. Knowing a place well gives you a chance to do this, which will definitely improve your photos.

These are some of my most appreciated images and they are all taken in Denmark. In fact, they are taken within maximum 1 hour drive from where I live. Hopefully that says a lot about the value of photographing locally.

I get to photograph the seasons

Seasons can really transform a landscape and I truly enjoy going back each season and photographing not only the same place, but probably even the same composition. You get to observe how a scene changes depending on the foliage, the angle of the sun, the weather. All these elements play such an important role and you can evoke very different emotions with the same composition by just capturing it in different seasons.

It is such a beautiful and rewarding experience, it can even be highly motivating to make yourself a goal of photographing one place throughout the seasons or even based on other parameters such as the weather or time of day. You will see that doing this alone creates a lot of variety in your photos and over time, you will be able to find the best combination of conditions and composition to perfect your images.

Autumn vs. winter at the beautiful Hermitage Hunting Lodge. Such different feelings in these images, both of them unique and powerful in their own way. It’s on my wishlist to capture a gorgeous photo from here in spring and summer to complete the collection.

I have a personal connection to the images

Last but not least, shooting locally will enable you to develop a personal connection to the images. You might wonder why that’s important? It is because photography is all about evoking feelings and the more feelings you are able to transpose into your images, the better they will be.

I noticed that although I have taken epic photos in incredible places abroad, they often lack that special feeling, that emotion coming through the image. They might be objectively beautiful, compositionally well balanced, but the emotional element is often harder to achieve.

If you also look at photography competitions and the winners of those competitions, you will find that the majority of images that make it to the top are taken in the local area of where the photographer is from. And that is because they were not only perfect from a technical point of view, but they left an emotional mark on the judges. And that is what photography is truly all about…

I hope you will find some useful tips here and let me know what your favorite reasons for shooting locally are?

Happy photographing!

Love,

Alexandra

Why I love photographing my home country