Drones are great equipment that allow you to photograph from a new perspective. If you are new to drone photography, you may feel like you can take great photos. But this feeling is only because you are using a new perspective for photography, and after a while you will realize that if you do not practice and improve your photography knowledge, your aerial photos will be as boring as ground photos. The most important point is that there is practically no difference between classic photography and aerial photography or drone photography. For both types of photography you need an interesting subject, good lighting and contrast. It is important to mention that a small percentage of the photos taken with a drone are of the required quality and most of the photos you see on social networks are the best photos taken by a drone. Therefore, there is no need to worry and you can also take good photos using a drone. Keep in mind that the first photo you take isn’t necessarily the best photo possible, and the more you practice, the more you’ll learn. My first attempts at drone photography were terrible. But over time and with more practice, I managed to take better and more beautiful photos. Of course, I still did not become a professional in this field and I have to try harder. Based on my experience using drones, I must say that sometimes you face serious problems when using drones. According to the laws of each country, you are not allowed to use drones in any area. In addition, you need at least two extra batteries and “ND” filters to take photos or videos with a drone. Remember that flying at night is always dangerous. Because the sensors are not working properly. In my opinion, another issue that you should pay attention to is that finding the right height is not an easy task at all and can only be learned by trial and error. Some believe that only height is important in drone photography. But it should be remembered that if you use too high a height, you will lose a lot of details. I took this photo from a lake called “Kemnader see” in Bochum, Germany. This lake is one of the beautiful recreational areas in Bochum, where a large number of people always go for walking and cycling, especially in sunny weather. I needed a sunny weather to take this photo, so I had to wait a few days.
Autumn photography has attracted many fans during the last decade. Each season has its own color charm. Falling and changing color of leaves in autumn is a subject that has its own charm and surprise for most photographers. It’s also the perfect excuse to get into creative photography, improving your photography skills and impressing your models. I took this colorful, autumnal photo at „Ardey Wald” in “Witten”, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. This beautiful forest has dreamy autumns and every year many photographers come to this area in November to capture beautiful autumn photos. I took this photo with a 70-24mm lens. Of course, I worked a little on color, light and composition in Photoshop. In autumn, nature is in its most dreamy state in terms of color and light. Especially during the golden hours. It means early morning and half an hour before sunset. To capture a beautiful fall portrait, nothing beats having your subject in front of a pile of flying yellow leaves. In the composition, you can pay special attention to the ground covered with leaves. Instead of using any light source, shoot early in the morning or near dusk to get great light from the sun. For stationary subjects, you can shoot with two different exposures. One with high light and one with low light and then merge them in Photoshop. Fall season is also a good time to photograph animals like squirrels. With a proper timing and using telephoto lenses (200 or 300 mm), you can take very beautiful photos. The coldness of the nights in the autumn season causes fog and mist in the morning. The amount of time you have for early morning fall photography is very limited. So if you don’t miss these golden hours, you can take attractive and beautiful pictures. To photograph fog, it is better to be at a height and from inside the valley, photograph subjects such as distant hills, tree foliage, or low-lying houses and fields. Also, due to the many colors that exist in nature in the autumn season, you can photograph very large subjects and their reflection in the water of the lakes. The ideal conditions are a calm day without wind or storm. Because in this case the surface of the water is very smooth and has the highest possible reflection. Try to take pictures with your back to the sun so that the landscape is lit up and reflected in the water of the lake.
Minimal compositions are one of the best ways to take a beautiful photo. Simple photos are usually the most beautiful and attractive photos. In this type of images, by using the empty space around the subject, you focus the entire photo on the subject. In the minimal style of photography, one subject or at most two subjects is used, and in fact, details are removed from the images of this style of images. But in general, the concept of the image is understandable. I took this photo of the bird at „Kemnader See” Lake in “Bochum”. The picture is very simple. Bird, wood and water. But despite its simplicity, it gives the viewer a sense of calmness. In most cases, simplicity gives better results than complexity. The minimal style gives a different and new view to the viewer and this factor has made this style special. In this photo, I also tried to remove the extra elements to draw the viewer’s attention to the bird sitting calmly on a stick in the lake. The point that minimal photography focuses on the simplicity of things does not lead to dullness of the photo. In fact, using this style, you can make attractive photos and find a special and strong subject so that you can express your purpose in the best way. In this photo, in addition to the bird, wood and water, you can see the reflection of the bird in the water and also two small pieces of wood in the water, which makes the photo more attractive. The reflection of the bird in the water indicates the calmness of the lake water. Photographing empty spaces, single elements, simple lines, geometric patterns and contrasting colors is the best way to get the desired result in minimal photography. Although this type of photography seems simple, sometimes taking minimalistic pictures can be harder than you think. In this method, finding the right subject, shooting angle and photo composition may take some time and you need to experience different situations. The use of negative space or empty space is one of the features of minimalist photography. Negative space allows you to create a sense of scale in an image. This sense allows the viewer of the photo to have an idea of the size of the subject and to guess how big or small it is. Using a simple background is essential for minimalistic photography. In this type of photography, there should not be any distracting elements or patterns that want to take attention away from the main subject.
Nature photography has always been attractive and favorite for amateur and professional photographers and of course the general public. Nature has a great potential for photography due to its variety of locations and changes in different seasons. Nature photography is a branch of photography art in which different subjects in nature are recorded in a real way. In nature photography, unlike landscape photography, everything should be shown as it is. There are the same subjects in nature and landscape photography. But these two branches have many differences. There are limitations for taking photos of the nature branch. One of these limitations is the absence of human presence in nature photos, which does not exist in the landscape branch. In nature photos, there are no subjects or elements related to humans. Domesticated or trained animals, cultivated plants, huts, bridges, roads, signs, electric cables and many other elements are human-related elements that should not be seen in nature photos. But there is no such limitation in landscape photography and even some of these photos are related to city landscape photography. Another difference is in the type of editing of nature and landscape photos. In nature photography, everything must be seen in reality. It is not allowed to remove or add elements of the nature photo, change the colors and move out of the real color space. But in modern landscape photos, it is allowed to remove additional elements and create a color space outside of what is recorded in the photo. In editing landscape photos, the goal is to increase the visual beauty of the photos, but in nature photos, the goal is to prepare a natural, documentary and real output. To take pictures of nature, you need the right equipment. In nature photography, you will need a camera with high resistance to different weather conditions. A camera that can withstand cold and hot weather as well as high humidity. Zoom lenses such as 70-200 mm with 2.8 aperture, ND and polarized filters and tripods are other equipment that you must have with you. You can take pictures in nature almost any hour of the day. But for professional photography, it is better to take photos during golden hours. Professional photographers adhere to this rule when photographing nature. The first golden hour in nature photography is shortly before sunrise and up to an hour after it. The second golden time is one hour before sunset and lasts until shortly after. To achieve the highest quality in photos, be sure to use the camera’s raw file format. The RAW format gives you the widest range of colors and details to produce a perfect output.
