How to Make Beautiful Photos in Ugly Places

When you are out in the field, you occasionally come across some ugly places – brown prairie, scattered branches, gray sky. But don’t let that slow down your creativity. Consider these ugly places as a challenge. In this premium video lesson, Outdoor Photography Guide’s pro photographer David Johnston takes you into a landscape of fallen trees, and shows you how to turn ugly places into beautiful images.

David carries two different lenses, a 150-500mm with a classic macro feature, and a specialty macro lens that creates a velvet effect. For his image choices, he never moves from his one location. With the classic macro, he is able to eliminate backgrounds and create a blurred bokeh effect. He locates more ugly places, and from ground level, he photographs little leaves perched in the grass. For macro photography, you need to always simplify. Relentlessly simplify. For another image choice, David zones in on an evergreen branch. Result? Light green branch with dark green background in soft focus.

David switches to his specialty velvet macro lens with a 56mm fixed aperture. He zones in a few inches from some dead flowers and captures an unusual image. Traipsing through more ugly places, he finds oyster mushrooms growing from decomposing tree branches. He captures a series of mushroom photos descending from slightly wide to very close. Basically, he takes these ugly places and tells a beautiful visual story. It’s good to angle your camera in different ways with varying apertures to capture a variety of shapes and colors.

It can be discouraging to wander through ugly places in nature, but if you pay close attention, you can change your outlook through creative photographs. In this premium video lesson, Outdoor Photography Guide’s pro photographer David Johnston takes you into a bleak monochromatic landscape and gives you tips on how to create some memorable images.