Simple Photography Tips - photography in different weather

Five simple photography tips on how to make the most of different weather on photos with your phone camera

• Same old journey - but the weather changes everything

• Fog or cloud can act like a mask to unwanted background

• Position yourself so that the road or track leads to the focal point

• Don't be lazy, go back and get that shot

• Experiment!

Photography in different weather.

Let the weather transform a familiar scene into something new, notice how it changes the light, and take advantage for some amazing standout images.

Ok, so today's simple photography tip is centred around a couple of beech trees I drive between quite often.

Their beauty catches my eye quite often, but because of the way the human eye was created and has developed, there is always a background, more trees and bushes a few hundred metres behind, that the eye doesn't notice, until they are in a photograph, or something, in this case mist, blocks them out.

Driving there the other day, the hill on which they stand was in cloud, so all of a sudden the background was just not there.

Have a look at the first image, not a prizewinner, I just took these for the purpose of this blog.

Colour photograph of beech trees with background

Lovely sunny winter day, blue sky, and extraneous background. The tree is lovely, with branches silhouetted against the blue sky, but the rest of the trees are camouflaged by the background.

Second picture, is the same as the first except that I've turned it to monchrome.

Monochrome photograph of beech trees with background

1. Fog hides distractions.

Third picture, misty day is like you've slung a big sheet from a couple of helicopters; background gone, eye focuses on the tree.

2. Try black and white

I've turned both images to monochrome, you can see that the colour complicates the image too much.

3. Use roads as leading lines

Oh, and the road running from either sides, makes visual use of the interesting thirds, and takes the eye straight towards the subject.

Monochrome photograph of beech trees with background hidden

So next time the fog rolls in, don’t stay indoors, that might be your best shot. In fact it's worth keeping an eye out for images that would be dramatically chnaged by the removal of the background.

I was once working at a rather lovely house, which had an avenue of trees leading to the base of rolling downs. One morning the mist hid the downs, the effect on the scene was stunning as the trees again had no background distraction.