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Photographing Nature
Welcome to the Photographing Nature section of my blog, where I share inspiration, techniques, and tips to help you connect with nature through your lens. Whether you’re wandering through a forest, sitting by a quiet lake, or observing wildlife in motion, nature photography offers endless opportunities to explore beauty, light, and life in its rawest form.
Whether you're just starting with a smartphone or shooting with professional gear, you'll find ideas designed to improve your photography.
A Year of Inspiration 2027 – A Photographic Desk Diary by Michael Blyth
A 2027 photographic desk diary with a difference
Unlike a conventional January-to-December diary, A Year of Inspiration runs for 58 weeks, from Christmas 2026 through to the end of January 2028. It gives you a little extra breathing space at both ends of the year.
Each week has a photograph on the left-hand page, together with a short piece explaining what the image taught me or what made it work.
Opposite is a practical week-to-view diary page, with space for appointmen
Michael Blyth
2 min read
How to See More in Photography - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
When you're searching a scene for something interesting, the instinct is often to keep moving your eyes.
Instead, choose one area and let your gaze settle.
You may notice things that constant scanning was hiding from you.Common dolphin breaking the surface of the Bay of Biscay, illustrating how movement can be noticed through peripheral vision.
Michael Blyth
4 min read
A Year of Inspiration -Photography desk diary 2027 - "Thirteen Months of Seeing" - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
About a year ago, I had the idea of creating a diary.
I got in touch with a few people who enjoy my style of photography. The response was an overwhelming yes, accompanied by more than one, “I’ll buy one for each member of the family as a stocking present.”
So, here we are. The design is almost complete, and I am now sorting out the printing.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
How to Use Shadows as Leading Lines - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
The shadow cast by the gate post was much more dramatic than it would have been on green grass. And while the gate and fence form a barrier across the image, the length and angle of the shadow do the opposite: they lead the eye towards the main subject, the cathedral spire.
It is a useful reminder that the conditions around a subject can sometimes be as important as the subject itself.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Friday Image with Words: Love is Light - by Michael Blyth
Love is light, love is air to breathe, love is all things good. Pure love is one of the great God-given forces for good, and in a world that can feel increasingly harsh, we need more of it. Perhaps the challenge is to notice it, recognise it, and pass it on when we can.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Teaching Wednesday - When the Sky Becomes the Subject: Photographing Dramatic Skies - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
I started by photographing the landscape, but gradually the sky took over.
It is sometimes worth asking yourself what the photograph is really about. Is it the sky or the land? The sky or the sea? Once you have decided, you can then decide how much of the frame each should occupy.
Michael Blyth
4 min read
I’m bee-ing off for a while - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth is Taking a Photography Break
Not a simple photography tip as such, an announcement that I'm off blogging for a month while I head for the hills of northern Spain - taking a photography break in both senses of the word. Taking some images for some commercial friends like Cicerone Press, Aku and Leki
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Friday Image with Words: The Way Becomes Clear as We Walk It - by Michael Blyth
There are moments on a walk when the route ahead seems to disappear.
From where we stand, the path is unclear.
It bends behind rocks, appears to be swallowed by the landscape. We can see enough to know that there is a way forward, but not enough to understand the whole route.
To me that expresses much about life.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Teaching Wednesday - Composition Tips and Things that Change What We See - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
The light and the angles and the clarity to the hills of Martin Down in Wiltshire, UK, called for some time spent looking and sharing some thoughts about the composition tips and the effects of foreground on the background.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Friday Image with Words: When Someone Is Struggling, Knowing You Care Can Change Everything - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
So this week’s Friday Image with Words is a simple encouragement: do not underestimate the power of letting someone know you care.
Because when someone is struggling, knowing you care can change everything.
It might even save their life.
And maybe one day someone may do the same for you. We all have bad-times.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
One Subject, Many Photographs: Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
Most beginners think they need to find a better subject. Very often, they simply need to stay longer with the subject they already have. These photographs of one rock on the shoreline show how light, angle, distance and timing can turn one ordinary subject into many different photographs.
Michael Blyth
4 min read
Cap de Formentor - Friday Image with Words: Don’t Be Influenced by the World– Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
This thought echoes Romans 12:2, which says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is not a call to withdraw from the world, but to move through it with a different spirit: steadier, kinder, clearer and less easily shaped by the noise around us.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Why Camera Angle Matters; Photographing Butterflies - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
The other aspect is that the insect is at such an angle that its details are not particularly clear. The photograph feels slightly hurried, as though I was trying to capture it before it took off.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Singing and Mental Health: Friday Image With Words – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
There is a growing body of research suggesting that singing can have real benefits for mental wellbeing. Singing uses the breath, the body, attention and emotion all at once. It can steady breathing, lift mood, reduce stress and help people feel more connected, particularly when singing with others.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
It’s All in the Eyes - Keeping Eyes in Focus - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
With Image One, I was down low, with my phone camera upside down to get the lens at a 'snail-height.
I checked the image, everything was in focus, mind, body, and shell, but not the eye stalk with the little beady at the tip.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Learning How To Notice - The Photograph May Not Be the View You Came For : Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
Image One, is the original image I took before I noticed the flower poking out from the cliff. In itself made quite dramatic by the sharp vertical shadow pointing up towards the setting sun, with quite good visual balance overall - the lighter but larger rocks to the left, countering the smaller but darker ones on the right.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
Friday Image With Words: "You Are Not Alone" - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
A fixed wire on a difficult mountain path is a quiet reminder that others have gone before, recognised the challenge, and left something to help. You may be walking the path yourself, but that does not mean you are alone.
Michael Blyth
2 min read
Beware the Human: people in landscape photography – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
What do I mean by wrong direction?
Well in your imagination place them in the compositionally comfortable vertical third. If they're on the right third, their movement takes the eye into the picture, which is comfortable, but they will be adding a visual weight on the same side as the visually dense headland, sunlight on water, and the right hand heavy flowering taller gorse.
If you place them on the left hand vertical third, their presence adds better balance, but th
Michael Blyth
4 min read
Friday Image With Words: Never Take a Single Breath for Granted - Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth
When life feels hopeless, it is easy to believe that nothing will change. But every day does come to an end, and tomorrow can be a new beginning, especially when you find the strength to turn away from the things that trouble you and towards hope, peace, and a better direction.
Michael Blyth
1 min read
Photographing Bluebells: Depth of Field and Background Choice – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.
I have always struggled photographing bluebells, as I know have many other professional photographers, and my current post mountaineering accident following last years new hip status has meant that for two years running this man has not been able to get down low to do them something of the justice they deserve.
Michael Blyth
3 min read
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