If you are just starting out on your photography journey, one of the easiest photos to take are that of nature. In most places, you can easily find a beautiful patch of natural scenery without traveling too far from where you live, and as is the case with candid photos, there are no extra costs associated with obtaining your subject matter (unless you were to pay to get into a national park or something similar).

However, one of the biggest reasons I typically recommend nature shots to beginner photographers is simply because it is almost impossible to take a bad shot (much more so than candid pictures). As long as you are making a serious effort, whatever photos you end up taking will be lovely, I can promise you that. Having said that though, there are definite ways to make the most out of your shots, to help you transition from just an amateur taking the “easy” nature shots, to one who really is beginning to learn about the elements of photography and how to make truly breathtaking photos – at least from a conventional standpoint of “beauty”.

The first, is to define your subject well. If there is a particular element that you want to emphasize, then you should definitely bring that into focus, ideally using the rule of thirds. Things such as a large tree or a waterfall are perfect examples of single subjects that should be emphasized. However, you can also have a nature scene that has no clearly defined subject, or simply a subject that is part of the background. In this case, it is important to combine many different elements as possible. For example, if you have a beautiful hillside background, you can incorporate it as your subject matter, but make sure to include the sky above it, and any other smaller elements into the picture as well, such as rocks, trees and other shrubbery.

The next thing that you should learn to do is to incorporate good lighting into you photos. This first and foremost means using natural lighting as much as possible over artificial lighting that comes from your camera flash or from other external light sources. This will just help the photos look a lot cleaner and fall in line with the theme of nature in general. Having said that though, incorporating good lighting doesn’t necessarily mean to always use as much natural light as possible. It also means to incorporate a lack of lighting and even shadows to make your subject matter pop.

For example, the way you position the various elements can add extra shadows to the photo, which in turn helps to add variety to an otherwise bland photo. You can also use the time of day to manipulate how much light and shadows you are getting – for example waiting until sunset or sunrise can bring out a more reddish hue to your pictures, as well as lengthen the shadows accordingly. This variety again will really just help your photos to stand out and make everything look more vibrant and alive, which is what your ultimate goal should always be for nature photos.

Other than lighting and shadows, there is also one more very common element that you can use to your advantage to really make your photos stand out, and that is the wind. If there is enough wind in your photos, you can actually see it visibly as the various elements sway and bend out of their regular position. Obviously, you cannot control when and where the wind will blow in general, so you are at the mercy of Mother Nature for the most part. But when you do get the opportunity to incorporate wind into your photographs, make sure to take advantage of it.

Taking photographs of nature doesn’t just net extremely beautiful photos, but for the most part nets them very easily, making them the perfect photos for new photographers to incorporate into their portfolios. At the same time however, there is some definite skill involved to really take eye-popping photos, which luckily can be developed with practice. Over time, if you start incorporating the tips mentioned above, you should really start to see a noticeable difference in the quality of your nature photos.