I have the privilege of living at the foot of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I know I am spoiled for stunning landscapes. However, this may not always be a good thing. Sometimes we need to work on our photography muscles by trying to find creativity and intrigue in less spectacular scenery.
In this video tutorial, Thomas Heaton shows us his attempt at photographing a 10 mile stretch of land by taking a single photograph for each mile travelled. As he rides his bike through a flat rural landscape, his main concern is that he would simply be taking photos for the sake of taking them. In other words, by taking photos he did not feel were good, he would essentially have already failed the challenge. However, as he soon discovers, less is more. By bending compositional elements to his will and converting some of the photos to black and white, he was able to produce some truly beautiful results.
One problem Thomas had was the speed with which he traversed his route. This resonated with me because I often catch myself doing the same thing. This is especially true with hikes that have a big payoff or a stunning summit. Sometimes by rushing to get to that singular result we miss the potential opportunities that surround us. In that regard, it is the value in obscurity that we are truly missing. We have all seen the big payoff images all over social media. There is only so many ways you can reinvent Moraine Lake, or literally any image from Iceland. In an oversaturated landscape photography market the real value lies in the unknown, the images from the journey and not so much the destination.