An Introduction to the Lightroom Map Area

Adobe Lightroom comes with a really nice map interface to browse, explore, and view your photos. Unfortunately, if your photos aren’t geotagged, the feature is worthless.

Lightroom’s map feature lets you browse, explore, and view your photos and videos on an interactive map. You can also easily edit and geotag your photos from the map, as well as create collections, tag keywords, and much more.

Are You One of the Many Travel Photographers Struggling to Geotag Your Photos in Lightroom Without a Built-in GPS?

If your photos and videos are already geotagged when you import them into Lightroom, the map gets set up automatically. However, many cameras still don’t have built-in GPS. You can buy a GPS adaptor to mount to the top of your camera, but they come with plenty of drawbacks. First, with a GPS mounted to the top of your camera, you won’t be able to mount a flash or a mic there. And what if you have multiple cameras? At $200-300 a pop, the cost of outfitting each camera with a GPS unit can snowball out of control incredibly fast.

Alternatively, you can use a smartphone app that your camera manufacturer makes. When you snap a picture, the app uses the GPS in your phone to record the location and sends it to your camera over bluetooth. While I have not used these apps much, be aware that smartphones usually disable the GPS when it’s not actively in use to conserve battery. Unfortunately, if you phone’s GPS goes into standby or sleep mode during a photo shoot, it will often send the last location the GPS registered, which may not necessarily be your current location. As a result, many people have complained that these apps are not accurate or reliable for geotagging photos and videos.

So where do you go from here? This is where my method comes in. This method is by no means anything bleeding edge or earth-shattering. In fact, a quick Google search will reveal that it’s widely used throughout the photography and filmmaking industries. And best of all, it only requires one GPS regardless of how many cameras you have. However, there are still a few places it can trip you up. As a result, I want to use my background in GIS and data science to make sure that you fully understand both what the data is and what you’re doing with it. You unfortunately won’t find that in many other tutorials.

How to Use Handheld GPS (or Smartphone) to Geotag Your Photos and Videos in Adobe Lightroom

The strategy to geotag photos in Adobe Lightroom without a built-in GPS is staggeringly simple. While you’re out on your photo or video shoot, use a handheld GPS to record your movement. Then, in post-production match the timestamp on the GPS track to the timestamp on your camera to get the latitude and longitude coordinates for the geotag. Once you add the latitude and longitude to the metadata, Lightroom will automatically look up and add the city, state/province, and country that correspond to those coordinates.

Software You’ll Need

The only software you need to geotag your photos without a built-in GPS is Adobe Lightroom itself. Additionally, depending on what GPS and computer models you’re using, you may need additional software to pull the track off the GPS. If you have a Garmin GPS, don’t worry. All of their software is available free of charge. For example, my handheld GPS uses Garmin’s Basecamp software to offload the track data. On the other hand, the GPS I use in the car mounts like an external hard drive, so I can copy the track to my local disk using the Finder or File Explorer.

The track files you pull off your GPS are stored in GPS Exchange, or GPX format. GPX is an open source, non-proprietary file that stores GPS data for software applications. Data is stored in XML format, which is light-weight and usable in both desktop and web-based applications. In addition to latitude/longitude coordinates and timestamps, GPX files can also store speed, elevation, waypoints, routes, points of interest, and much more.

You can view GPX files in numerous desktop and web-based applications, ranging from Google Maps to QGIS and ArcMap to even the Matt Gove Photo maps. However, for the purpose of geotagging photos, the easiest application to view your GPX files is actually Lightroom. You can preview your track right in the Lightroom map before you geotag your photos.

Sync the Clocks on Your GPS and Camera Before You Head Out in the Field

Before you head out for your shoot, your single most important task is to sync the clocks between your handheld GPS and each camera you’ll be using. If the clocks are not synced, your photos and videos will not be geotagged in the correct location.

If your travels keep you confined to a single time zone, feel free to sync everything to your local time zone. However, if your travels take you across multiple time zones, you should sync all of your devices to UTC. Also called Zulu Time, UTC is the modern standard that the world uses to regulate time. It differs from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), as GMT is based on the Earth’s rotation, while the more accurate UTC is based on the atomic measurements.

If your camera or GPS does not offer UTC as a time zone, set it to London (make sure daylight savings is off) or Iceland. In addition, Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is on UTC year-round.

Once you get out in the field where you’ll be shooting, simply turn on your handheld GPS and throw it in your bag, or put it somewhere that will be out of the way, but with you all day. Make sure the batteries are all charged at the beginning of the day. Finally, don’t forget to carry a spare set of batteries if you’re expecting a lengthy shoot.

Add Location Data in Post-Production in Adobe Lightroom

Now that your shoot is finished, it’s time to geotag your photos and videos in Lightroom. Before we get started, though, there’s another important note about time zones that if not done correctly, will result in your photos not being geotagged correctly.

A Word of Caution About Time Zones in GPX Data vs EXIF Camera Metadata

If you’ve synced your GPS and cameras to UTC, be aware of the difference in how GPX files handle time zones vs the camera’s EXIF metadata. GPX files have the time zone embedded in them. EXIF metadata records the time in the time zone that your camera is set to, but does not actually record the time zone itself in the metadata. In other words, the GPX file sees the time stamp as “2022-04-11 15:21 UTC”, while the EXIF metadata in the camera only sees “2022-04-11 15:21”.

Why is this important, you ask? Because when you offload the GPX file to your computer, your computer automatically converts its timestamp back to local time. For example, let’s say I’m on the east coast of the US, which is 4 hours behind UTC. The computer all of a sudden now sees the GPX timestamp as “2022-04-11 11:21 EDT”, while it still sees the EXIF metadata as “2022-04-11 15:21” (which it incorrectly assumes is also EDT because the EXIF data does not include the time zone). If you try to sync your photos to the GPX track, they’ll all be four hours off!

Thankfully, re-aligning the time zones is incredibly easy in Adobe Lightroom. When you load the GPX file into Lightroom, it will ask you if you want to correct the time zone. If you’ve synced your cameras to UTC, simply take the UTC offset of your local timezone and reverse the sign. For example, if you’re on the US east coast, which is UTC-4, set the time zone correction to +4 hours. This tells Lightroom to add 4 hours to the “2022-04-11 11:21 EDT” GPX timestamp, syncing it back up with the “2022-04-11 15:21” timestamp on the camera.

Still confused? If you don’t want to deal with having to adjust timezones in Lightroom, there’s an easy alternative. Simply set your computer’s time zone to UTC before you import anything into Lightroom. Once you’re finished geotagging your photos, set the time zone on your computer back to local time.

Import the GPX File and the Photos and Videos From Your Shoot into Lightroom

To import the GPX File into Lightroom, first open the map viewer. At the bottom of the window, you’ll see a bar to select the map style, a zoom slider, a lock, and a track button, which is circled in green below.

Click the track button and select “Load Tracklog” at the very top of the menu. Navigate to the tracklogs you just pulled off your GPS. Click OK to load them into Lightroom.

Now, you’ll set the time zone offset as we discussed in the previous section. If you’re working in your local time zone (or have set your computer’s time zone to UTC to match the camera and GPS), you don’t need to add any offset to the track. Remember, if you synced the camera and GPS to UTC, simply take the UTC offset of your local time zone and flip the sign. In other words, set the offset to +4 hours for Eastern Time (UTC-4) or +7 hours for Pacific Time (UTC-7). Click OK to confirm the time zone offset.

You should see the trackline from your adventure appear on the map. Do note that if Lightroom detects that your tracklog time zone does not appear to match the time zone of your photos, it will highlight the trackline log time in red. In that case, click the track button at the bottom and select “Set Time Zone Offset” to set the correct time zone.

Once you’ve confirmed that the track loaded correctly, then import your photos and videos just like you always have.

Geotag Your Photos in Lightroom with the Click of a Button

Now that both the track and your media are all in place, it’s time to geotag them in Lightroom. In the filmstrip at the bottom of the window, select the photos and videos you want to geotag. Then, click on the track button once again, and select “Auto-Tag XX Selected Photos”, where XX is the number of photos you selected.

You should see a bunch of points appear on your trackline. Hover over them and you’ll see your photos. If they’re not quite in the right position, you can drag them around to put them in the right place.

Don’t Have a Handheld GPS? Use a Smartphone Instead.

If you don’t have a handheld GPS, there are plenty of smartphone apps out there to generate a GPX file of your adventure. In the past I’ve always used the AllTrails app, which is available for free for both Apple and Android devices. AllTrails is designed for hiking and biking, but you can use it to track any activity. Here are directions to export your track from the AllTrails app. Make sure you export it as a GPX track, and not a GPX route.

Alternate Methods to Geotag Your Photos in Lightroom without a Built-in GPS

While geotagging photos and videos in Adobe Lightroom using a GPX track is by far the easiest and most accurate way to add location data to your images and videos, it’s not the only way.

First off, Lightroom offers several ways to add location data manually. You can directly edit the metadata of your images directly in Lightroom, or use the map interface to geotag your images. You can find plenty of tutorials for manual geotagging with a quick Google search. For more information, here is Adobe’s official documentation.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few drawbacks to geotagging your images manually. While it works fine for a few photos, it’s impossible to scale up to large photo albums, collections, and libraries, unless you have a serious amount of both time and will to put into it.

You can also geotag your photos using Python. We’ll cover this in a future tutorial, but you can use Python’s Pillow library to add location to your images’ metadata. You’ll need to loop through your image files, add the appropriate location metadata (lat/long coordinates or city/state/country), and then save the files. Be aware that this can get very complicated if you have a lot of photos taken in a lot of different locations. However, unlike manually adding location data, using Python is infinitely scalable, both up and down.

Conclusion

Geotagging photos is a critical part of both the workflow and staying organized as a landscape and travel photographer. With so many cameras still lacking built-in GPS functionalities, it becomes even more critical to know how to geotag photos in Adobe Lightroom without built-in GPS. Using GPX track files is by far the best alternative to built-in GPS that’s out there. Except for a few spots time zones can trip you up, the method is foolproof, accurate, reliable, and only requires one GPS, regardless of how many cameras you have. In my book, though, the benefits of having a geotagged library far outweigh the occasional hiccup from a mislabeled time zone.

Interested in more of these tutorials? I’n addition to the blog entries, I’ll be posting them to YouTube and sending them out via our email newsletter as well. Please subscribe to our email newsletter and our YouTube channel for the latest tutorials, and get exclusive deals to our online store that are not available anywhere else.

The post How to Geotag Your Photos in Adobe Lightroom Without a Built-in GPS appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Five years later, I did finally get back. On a family trip in 2017, we checked off Zion (again), Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef National Parks in southern Utah. Despite being so close to each other, all three National Parks are so different, so unique, and so breathtaking. But the two northern Utah National Parks, Arches and Canyonlands, remained elusive. And living in Arizona, it was another frustrating case of so close, but yet so far. Year after year. But that only made me more driven than ever to get there.

What Are the “Big 5” National Parks in Utah?

If you’re unfamiliar with Utah’s geography, the state has an incredible diversity of National Parks, National Monuments, National Forests, National Recreation Areas, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Utah is quite literally a recreation paradise that offers just about every outdoor activity you can think of. The five national parks in Utah are, in alphabetical order:

1. Arches National Park
2. Bryce Canyon National Park
3. Canyonlands National Park
4. Capitol Reef National Park
5. Zion National Park

Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Capitol Reef National Parks are clustered together in the southern part of Utah. At the same time, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks sit about 30 minutes apart in northeastern Utah.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Provides Motivation for Going to Check Off Bucket List Items

I, like many people, took a lot of things for granted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, including travel and photography. When the world shut down in March, 2020, it took the travel and photography away from me. For over a year and a half, it felt like part of me was missing. And in a way, it was. But instead of seeing the pandemic as a setback, it became a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.

The pandemic has made me more driven than ever to pursue my passions, goals, and mission. I decided to further integrate travel, photography, and videography into the core of my business. It led me to realize exactly what I want life to look like. And now, it’s time to chase those new dreams.

Utah National Parks: Trip Background and Motivation

The primary purpose of this trip was to take care of the business of selling my house in Arizona. However, I wanted to make sure I mixed in a bunch of fun, too. And that has nothing to do with the fact that moving sucks, and I’ve done it far too many times. It’s because I haven’t had a fun trip since my 2019 Road Trip across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Two and a half years is a very long time to go without something that you’re not only passionate about, but also something you use as an escape from tough times.

The logistics for the trip came into place absolutely perfectly. Because COVID-19 was still raging in the south, I opted for the northern route (I-80) across most of the country. Furthermore, one of my friends had just moved to Boulder, Colorado, which was also conveniently right along the way. But best of all, it meant that I’d be driving right by the two remaining Utah National Parks – Arches and Canyonlands – that I had yet to visit, on my way back to Arizona. Unfortunately, I only had about a day and a half to explore both parks, so I wanted to make sure I made the most of every minute I had.

Day 1: Catching Sunset at Arches National Park

After a spectacular drive across the Colorado Rockies on Interstate 70 from Boulder, I rolled into Moab around 3:30 PM local time. After checking into the hotel, I didn’t even bother heading up to the room. I headed straight to Arches National Park. This was in early December, so I only had about an hour and a half to familiarize myself with the park and scope out a good place for a sunset photo shoot.

I Nearly Missed the Sunset Because I Wasn’t Paying Attention

If you’ve ever been to Arches before, you’ll know that it takes about 45 minutes to drive from one end of the park to the other. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this because it was my first time at Arches. If there’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I tend to pull off and shoot a lot of photos and videos my first time I visit somewhere new. This is especially true for a place as beautiful as Arches.

After what felt like just a short few moments, I looked down at the clock. It was almost 4:40 PM. I only had about 15 minutes to find a spot to watch the 5:00 PM sunset. And wasn’t even half way through the park, yet. That’s about when that little bit of panic sets in. Am I going to miss sunset because I was being an idiot and not paying attention to the clock? Not if I can help it. To make matters worse, there’s no cell service inside the park, either.

Thankfully, with the help of my GPS and the brochures the National Park Service gives you when you enter each park, I identified a good spot several miles back that would be a good spot to watch sunset. But could I make it in time? The truck may have felt like an Indy Car at times racing back to that spot, but rest assured I obeyed the speed limit at all times. And the timing ended up being perfect, as I got there about 7 minutes before sunset.

Post-Sunset Twilight at Arches National Park is Absolutely Magical

If you think the golden hour is a magical time for landscape photography, you’ve never seen Arches National Park during that 40-or-so-minute window of dusk and twilight following sunset. The entire landscape is cast in a spectacular color. It starts as a vibrant violet or purple right after sunset and slowly shifts to a navy blue hue as dusk progresses. When contrast against Arches’ brilliant red rocks and a fresh blanket of snow on the top of the nearby LaSal Mountains, it’s no wonder why these are such sought-after shots. The same goes for all of the other Utah National Parks, too.

While watching the last dregs of light disappear from the western horizon, I was completely awe-struck by what I had witnessed. It was really that beautiful. I could have easily sat there all night watching the stars, but that’s a project for another day. Time to head back to the hotel to get dinner and a good night’s sleep.

Utah National Parks Day 2: Diving Deeper into Arches and an Afternoon at Canyonlands

After waking up, I rolled over and looked at the clock. 6:20 AM. Then I opened the weather app on my phone to check the sunrise. 7:23 AM. There was more than enough time to get to Arches to see the sunrise. I hadn’t originally planned to get up in time for sunrise because thick cloud cover was expected to roll in early that morning. But skies were still relatively clear, so I quickly got dressed and headed back up to Arches. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I missed a beautiful sunrise.

The Arches Sunset was Breathtaking. Then Sunrise Said “Hold My Beer.”

If there’s one thing I learned in all the years I spent storm chasing, it’s that plans rarely go off without a hitch. Mother Nature always seems to throw you a curveball at some point. Sometimes it’s for the better. Other (read: more often) times it’s not. Up at Arches that morning, the weather gods were looking out for us. The arrival of the thick cloud cover was delayed a few hours. It left absolutely perfect conditions for a beautiful sunrise in its place.

To Fully Experience Arches National Park, You Need to Get Out and Hike

Despite the gloomy skies and cold temperatures, I was actually most looking forward to doing some hiking at Arches National Park. After catching the sunrise, I headed up to Devil’s Garden, at the far northern end of the park. My friend in Boulder had recommended this hike because it gave you the most bang for your buck for seeing as many arches as possible if you didn’t have much time. And boy, was he ever right.

After setting off from the trailhead, you only need to hike about 600 feet, or 200 meters, to reach the first arch. From there, you’ll see 4 additional arches in the first mile of the trail, which will bring you to Landscape Arch. In September, 1991, visitors at Landscape Arch witnessed one of the largest rock falls in Arches National Park history. After hearing some cracking sounds, nearly 180 tons of rock fell from the bottom of Landscape Arch to the ground below. Those rocks still litter the landscape today.

Following the rock fall, park rangers closed the trail that led underneath Landscape Arch. That trail remains closed to this day. However, you can still get plenty close enough to get good photos and videos of it.

While you can make a loop through even more arches past Landscape Arch, I opted to return to the parking lot. The end of the main trail is at Landscape Arch, and I didn’t want to risk getting lost on the primitive trail. Plus, there were other parts of the park I still wanted to see, and I didn’t have a whole lot of time left, so I hiked the 1 mile (1.6 km) back to the parking lot.

Don’t Miss Delicate Arch, which is Utah’s Most Famous Arch

Even if you’ve never heard of Delicate Arch, I’ll be willing to bet that you’ve seen it before. It’s one of the most famous geologic features in the world. You can find pictures of it on tourism brochures, guides, and promotions not just in Utah, but throughout the western United States. It’s one of the most photographed spots in the entire National Park system, and even appears on the Utah license plate. And you can find it at Arches National Park.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to hike the three mile (4.8 km) round trip to Delicate Arch. And I’ll be the first to admit, I was a bit lazy too. The previous hike in the cold certainly didn’t help. But that didn’t stop me from getting pictures of it. You just have to work smarter, not harder.

There is a lookout where you can view Delicate Arch from two viewpoints off of a parking lot about half a mile (just under 1 km) from Delicate Arch. I had hoped to hike to the closer viewpoint, but I found barricades across the trail. It was closed for maintenance. So I got my big telephoto lens and walked out to the second, further away viewpoint. All I can say is, well, telephoto lens for the win!

Take Another Short Hike at The Windows on the Way Out of Arches National Park

If you’re short on time, I can’t recommend a hike at The Windows enough. At 0.7 miles (1.1 km) round trip, it’s an easy, relatively flat hike that will net you three additional arches. You’ll first visit the beautiful pair of arches that make up The Windows. You can actually hike right up underneath them and take in the view on the other side. Then, turn around and you’ll find a bonus: Turret Arch. While it doesn’t dominate the landscape the way The Windows do, Turret Arch is a great place to get your picture taken standing underneath the arch.

Well, Arches, it’s been real, but it’s nearly mid-day, so it’s time to head over to Canyonlands.

Canyonlands National Park: An Island in the Sky

The main entrance to Canyonlands National Park is about a half hour north of Arches National Park. Driving into Canyonlands for the first time felt an awful lot like the first time I visited the Grand Canyon. After a beautiful drive across the plateau, you arrive at the entrance station. A short distance from the entrance station, you get your first view of the canyon. And you realize right away why they call it Island in the Sky.

Like Grand Canyon, the Colorado River is responsible for carving Canyonlands National Park out of the surrounding plateau. Canyonlands also is broken into two areas. However, you’ll notice a few distinct differences. First, Canyonlands is much shallower and much wider than Grand Canyon. Second, it’s much less crowded, and you can actually drive down to the river. It’s a primitive dirt road through gnarly backcountry, but that’s a story for another day.

Canyonlands’ Grand Overview

The road into Canyonlands National Park ends at Grand View Point, about 12 miles (19 km) from the Visitor’s Center. I recommend you start there for two reasons. First, it’s the best view in the whole park. Grand View Point features 270-degree views of the surrounding canyons. Second, by starting at Grand View Point and working your way back to the Visitor’s Center, you’ll be able to see the whole park if you run out of time.

A Different Perspective Around Every Corner

One of my favorite aspects of my trips to Grand Canyon National Park is that for all of the pulloffs and lookouts it has, each one has a different perspective of the canyon. Canyonlands is the exact same. I stopped at every overlook I could find, and they photos simply speak for themselves.

Take an Excursion Down Upheaval Dome Road

About half way between the Visitor’s Center and Grand View Point, you’ll find the turnoff for Upheaval Dome Road. Along the road, you’ll find numerous hiking opportunities, as well as plenty of pullouts, overlooks, and beautiful scenery. I hiked short distances down both the Upheaval Dome and Whale Rock trails, but the windy, cold, and raw weather made longer hikes rather unpleasant. I guess that’s just another excuse to return to Canyonlands in the future.

The sun going in and out of the clouds did, however, make for some spectacular lighting in both photos and videos. The sun shines through the clouds like a spotlight on the landscape, bathing the jagged landscape in a beautiful, warm light. Again, here, I’ll just let the photos tell the story.

A Deserted Mesa Arch will Make Even The Most Seasoned Instagrammers Jealous

Mesa Arch is the most popular photo spot in Canyonlands National Park. Sought after by everyone from professional landscape photographers to social media influencers, Mesa Arch is best known for its sunrise photo ops. In fact, it’s so popular that there is actually a sign there telling people not to take too much time taking photos at the arch itself so that other people have a chance to take pictures as well.

One of the biggest perks of being at both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in early December is that you’re there at the peak of the offseason. As a result, I had both parks to pretty much myself. Even at the most popular hiking trails, there may be two or three other cars in the parking lot, but other than that, it was completely empty. And best of all, this is what Mesa Arch looked like. Just admit it. I know you’re jealous.

Sunset at Canyonlands

As I made my way down the hill back to the Mesa Arch trailhead, the western sky was starting to clear. Conditions weren’t quite as perfect as they had been at Arches that morning, but if they held, sunset would be spectacular. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake two days in a row, I knew exactly where I wanted to go photograph the Canyonlands sunset: the Green River Overlook. And best of all, it’s only about a three-minute drive from the Mesa Arch trailhead.

I got to the Green River Overlook at about 4:15 PM for a 5 PM sunset. Conditions still looked really good for sunset. However, I knew from my training in meteorology that it was pretty much a flip of a coin whether it would hold on long enough to give us a beautiful sunset. And while everything aligned perfectly that morning for the sunrise at Arches, this one unfortunately went the other way.

By about 4:35 PM, thick clouds had rolled in, covering the western sky. You just knew those clouds were there to stay. There would be no spectacular Canyonlands sunset that day, as thick clouds just kept rolling in. But they couldn’t take away the spectacular view at the overlook.

Even though the sunset didn’t work out, it was impossible to drive back to Moab fully dejected. It had been an incredible day-and-a-half exploring Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Plus, I still the southern (Needles) part of Canyonlands to look forward to the next day. I ended the day with some really good Thai food in Moab. Basil chicken with some of the best hot chili sauce I’ve ever had.

Day 3: The Rest of Canyonlands Leads to a Couple Unexpected Surprises

On my final morning in Utah, I woke up to a very unexpected surprise. Winter Storm Warnings were up for most of east-central and southeastern Utah. Parts of San Juan County, which sits just south of Moab, could see heavy blowing snow and up to 8 inches of accumulation. It had my attention.

While conditions were fine in Moab itself, I knew that things could be much different once you get south of town, where you climb from from about 4,000 feet up to 7,000 feet in elevation. Further complicating the matter, the only route available to get back to Arizona took me right through the heart of the Winter Storm Warning. Conditions would only deteriorate as the morning went along, so I didn’t waste any time getting on the road heading south.

The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park

While Island in the Sky and Needles – the two districts of Canyonlands National Park – sit just across the canyon from each other, the two entrances are about 70 miles (113 km) apart. Because of its proximity to Moab and better views of the canyon, Island in the Sky sees far more visitors than the Needles district. Needles is generally considered to be much more rustic and remote than Island in the Sky. It’s the same phenomenon you see in the South vs North Rims of the Grand Canyon.

As luck would have it, the majority of the Needles district was north of the Winter Storm Warning. However, as I approached the turnoff, it became very clear that the turnoff that went to the entrance of the Needles District was far enough south that it fell within the Winter Storm Warning. By the time I got to the turnoff, light snow had begun falling, and gusty winds were starting to pick up. There was also a sign stating that the road into the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park was closed due to the incoming snowstorm. So I begrudgingly continued south.

A Second Unexpected Surprise Checks off Another Bucket List Item

By the time I rolled into the town of Blanding in southeastern Utah, I was through the Winter Storm Warning, but I still didn’t know what I wanted to do as. an alternative to Canyonlands. I knew that the very least, I wanted to go take photos of the rock that gave the town of Mexican Hat its name. In addition, I also planned to stop at the famous movie spot north of Monument Valley where they filmed the scene in which Forrest Gump stopped running.

Valley of the Gods: Checking Off Another Bucket List Item

As I made my way towards Mexican Hat, a small sign on the side of the road caught my eye. That sign was for Valley of the Gods Road, with an arrow pointing off into the desert. Holy crap! That’s the perfect alternative for Canyonlands. Driving through the Valley of the Gods had been on my bucket list ever since I moved to Arizona. I had hoped to drive it on my trip through southern Utah in 2017, but I had my parents with me then. We simply didn’t have enough time to drive it. Furthermore, my mom and dad didn’t want to go bouncing down a dirt road for two hours.

As you turn down Valley of the Gods Road, there are huge signs warning you that the road becomes impassable when wet, even with four wheel drive. And with that winter storm just to the north, rain was a very real possibility. With the last fleeting bar of cell service, I tried to pull up the nearest radar, which was in Grand Junction, Colorado. No signal. I tried and tried again. Still no signal. Finally, the radar image appeared. Rain was just on the other side of the mesa that formed the western boundary of the Valley of the Gods. It couldn’t have been more than 15 or 20 miles (25 to 32 km) away, and it was heading straight at me.

Will the Rain Hold Off or Render the Road Impassable?

My background in meteorology gave me a gut feeling that the mesa would likely be tall enough to wring all of the rain out of the clouds, preventing it from reaching the Valley of the Gods. A closer look at the radar showed that the line of rain was struggling to push east as it approached the mesa.

I was this close to checking off another bucket list item, plus had just gotten stuffed up at Canyonlands. I didn’t come all this way just to go home empty-handed. So I took the gamble that the mesa would keep the rain at bay. And boy, was it ever worth it. I did not see a drop of rain in the nearly three hours I was in Valley of the Gods.

Conclusion

By far, the best part about visiting national parks like Arches and Canyonlands in the offseason is that you basically have the entire park to yourself. If you can tolerate the cold, damp, raw, and even snow, you’re bound to have a fantastic time. And that goes for not just Arches and Canyonlands, but for National Parks across Utah and the rest of the west. Having now visited all of the “Big 5” National Parks in Utah, it only intensifies the drive to return to the parks, dive much deeper into them, and be able to fully experience and explore everything the Utah National Parks have to offer. This time, I just hope it will take shorter than 5 years to make it back there.

Top Photo: The sun begins to rise at Arches National Park
Moab, Utah – December, 2021

The post Arches and Canyonlands: A Remarkable Two Day Adventure to Northern Utah National Parks appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

So what’s my secret? I apply my education and experience in meteorology and storm chasing to make weather a focal point of my landscape photography and travel videos. Being proactive instead of reactive allows me to stay in front of changing weather. As a result, I am already in position ready to shoot whenever my target weather arrives. It doesn’t matter if I’m waiting for a sunset, a blizzard, or a thunderstorm. The strategy is the same. And today, I want to teach you that strategy so you can use weather to improve your landscape photography and travel videos.

A Word About Safety While Filming Weather

Whenever you go out in the field when hazardous weather is expected, safety should always be your number one concern. You can easily get yourself hurt or killed if you bite off more than you can chew. For example, don’t try to shoot lightning in the middle of an open field. If you don’t feel comfortable doing something, then don’t do it. It’s not worth hurting or killing yourself just to get “the shot”.

The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model

The U.S. Federal Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed the HRRR model (pronounced “her”). As a result, its spatial domain is limited to the United States. Because of its extremely fine resolution, it is highly accurate, having never let me down once during my tenure chasing storms. My own intuition ignored the model a few times, and let’s just say those always ended in busts.

The HRRR has several key features.

• Initialized from the Rapid Refresh (RAP) model, which gets its data from the global GFS (American) model.
• 3 km resolution is fine enough to resolve most individual thunderstorms, making it an invaluable tool for storm chasing
• Runs once per hour, on the top of the hour
• Forecasts 48 hours into the future, a significant increase over its 12-hour forecasts when I started storm chasing

While you can easily get HRRR predictions from most modeling sites, I prefer to get it straight from NOAA. When you load the NOAA site, you’ll see an interface that looks like this. To zoom in on a particular geographic area, select a region from the “Domain” dropdown. The timestamps contain the day of the week and the hour of the day, in UTC. Each row is a different model parameter. Click on a cell for the parameter and forecast hour you want to see, or click on the check in the “Loop” column to see a loop of all times.

Basic HRRR Parameters

Before I begin a model analysis, I like to look at the basic weather parameters, both on a national and regional scale. Here are the HRRR parameters that correspond to the basic weather data. We’ll define them shortly once we dive into some examples.

We’ll dive into additional parameters that are specific to certain types of weather phenomena, photography, and videography later in this tutorial, but these are more than enough to get you going.

HRRR Time Zones

All HRRR parameters and runs are initialized and output using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), or Greenwich Mean Time. UTC always uses the 24-hour clock, so you don’t need to worry about AM or PM. The model often uses Zulu notation to indicate times. For example, if the model date says “14 Dec 2021 – 17Z”, that means that the model was run on 14 December, 2021 at 17:00 UTC. In the model output, “Wed 08” indicates the model’s prediction for Wednesday at 08:00 UTC.

Basic Storm Chasing Strategy for Weather Photography

You can ask three different storm chasers for their strategy, and you’ll probably get three very different answers. However, I prefer to keep my strategy as simple as possible. Not only because I’m a big believer in the moniker “Keep It Simple, Stupid”, but also because it makes it much easier to share my knowledge with you. Even though I designed this strategy for storm chasing, you can apply it to every type of landscape photography or travel video.

Step 1: 1 to 2 Days Before the Chase

Look at the Storm Prediction Center‘s (SPC) Day 2 and 3 Severe Weather Outlooks. Next, read the forecasts and discussions from your local National Weather Service Office. Finally, have a look at the weather models, looking for where the parameters best come together. At the very least, look at the GFS (American) and ECMWF (European) models. You may not quite be into the HRRR’s time range yet. However, if you are, please use the HRRR, too.

Your goal is to identify broad potential target areas. For example, you could identify Western Oklahoma, Central Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle as potential targets. While the outlook above doesn’t give the whole picture, targeting Northwestern Oklahoma and South-Central Kansas seems like a pretty safe bet. Don’t worry about specific locations within that target area yet. You’ll figure that out once the event gets a little closer and the models get a better idea of what’s going to happen.

Step 2: The Evening Before the Chase

Using the same resources you used in Step 1 to choose your preferred target area. If you can identify a backup target area in case your primary target doesn’t work out, great, but it’s certainly not necessary. At this point, you can start looking at specific areas inside your broader target area. You just want to identify them, since you won’t choose one until tomorrow.

Step 3: The Morning of the Chase

Have a final look at the models, SPC Outlooks, and local forecasts before you hit the road. Confirm or adjust your chosen target area as needed. After that, choose a specific area to start within that broader target area.

Additionally, you should identify a jumping off point before departing for the chase. The jumping off point should be close enough to where storms are expected to fire, but far enough in front of them so you’re not trying to outrun them just to get ahead. I often used small towns, truck stops, and scenic lookouts as jumping off points. Look for places where two major roads intersect. You want to quickly and easily be able to go north, south, east, or west once storms fire.

Step 4: Drive to Your Target Area

Once you’re on the road, you should be checking the HRRR every hour or two. That way, as you drive to your jumping off point, you can easily adjust it as necessary. Try to arrive at least 30 minutes before storms are expected to initiate so you can get your gear set up. If you pick your jumping off point correctly, you’ll be in perfect position when storms do fire.

Step 5: Wait for Storms to Fire

Once storms initiate, use doppler radar to identify the specific storm you want to chase. Your target storm should align with your goals for the chase. For example, you could pick very different storms depending on whether you were doing weather or landscape photography versus trying to deploy sensors into the storm. Then, the chase is on.

My Greatest Storm Chasing Success: The 19 May, 2012 Harper, Kansas Tornadoes

My greatest storm chasing success came when a hunch, model intuition, and a little luck all came together just perfectly. I could write an entire post telling this story, so I’ll give you the abridged version here.

For several days leading up to 19 May, 2012, it became clear that there was a very good chance for tornadoes near a triple point that was setting up in south-central Nebraska. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a triple point, it’s the point where a warm front, cold front, and dryline meet. Model runs the morning of the chase confirmed that Nebraska was the most likely spot for tornadoes.

I wasn’t all that keen on driving from Oklahoma all the way to Nebraska, so I instead decided to look for something closer to home. That’s when I turned to the HRRR. It showed a window of very favorable conditions for tornadoes opening along the Kansas-Oklahoma border just before sunset. It was a very brief window – only about 20 minutes or so – but it looked even better than Nebraska. Timing would be critical.

Not wanting to rely on just a single model, I looked at several other models. They all showed the same window for tornadoes opening up along the Kansas-Oklahoma border. I had to give it a shot. Before I knew it, I was on the road, heading north up Interstate 35.

Everything Comes Together Perfectly for Awe-Inspiring Weather and Landscape Photography

I got up to the Kansas-Oklahoma border about 2 hours before sunset. My first stop was right off I-35 in Blackwell, Oklahoma to set up my jumping off point. A quick look at the HRRR showed everything was still in place for tornadoes at sunset just north of the state line. I decided to head west and make Medford, Oklahoma my jumping off point, which gave me easy access to a northbound road (US-81) into Kansas.

Before long, clouds started to bubble up on the dryline out to the west. Satellite and radar confirmed the HRRR’s predictions that the storms were going to be north of the state line, so I decided to move my jumping off point up to Caldwell, Kansas. By the time I got to Caldwell, the storms had fired and were heading towards the town of Harper, Kansas. I continued north and the chase was on. By the time I got to US-160, the weather radio was already blaring with Tornado Warnings. All I had to do was head west.

Just east of Harper, I pulled off onto a side street and had the whole show to myself. There was not another vehicle around, let alone any chaser traffic. That cluster of supercells produced over a dozen tornadoes in about 20 minutes, capped off by a breathtaking EF-3 tornado packing winds over 160 mph. The setting sun behind it was just icing on the cake.

Then, just like that, our very brief window for tornadoes slammed shut. The tornado became rain-wrapped before lifting as the sun set and darkness set in.

The Sweetest Victory Lies in the Photography

As I made my way back to I-35 to head home, lots of storm chasers started passing me going the other direction. After being so void of vehicles the entire chase, I couldn’t believe how many storm chasers were now heading towards Harper. But I knew they were too late. The tornadoes were done. The window was closed.

Interestingly, I didn’t realize the sweetest part of my victory until the next morning when I turned on the local news. Remember that triple point up in Nebraska? It had completely busted. Have a look at the storm reports. The red dots are confirmed tornadoes.

As a result, all of the chaser traffic I encountered on my way home were everyone who had been up in Nebraska racing down trying (unsuccessfully) to catch the storms in Kansas. I was one of only a small handful of people who had gotten footage of tornadoes that day.

Severe Weather in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

As you can probably guess, the most practical application of our storm chasing strategy is for severe weather photography. Here are some severe weather parameters you should consider for your photo or video shoot. I’ve defined them in layman’s terms to help you understand them. You need to look where all of these come together with the target values. Just one parameter being off can completely shut off all storm activity.

Sunrises and Sunsets in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

The Golden Hour is one of the most sought after period for landscape photographers and travel videographers. The low, warm light seems to make the landscape glow and the shadows dance. It’s a truly magical time of day. In fact, weather is what transforms you sunset landscape photography from okay to jaw dropping. Fortunately, the HRRR makes it pretty easy to identify the best location to film a sunrise or sunset.

Before we dive into the HRRR parameters, let’s recall what makes a good sunset. Brilliant sunset colors come from light refraction through clouds, dust, and other particles, so we need to examine cloud cover and thickness closely. Too many or too few clouds will result in a lousy sunset.

Unfortunately, the HRRR does not output cloud thickness as a parameter. However, it does output all of the parameters we need to calculate it. To get cloud thickness, simply use one of the following equations. The terms of each equation are defined below.

cloud thickness = cloud top height - ceiling
cloud thickness = cloud top height - LCL

Do note that if you’re using the second equation, cloud top heights are output in feet, while the LCL is output in meters! For best sunset colors, you want 25 to 45% coverage of thin, mid-to-high-level cirrus or cumulus clouds.

A Word About the Cloud Ceiling

The cloud ceiling is primarily used in aviation to indicate the height of the bottom of obstructing clouds. That means that if there is a cloud ceiling present, clouds will likely be thick enough to obscure the sunset, regardless of whether you find them in the low, mid, or high levels.

Additionally, don’t forget that rain showers can also make for spectacular sunsets. However, you should only try to integrate rain showers into your landscape photography in the summer. Small, pop-up summer showers can refract the light in spectacular ways. Winter showers are most often too thick and widespread to refract any light, which will ruin your sunset. Use the 1 km agl reflectivity parameter to evaluate rain shower potential.

Finally, know what compass bearing the sun sets or rises at. That bearing varies by both location and by time of year.

Winter Weather in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

I break winter weather photography into two categories: inside the storm and post-storm. Both have their pros and cons. On one hand, you can capture the drama and intensity of blowing snow and bitter cold temperatures from inside the storm. On the other hand, a post-winter storm period can often be a spectacular 24-hour long Golden Hour to add breathtaking weather scenes to your landscape photography or travel videos. A fresh blanket of snow on a dramatic landscape makes for absolutely stunning photos and videos. For a textbook example, just have a look the Grand Canyon under a fresh blanket of snow.

Thankfully, both types of winter weather photography use the exact same strategy and parameters with the HRRR. The only difference is the timing.

For in-storm filming, you may want to also consider both wind speed and visibility. Alternatively, if you’re heading out after the storm, you’ll generally want at least 5 miles (8 km) of visibility, with at least a little sunlight poking through the clouds.

Finally, a word of caution. Be very careful around winter weather. Roads can close and travel can become impossible with little to no warning. If you don’t feel comfortable doing something, don’t do it. Trust me, you do not want to be stranded in your car in the middle of a major winter storm. If you have four wheel drive and/or tire chains, use them.

Lightning in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

Lightning photography is one of the most challenging types of weather photography, but also one of the most rewarding. If just 5% of your lightning photos come out, you’re doing extraordinarily well. Thankfully, lightning happens everywhere, so you shouldn’t have to travel great distances to film it. In fact, you don’t need severe weather to get good lightning.

Before setting off to photography lightning, you must ensure your own safety. Lightning is one of the top weather killers not just in the United States, but around the world. Always shoot lightning from inside a building or car, or at the vary least, a grounded overhang. Do not under any circumstance stand under trees to try to film lightning. Trees often explode when struck by lightning, which will shower you in splinters, jagged wood, and molten sap.

Lightning Strategy

The strategy for lightning photography is staggeringly simple: set up in a dark spot at night, open the shutter, and let the picture take itself. If you’re shooting video, you can film lightning in the daytime, but even then, I still find your best shots come at night. Set up a ways from the storm to shoot lightning. That way, you’ll stay out of the rain. You’ll need a bit of luck, but when you do succeed, the results are, quite literally, electric.

While it’s impossible to predict exactly when and where lightning will strike, the HRRR will give you enough information to have a really good shot at it. Try to set up in a location where you don’t put yourself directly in the storm’s path.

Rainbows in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

Most rainbow photos occur when you happen to look up and see a rainbow. But believe it or not, rainbow chasing is actually a thing. And unlike tornadoes, lightning, and blizzards, rainbows are one phenomenon you don’t have to worry about killing you while you’re out doing weather or landscape photography.

In order to see a rainbow, you need to put yourself between the sun and the rain, with the sun behind you and the rain in front of you. In order to see a rainbow in the afternoon or evening, you want to be looking east at the rain. On the other hand, you want to look west to see rainbows in the morning.

Additionally, sun angles play a critical role in finding rainbows. Unless you’re standing on top of a mountain or skyscraper, it’s much easier to put yourself between the sun and the rain when sun angles are low. As a result, you are much more likely to encounter rainbows during the Golden Hour period near sunrise and sunset than you are at high noon.

You can easily track cloud cover and precipitation with the HRRR. However, keep in mind that rainbows are far from guaranteed under any circumstance. No model is accurate enough to predict exactly where a rainbow will occur.

Weather in Seascape Photography

Seascapes are a stunningly effective way to integrate weather into your landscape photography and travel videos. Similar to winter weather photography, you have two options when it comes to the seascape side of landscape photography. With a few very unique exceptions, they require being in vastly different locations. If you’re looking to double-dip and get both types in one shoot, you’re likely going to be disappointed.

Cold Weather Seascape Photography

Largely grey and void of color, when taken correctly, viewers can almost feel the cold from a maritime layer that’s often thick and penetrating when they look at the photo or video. Locations such as downeast Maine, northern Europe, the Pacific Northwest, and the Canadian Maritimes come to mind when you think of cold weather seascapes. You’ll need to look at a few HRRR parameters

Tropical Seascape Photography

White sand. Warm breezes. Salty air. Lit up with brilliant and vibrant greens, blues, and turquoises, tropical seascapes will whisk you off to paradise. They’re warm, inviting, and relaxing, putting you in that vacation mode whenever you look at them, seemingly an escape from your reality. That’s probably why you have them as your computer desktop and have them hanging throughout your office. You can almost taste the fruity cocktails before you snap back into reality.

Interestingly, tropical seascapes are one of the only types of outdoor photography or videography that are more striking in the middle of the day than during the Golden Hour. Applying color theory explains a lot. Warm low light doesn’t draw out greens and blues. In fact, it does the opposite.

Finally, don’t forget about the optics and the physics of your tropical seascape. Those brilliant colors come from the sunlight refracting in the water. In order to maximize the brilliance of those colors, the sun must be as high in the sky as possible. Thick cloud cover blocks much of the sunlight, significantly limiting the amount of light that can refract in the water. As a result, colors will appear dull, dim, and muted.

Temperatures for Seascape Photography

You may have noticed that temperature is missing from the HRRR parameters for seascape photography and videos. Why is that? It’s because you don’t actually need cold temperatures for grey seascapes or warm temperatures for tropical beach photos. Don’t believe me? Have a look at these pictures I took at Lake Tahoe during the month of February. Temperatures that day topped out at 41°F (5°C), with plenty of fresh snow in the mountains.

Mist or Fog in Forest Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

I love forests shrouded in mist. They instill a sense of mystery and adventure, often whisking you away to another world. There’s a reason they are the setting of so many adventure movies. And I just love the striking contrast of the sun shining through the mist like a spotlight.

Best of all, you can find misty forests year round. One of my favorite locations to capture misty scenes is at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which sits on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The sequoia and redwood forests in California are another top destination for misty forest photography and videography. Make sure you pick a destination that still has plenty of green in the forest. Early mornings in the spring and fall work best for mist, but you can get some stunning winter pictures in a forest of evergreens.

Before we dive into HRRR parameters, let’s have a look at what conditions make for the best mist photography. First and foremost, you need to have 100% relative humidity. Mist will not condense out of the air if the humidity is below 100%. Second, there should not be any wind. Wind causes mist and fog to mix out and burn off.

Go Up in Elevation to Lengthen Your Window for Mist

Once you start photographing fog and mist, you’ll be amazed at how quickly it comes and goes. This is especially true early in the day, as heat from the morning sun drops the relative humidity, rapidly burning off any mist or fog. However, there is one more secret weapon in our back pocket to maximize the length of your window for shooting mist: the much overlooked z-axis, or, to put in layman’s terms, controlling your elevation.

As you go up in elevation, the temperature cools. Because cooler air can’t hold as much moisture as warmer air, more moisture will condense out at higher elevations. As a result, fog and mist will hang around longer because it requires more energy to burn them off. But, like everything, it comes with a catch. If too much water condenses out, the mist and fog will be too thick to let the sunlight shine through. Those photos and videos can still be stunning, but you won’t get those really striking pictures of the sun shining through the mist. If you ever find yourself in this situation, go back down to lower elevations to thin out the fog and mist.

Live in the Desert? You’re Not Completely Out of Luck

And if you live in an arid climate, don’t worry, you can still get in on the action. Sunlight filtering through dust, pollution, or wildfire smoke can give you the same effect. Even in a desert climate like Arizona, you can still get spectacular mist scenery in the winter, when cooler temperatures are much more conducive to condensing out what little water there is in the atmosphere. Dawn after an overnight rain will present you with your best photo and video opportunities for mist and fog.

Get Started Boosting Your Efficiency Adding Weather to Your Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

NOAA’s High Resolution Rapid Refresh model is an incredibly powerful tool whose applications stretch far beyond storm chasing. When used with storm chasing strategy, you can take the guess work out of adding weather to your landscape photography and travel videos. Give yourself more control over your photo and video shoots and work much more efficiently. And at the end of the day, you’ll ultimately be able to boost your revenues. What are you waiting for?

Want more photography and video tips and tutorials? Sign up for our email list today and you’ll also get exclusive personalized deals to our store, early access to all of our travel guides and tutorials, and much more. We’ll deliver them directly to your inbox, twice a month, all for free.

Top Photo: A large dust storm swallows up a mountain range as it crosses from Mexico into the United States
Why, Arizona – July, 2018

The post The HRRR Weather Model: How To Add Dramatic Skies To Your Landscape Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Right on cue, a line of massive rotating supercell thunderstorms explodes on the dryline in the late afternoon. You don’t have to wait long before Tornado Warnings start blaring on the weather radio. Now, you have some decisions to make.

• What storm in the line do you target? The strategy for choosing a target storm for photography or video can be very different from deploying sensors in its path.
• How close to the storm can you get and still stay safe? Consider both storm intensity and speed at the very minimum.
• Are there any storms nearby that could cut off possible escape routes? On a high risk day, there likely will be.

Those are just a few of the decisions you’ll need to constantly be making while you’re actively chasing a storm. Because things happen so fast, you have to constantly evaluate and adjust as needed. But where do you get this info?

Enter Weather Apps

If you’re like me, you lack the budget for the state-of-the-art technology the professional photographers and videographers use for not just storm chasing, but any outdoor adventure. Unfortunately, most weather apps (especially the free ones) don’t give you the information you need to properly plan an outdoor photo or video shoot. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck.

While there is no one “silver bullet” app that will give you all the information you need, I will be giving you the storm chaser’s toolbox of weather apps to plan your next outdoor photo shoot. You’ll be amazed at how well these weather apps work for landscape photography and travel videos. And best of all, they’re affordable. There’s no need to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars on high end software anymore.

I also want to point out that I am not affiliated with or paid by these applications in any way. This is just a collection of my favorite weather apps that I use on most of my landscape and outdoor photography and video shoots.

Weather Apps for Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

Weather is a key component of not just landscape photography, but also travel, adventure, and outdoor videography. It can make or break your shot. In fact, weather is often the difference between that awe-inspiring shot that will sell your photo or video and a visual media file that gets deleted before you even get a chance to post-process it.

No matter what type of weather you need for your shot, these apps will give you the information you need to ensure that you get the shot you want. They cover blue skies to blizzards, tornadoes to sunsets, and everything in between. Once you assemble this toolbox of weather apps for your landscape photography or travel video shoot, you will no longer need to waste time just “taking a chance” on a good sunset or an approaching storm. Instead, you’ll already be in position ready to start filming before your target weather phenomenon even arrives.

RadarScope: The Cadillac of Weather Apps

Platform: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows
$9.99 (mobile), $29.99 (desktop)

Originally developed in the weather mecca of Norman, Oklahoma, RadarScope was built with one goal in mind: to keep you safe during severe weather. It was my number one go-to app during the height of my storm chasing days nearly 10 years ago, and it remains the go-to app for storm chasers and weather enthusiasts today. Its user base now reaches much further than just the storm chasing community. And it includes both landscape photographers and travel and outdoor videographers.

RadarScope displays highly detailed doppler radar data on an easy-to-read map. Even better, they have managed to ver successfully pull off what I consider to be the Holy Grail of GIS. When you look at the screen, the map seemingly fades into the background, drawing your eye to the radar data. Yet at the same time, you can instantly tell where the severe weather is with just a quick glance. In the world of GIS, that’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, and they have pulled it off absolutely flawlessly.

In addition to viewable radar data, RadarScope comes with a plethora of features and functionalities.

Key Features of RadarScope

• GPS Support. Plot your location on the map with radar data
• Severe weather warnings displayed on the map. Tap on the warning to read the text of the warning.
• In addition to reflectivity data, it supports all types of doppler radar data, such as wind speeds, echo tops, estimated precipitation totals, and dual-pol technologies.
• Includes a distance measuring tool so you can easily see how far you are from severe weather threats or measure how high the radar beam is at any given location
• Drawing tool lets you mark up and share the radar image
• Quickly export maps and data as either animated GIFs or as still images
• Supports both metric and imperial units
• Currently supports radar in all US States and Territories, as well as Canada, Australia, several European Union nations, Japan, and South Korea.
• Pro version has even more features, such as lightning strikes, split screen comparisons, watches and mesoscale discussions, storm reports, and much more.

Nothing has proven more valuable for my storm chasing, photography, and adventures than RadarScope’s GPS feature. Being able to plot your location on the map is critical to ensure that you are in the best position to capture the shots you need for your project. Even for benign weather features such as sunsets, things happen incredibly fast once you get out in the field. You don’t want to miss your shot trying to figure out where on the map you are. RadarScope’s GPS ensures that you can reposition and make adjustments as quickly as possible.

Windy

Platform: iOS, Android, Web Browser
Free, Pro Features Available

Windy is my favorite app for viewing model data on my phone or tablet. Best suited for detailed short-term forecasting at all geographic scales, Windy has a stunning display showing atmospheric flow around the world. View real-time observed data or model predictions in four dimensions. Windy provides two-dimensional maps at numerous heights throughout the atmosphere, as well as vertical soundings and time-series point forecasts for your specific location.

Windy currently provides model predictions for four models. You can find support for the GFS (American), ECMWF (European), and NAM (North American Mesoscale) models, as well as a German model called ICON, which stands for Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic.

Key Features of Windy

• Stunningly beautiful display for analyzing data
• Huge choice of weather parameters to plot
• Data available in four dimensions and all geographic scales, including point forecasts
• View both observed data and model predictions on the same map
• Includes forecasts for airports, sports/recreation, wildfires, tides, and much more
• Bookmark your favorite locations for easy reference
• While it doesn’t support plotting your location on a map like RadarScope does, Windy does have GPS functionality that allows you to quickly and easily get data for your current location.
• Supports both metric and imperial units

Pivotal Weather

Platform: Web Browser
Free, Pro Features Available

If you’re looking for comprehensive model data, Pivotal Weather is where you need to be. Best used for both short and long-term modeling, you’ll find detailed model forecasts for over 20 global, regional, and mesoscale models. Like Windy, Pivotal Weather allows you to display data in four dimensions at all geographic scales. It works on a global scale, so you’re not restricted to specific countries or other geographic boundaries. We used Pivotal Weather extensively during our analysis of Hurricane Henri and Hurricane Ida last summer.

My favorite feature of Pivotal Weather is its high quality maps. So many weather modeling websites have such poor quality maps that it can be difficult in some situations to pin down exactly where a weather event will take place. While it’s not a big deal on a large scale, it can become a major issue once you drill down to the local level. Pivotal Weather lets you plot model data at those local levels, plus displays the predicted value as you mouse over the map.

Key Features of Pivotal Weather

• More than 20 global, regional, and mesoscale models
• Provides data worldwide
• Displays model predictions in four dimensions at all geographic scales
• Numerous choice of map scale levels
• Much higher quality maps than most weather modeling websites.
• You’ll get the best experience viewing on a computer, not a phone
• Additional features available with Pivotal Weather Plus

Federal Weather Bureaus

Platform: Web Browser
Free

How many times have you opened a free app or website and just got bombarded with ads, pop-ups, and other promotions? That’s why I often go straight to the source for weather data and information: the federal government. Because federal weather bureaus in every country are government agencies, you won’t get bombarded with all the ads, video clips, and other useless promotions you find on so many other apps and websites.

Federal weather bureaus are one-stop shopping for observations, forecasts, analysis, and past data. In addition to their own analysis, most federal weather bureaus provide the data so you can also do your own analysis. You’ll have all tools to look at all geographic scales, regardless of whether you’re looking at the entire world or your neighborhood. Use the models and forecasts to identify the best spot for your shoot. Once you get out in the field, use observations to fine-tune and adjust your strategy and location as needed.

Here are a few links to federal weather bureaus around the world. If your country is not listed below, a quick Google search will find it pretty quickly.

National Centers for Environmental Protection

Platform: Web Browser
Free

If you’re in the United States, the National Centers for Environmental Protection, or NCEP, contains all of the weather information you need to plan and execute a successful outdoor photo or video shoot. Run by NOAA and the National Weather Service, NCEP is comprised of 8 centers. While they are primarily aimed at the United States, many of them make predictions that go beyond America’s borders.

The Possibilities for Using NCEP Weather Apps for Landscape Photography and Travel Videos are Endless

The possibilities for using these weather apps for landscape photography and travel videos are endless. Use the Climate Prediction Center to look at historical weather patterns to ensure that the weather will cooperate for your shoot. For instance, you don’t want to head down to the Caribbean to film a hurricane only to find out that a strong El Niño has neutralized the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Additionally, visit the Aviation Weather Center for all your drone photography and video needs. Perhaps you want to try your hand at storm chasing? In that case, the Storm Prediction Center has all of the information you need. Likewise, use the Space Weather Prediction Center to plan your Aurora Borealis or astrophotography shoot. The list goes on and on.

I could write an entire blog post on NCEP alone, but you get the idea.

NOAA High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model

If RadarScope is my favorite weather app to use in the field for landscape photography and travel videos, then NOAA’s HRRR model is its best compliment. Excelling in day-of-event modeling and forecasting, use the HRRR to anticipate any adjustments you’ll need to make in your shoot. Its 3 km resolution is fine enough to resolve most individual thunderstorms, making it an incredibly powerful tool for outdoor photography and videos. As a result, it has never let me down in every storm chase I’ve taken part in since 2011.

For example, consider a simple sunset shoot. Sounds easy enough, right? Conditions in the morning look perfect for a spectacular sunset. Unfortunately, you are completely unaware a storm system is moving in from the southwest. Thick clouds will cover the western sky, completely obscuring the sunset.

Thankfully, you have been monitoring the HRRR throughout the day. As a result, you see that your original plan for a spectacular sunset will go down in flames. Additionally, you see that the spectacular sunset will occur about 70 miles up the coast. You adjust your plan accordingly, leaving an hour earlier so you can get up the coast in time for sunset.

Most importantly, though, you capture one of the best sunsets you’ve ever seen. As soon as the prints hit your online store, they start selling like hot cakes. Imagine how different things would have turned out if you hadn’t been able to anticipate that storm system coming in.

Use the HRRR for All Types of Outdoor Photography and Videos

The HRRR includes highly detailed information for every type of outdoor photography or videography. That’s what makes it so powerful. You’ll be able to use it for everything from sunsets to winter weather, fire weather to space weather, and lightning to beach photography.

Next week, we’ll cover the HRRR model in detail. You’ll learn how to use the HRRR to apply storm chasing strategy to your outdoor photography and videography. After that, you’ll be armed with the tools you need to take your landscape photography and travel videos to the next level.

How Will You Use Weather Apps for Your Landscape Photography and Outdoor Shoots?

Weather is an often mundane part of our everyday lives. However, once you get out in the field to film it, weather seems to happen extremely fast. They key to success with any type of outdoor photography or videography is to stay ahead of the weather. These weather apps provide you with the toolset you need to take your landscape photography, travel videos, and other outdoor media to the next level. Use them responsibly, and always keep safety in mind first.

Do you want more photography and video tips and tutorials? Please sign up for our email list. We’ll send them to your inbox, twice per month, all for free.

The post 6 Powerful Weather Apps for Stunning Landscape Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Why Is Weather Forecasting Important for Landscape Photography?

Anyone can go out and take pictures of a beautiful landscape. We all have cameras on our smartphones these days. But what separates your “Average Joe” tourist from a world-renown National Geographic photographer? It’s a long list, but one of the primary reasons is that most tourists don’t take weather into consideration. They just shoot.

In the worst-case scenario, bad weather will ruin a photo op. At best, you’re missing out on an incredible opportunity. In most landscape photos, the sky takes up at least one third of the frame. That’s a lot of wasted real estate. On the other hand, use weather to your advantage and instantly set yourself apart from the bulk of the competition.

But just hoping you’ll get lucky with the weather is not enough. Getting the right weather for your shot is a crapshoot at the best of times. Without a strategy, you’re setting yourself up for a low success rate and an inefficient workflow. However, when armed with basic knowledge of weather models, you’ll be able to target your photo shoots with laser-like precision. The frustration will be gone, and you can enjoy much more efficiency and success.

Being Flexible and Adaptable is Key to Your Success in Weather Forecasting for Landscape Photography

Let’s say you get up in the morning hoping to get a good sunset picture later in the day. After a quick look at the models, you identify a precise location with ideal conditions for sunset photos. Even better, it overlaps with the evening Golden Hour. As you go through the day, model runs start showing a significant increase in thick, low-level clouds in the evening. Instead of giving up, toss your planned sunset shoot out the window. You pick a new location and shoot some breathtaking black-and-whites of dramatic sunlight shining through the thick low-level clouds on the rugged landscape like a spotlight.

Without the help of the weather models, you would have come away with nothing. When integrating weather into my landscape photography, I use the same strategy I did when I was storm chasing.

Applying Storm Chasing Strategy to Landscape Photography

On paper, storm chasing strategy is shockingly simple.

1. Look for where and when the ingredients for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes best come together.
2. Drive to that target area, arriving shortly before that window of peak potential opens.
3. Wait for storms to fire.
4. Once storms initiate, go chase them, keeping in mind the important balance of safety vs getting the shot.

Unfortunately, in practice, it’s never that easy. Your window of opportunity will constantly shift in both time and space. Better opportunities will appear elsewhere. Sometimes, those opportunities won’t even manifest, leaving you with the inevitable bust. Things happen incredibly fast when you’re storm chasing, so you need to be quick on your feet and always be able to react to whatever curveballs Mother Nature throws at you.

Thankfully, things don’t happen as fast in the world of landscape photography. Having more time to react means you have a higher likelihood of success. However, you’ll still need to be just as able to react and adjust, because Mother Nature will throw you curveballs. You can easily apply basic storm chasing strategy to landscape photography using different parameters. Instead of looking for where severe storms are most likely to occur, look for where you’ll get the best sunsets, golden hours, fog, etc. We’ll circle back to this in a bit.

Learn to Embrace Failure in Your Landscape Photography

When dealing with the weather, the only thing that’s for certain is uncertainty. Succeeding at storm chasing requires skill, quick thinking, and luck, as most tornadoes are only on the ground for less than 30 seconds. The same goes for lightning photography. If just 5% of your lightning photos come out, you’re doing extraordinarily well.

Rest assured, you will have a far greater success rate integrating weather into your landscape photography. They’ll be absolutely stunning when you get it right. But you must accept that things can and will go wrong. You will have days where you completely bust. Yes, it’s incredibly frustrating when it happens, but it’s part of the game. Always remember that even the best in the business have off days.

My Own Hero to Zero Experience

Over the course of 9 days in 2012, I pulled the ultimate hero to zero move. However, I still managed to get breathtaking photos despite the most epic storm chasing bust I ever experienced. On 19 May, a powerful storm system came off the Rocky Mountains and across the central Great Plains. Everything seemed to be in place for a massive outbreak of tornadoes across southern Nebraska.

I was living in Norman, Oklahoma at the time, and really didn’t want to drive all the way to Nebraska to have to fight the storm chaser crowds. Instead, I searched the models for a target closer to home. Models hinted at a very brief window opening up along the Kansas-Oklahoma border that was very favorable for tornadoes right before sunset. It wasn’t much of a window – only about 15 to 20 minutes, but it was low risk and high reward. I had to take the gamble.

Right on cue, storms were firing just as I crossed the state line from Oklahoma into Kansas. I got on the first storm I could find and hoped for the best. And boy, did that gamble pay off. Over the course of about 25 minutes, that supercell produced nearly a dozen tornadoes. A spectacular EF-3 tornado capped the evening off, creating a dramatic scene with the setting sun behind it.

The Sweetest Weather Forecasting Victory

Now, here’s where that victory gets even sweeter. The target up in Nebraska that looked really juicy at the start of the day completely fell apart. There was not a single tornado up there, while I got to enjoy the show in Kansas all to myself. As I drove back towards Interstate 35 to head home, I passed all kinds of chase vehicles going towards the storm. I knew the storm was already wrapped in rain and had finished producing tornadoes. They were too late.

An Epic Weather Forecasting Bust Leads to a Satisfying Day of Landscape Photography

Eight days later, I was back in the field for another round of storm chasing. This time, western Kansas was the target, and conditions looked very favorable for tornadoes. I ended up driving nearly 300 miles from Norman, and didn’t see much more than a couple fair weather puffy clouds. The capping inversion hadn’t broken. There would be no storms that day. Then I had to drive the same 300 miles home.

After abandoning the storm chase, I was determined to come home with something…anything. I knew the spring wheat harvest takes place in late May in western Oklahoma, so I decided to try to get some photos of the wheat fields in the late afternoon sun and then catch the sunset at Gloss Mountain State Park. If you’ve never seen wheat fields at harvest time, I highly recommend it. You’ll see right away why Katharine Lee Bates used the “amber waves of grain” lyrics in America the Beautiful.

The photos were certainly nothing I’d be rushing out to try to sell to an art gallery, but as an alternative to coming home empty-handed, it was oddly and uniquely very satisfying.

Weather Forecasting Models for Landscape Photography

For landscape photography weather forecasting, I use the same models that I use for my weather analyses and storm chasing. For the greatest success, you’ll want to use a combination of global and regional models over both the short and long term. My goal here is to introduce you to each model so that you know when to use each model, as well as what their strengths and weaknesses are. We’ll dive into model interpretation and analysis in a future post.

What Is Output When the Weather Models Run?

All weather models output their forecasts in four dimensions: latitude, longitude, height, and time. Logic may dictate that the output formats may vary from model to model, but in reality, they generally output the same three formats.

• 2D Geographic Maps
• Vertical Cross-Sections of the Atmosphere
• Time Series Graphs

For basic landscape photography weather forecasting, you can gather all you need from the 2D geographic maps, so these tutorials will focus our efforts on those maps. If you’re interested in learning more, we will cover the other two outputs in future tutorials and online courses.

Global Forecast System (GFS) Model

The GFS model is one of the go-to models for general global forecasting. It has received criticism in the past for poor performance, most notably when it predicted that Hurricane Sandy would go harmlessly out to sea. As a result, the model received major upgrades in 2017, 2019, and 2021. While it has performed much better as of late, especially with tropical weather, the GFS has still not fully closed the performance gap with the European model.

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Model

The ECMWF model has been around since 1975, but really cemented itself amongst the world’s top weather models when it absolutely nailed its prediction for Hurricane Sandy. Even 10 days out, the ECMWF missed the exact location of Sandy’s landfall by less than 100 km. Today, the ECMWF is still considered to be the most accurate global model, but other models are closing the gap. However, in 2020, ECMWF scientists were awarded time on the world’s most supercomputer to run their model at a 1 km resolution on a global scale. If that can be successful in the long-term, it will be a game changer.

United Kingdom Meteorological Agency (UKMET) Model

The UKMET model is designed for making medium-range forecasts throughout the entire northern hemisphere. However, it is best known for being used in tropical weather prediction. It is routinely used in tandem with the GFS and the ECMWF when making forecasts.

Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) Model

Also known as the GEM model, Environment Canada originally created the GDPS model as a comparison or check to the GFS model. While it is now the default weather model that the Government of Canada uses, it can be used interchangeably with or in place of the GFS model.

North American Mesoscale (NAM) Model

20 years ago, the NAM was the best model available for storm chasers. While other models have since overtaken it, the NAM is still a very accurate model for significant weather events across North America. It initializes itself with GFS data, so it’s backed by one of the most respected models in the world.

Rapid Refresh (RAP) Model

Designed as a fast-updating version of the NAM, the Rapid Refresh model is a favorite amongst storm chasers and hurricane fanatics alike. When using it for storm chasing, it’s one of the most accurate models available today. However, you must keep in mind not to rely too heavily on it. Its 13 km resolution is too coarse to resolve individual thunderstorms.

High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model

The HRRR model is the most accurate short-term model available today. I used it all the time for storm chasing, and it never let me down once. Its 3 km resolution if fine enough to resolve nearly every type of weather phenomenon, allowing you to pinpoint precise targets with laser-focused accuracy. In the context of weather forecasting for landscape photography, use it to target sunrises, sunsets, storms, cold fronts, fog/mist, snow, and much more. You can even go beyond Earth’s atmosphere and use it to identify the best nights for astrophotography.

Where to Get Weather Model Output Online

Are you ready to dive into the models and take advantage of weather forecasting to improve your landscape photography? The outputs for all of the models we have covered are readily available online free of charge. While I am in no way affiliated with any of the following organizations, these are my favorite resources for weather models, in no particular order. You can find many more with a quick Google Search.

• Twister Data
• Pivotal Weather
• NOAA NCEP Model Analyses and Guidance
• NOAA: Rapid Refresh and HRRR
• Penn State University E-Wall

General Strategy for Model Analysis and Weather Forecasting

We will dive into model analysis in much greater detail in future tutorials and online courses, but I wanted to at least give you a brief intro. Without knowing how to analyze them, the models are completely worthless. This strategy can be applied to any type of modeling. It’s not limited to just weather forecasting or anything to do with landscape photography.

First and foremost, always use multiple models, regardless of the type of forecasting you’re doing. The more models you have in agreement, the higher the confidence in your forecast will be. Additionally, consider the Hurricane Sandy example. The GFS showed Sandy going harmlessly out to sea. All the other models showed it slamming into the east coast of the United States. Imagine what would have happened if emergency management had been using only the GFS. They would have been caught totally flat footed. Once you have the models selected you want to use, start with the following strategy.

1. Look at the current observations and the synoptic (large) scale picture. What’s going on at the regional and/or national level?
2. Then start to drill down to your target area. As you zoom in, use models with a finer resolution if you can. You can’t understand the small-scale meteorology without knowing what’s going on at the large scale.
3. Look for where the parameters for your desired photography best come together.

Know Which Models to Favor in Your Weather Forecasting

If the models you’re using do not agree, it’s critical to know which ones to favor. You can conduct a quick model evaluation by answering the following questions.

• How have the models performed in recent runs? Have they been accurate?
• How has the model historically performed for the type of weather you wish to include in your landscape photography? Look at its performance over the past 5 years or so.
• Has the model been consistent from run-to-run? Or is it all over the place?

Remember how consistent the GFS was during my analysis of Hurricane Henri? That’s why I favored it so heavily in my forecasts. And in the end, it ended up being correct. In the 48 hours prior to landfall, the other models brought Henri’s projected track as far west as New York City prior to swinging back east. Henri made landfall near Westerly, Rhode Island.

Model Parameters You’ll Commonly Use Weather Forecasting For Landscape Photography

Weather models calculate and output tons of parameters. For landscape photography, there are several that you will routinely use.

• Temperature
• Wind, Height, and Pressure
• Dewpoint and Relative Humidity
• Cloud Cover, given as a percentage
• Predicted Radar
• Precipitable Water (how much water is available in the atmosphere to make precipitation)
• Vorticity and Vertical Velocity (used to determine if cloud cover is increasing or decreasing)

We’ll cover parameters specific to severe, fire, and winter weather in a future tutorial.

Quick Overview of Weather Forecasting Parameters in Landscape Photography

In landscape photography, you’ll find that you have a core set of parameters that you routinely use. Here are some of the most common ones.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve been introduced to the models, the next step is to dive into how to use them. In the next tutorial, we’ll expand on the last section. You’ll learn what each weather forecasting parameter is as well as how to apply it to landscape photography. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below or email them to me directly. I look forward to seeing you in our next tutorial.

Top Photo: Beautiful Fall Cape Cod Sunset
Woods Hole, Massachusetts – October, 2021

The post 7 Weather Forecasting Models That Will Improve Your Landscape Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

While fall colors used to be local New England tradition, they now attract visitors from all over the world. As you can expect, the more popular areas often attract large crowds. These crowds take a lot of the magic of New England fall colors out of the air. Thankfully, there are plenty of places to see amazing fall colors in places that are both off-the-beaten-path and places where you wouldn’t normally think of fall foliage. Here are six of my favorite places in New England to escape the crowds and see some of the best fall foliage the region has to offer.

1. Merritt Parkway, Connecticut

Peak Fall Colors: Late October

The Merritt Parkway runs parallel to Interstate 95 across the western third of Connecticut. With its western terminus sitting just 25 miles from downtown Manhattan, it’s an easy day trip from both New York City and Hartford. The parkway is incredibly scenic for being in such a densely populated area. As a result, it’s one of the most underrated spots in southern New England to see fall colors.

When you drive the Merritt Parkway, you’ll experience the Scenic Gateway to New England. Trailers and commercial vehicles are banned, so you’ll only be sharing the road with passenger cars. With a very old-time and classic New England feel, the elaborate architecture of the Merritt Parkway’s overpasses alone is worth the drive. The trees are close to the road and often overhang the road like a tunnel. During peak fall colors, it’s absolutely spectacular.

Unfortunately, being so close to New York City also comes with its disadvantages. Traffic can be horrendous if you hit the Merritt Parkway at the wrong time of day (read: rush hour). Furthermore, many drivers consider speed limits and yield signs to be just a suggestion, which can make for white knuckle driving during rush hour. The parkway has very narrow lanes and no shoulders. As a result, accidents are fairly common, and one minor fender bender can shut down the entire parkway.

Under no circumstance should you use those disadvantages as an excuse to not drive the Merritt Parkway. Just try to avoid it at rush hour. If you run into traffic, don’t hesitate to get off and drive north (away from I-95) on the surface streets. You don’t have to go far to get out of the congestion, away from civilization, and out into nature where you’ll have the breathtaking New England fall colors all to yourself.

2. Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Peak Fall Colors: Late October/Early November

OK, I’m a bit biased here because I grew up on Cape Cod and my family still lives there. But it doesn’t diminish that the Cape is absolutely spectacular in the fall. In fact, September and October are probably my two favorite months to be on Cape Cod. The summer tourists have long since gone home, so crowds are virtually non-existent. However, do note that things may be a bit busier than normal, as people from both Boston and New York have been using their Cape homes to escape the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As popular as Cape Cod is during the summer, most people don’t consider it for viewing fall colors. Not that I’m complaining, I like it when it’s quiet. But most people instead look to northern New England and the western half of Massachusetts for the best fall foliage viewing. Cape Cod’s world-famous beaches combined with peak fall colors provide you with an intense sensory overload of colors that cover nearly the entire color wheel.

So where would I go to see fall colors on Cape Cod? The most scenic drive hands down in Route 6A. Take the first exit after you go over the Sagamore Bridge and follow Route 6A down Cape to its eastern terminus in Orleans. You’ll pass beaches, nature preserves, and quaint towns. From Orleans, you have a few options. You can continue further on US-6 East up to Provincetown and take in the fall colors along the Cape Cod National Seashore. Or, if you’re ready to head home, just get on the Mid-Cape Highway (US-6) going west. It’s about a 40 minute drive back to the Sagamore Bridge. There are plenty more options to see fall colors on Cape Cod, but if you only had one day, I’d drive Route 6A.

Finally, if you’re considering a trip to Cape Cod to take in the fall colors, pay at least some attention to the weather during the two or three weeks before you arrive. Late season hurricanes and early season nor’easters occasionally impact Cape Cod in mid-to-late October. These storms can (and more often than not do) blow all the leaves off the trees before fall colors peak. The last thing you want is to make the trip only to find a recent storm ruined peak fall colors for you. Thankfully, these October storms are the exception instead of the rule on Cape Cod.

3. Mount Washington, New Hampshire

Peak Fall Colors: Late September to Mid-October

One of the great things about being somewhere you have elevation is that it extends the duration of the peak fall colors. That peak starts at the top of the mountain and progressively works its way down to the bottom. Instead of just having a one or two week window of peak fall colors, that window can be as long as 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the height of the mountain. That’s part of what makes fall colors in places like Colorado so spectacular.

You can take full advantage of this strategy right in New England. At 6,288 feet (1,917 m) above sea level, the summit of Mt. Washington is both the highest point in the northeast and the most prominent feature east of the Mississippi River. By varying your elevation, the window of peak fall colors on Mt. Washington often lasts at least three to four weeks, if not more.

Furthermore, the summit of Mt. Washington has the added advantage that it’s above the tree line. Indeed, on a clear day, you can see Canada, Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts from the summit. With an unobstructed view from the summit, being able to see the blanket of brilliant New England fall colors for miles and miles is nothing short of breathtaking. Just be aware that the road up the mountain is very steep, narrow, and winding with sheer dropoffs and no guardrails. If that type of driving is not for you, take the train to the top or hire one of the tour companies to drive you up.

“The Worst Weather in the World”

If you decide to venture all the way to the summit, make sure you bring warm clothing. There’s a reason the observatory uses the slogan “the worst weather in the world.” The summit of Mt. Washington is famous for having some of the worst weather in the world. The summit can be 30 to 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) colder than the base of the mountain. Freezing temperatures and snow can occur year round.

In addition to its frigid temperatures, the summit is notorious for its relentless winds because it’s high enough to pierce the jet stream. Tropical storm force winds are a routine occurrence. On 12 April, 1934, anemometers at the summit of Mt. Washington recorded a wind gust of 231 mph (372 km/h). To this day, that record still stands as the strongest wind gust ever recorded with an anemometer in the Northern Hemisphere. On a side note, those 300-plus mph wind gusts recorded in Oklahoma tornadoes in 1999 and 2013 were measured with doppler radar, not with anemometers. That’s why Mt. Washington’s record still stands today.

Tip: After visiting Mt. Washington, drive the nearby Kancamagus Highway (NH-112) through the breathtaking White Mountain National Forest. You’ll see covered bridges, beautiful mountain landscapes, and some of the best fall colors in New Hampshire.

4. Rangeley Lakes Scenic Byway and the Height of Land Overlook, Maine

Peak Fall Colors: Early to Mid-October

Tucked away in the corner of Maine near the triple point where Maine, New Hampshire, and Québec come together, the Height of Land Overlook is a true hidden gem. The blanket of brilliant warm fall colors on the mountains rising up from the sparkling blue waters of three large lakes is simply heavenly. The entire scenic byway is far enough off the beaten path that there are very few people up there even at the height of fall colors. It’s actually closer to Sherbrooke, Québec than any significant population center in either Maine or New Hampshire.

In addition to the Rangeley Lakes Scenic Byway, the area is full of beautiful drives that are just spectacular when fall colors are at their peak. From the town of Rangeley, head west on Highway 16 to Errol, NH. Alternatively, head north on Highway 27 to the Canadian border. For even more adventure, cross the border into Québec and complete the loop.

5. The Northeast Kingdom, Vermont

Peak Fall Colors: Late September to Mid-October

Vermont is the most popular destination in New England to see fall colors. Not surprisingly, getting away from crowds can be a bit of a challenge. Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is exactly where you would expect it to be: tucked away in the northeast corner of the state in the heart of the breathtaking Green Mountains. You’ll find stunning vistas and beautiful landscapes nearly everywhere you look. Covering over 2,000 square miles, the Northeast Kingdom is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Vermont.

Like the Height of Land Overlook, the Northeast Kingdom is far enough off the beaten path that few people venture up there. Instead, most leaf peepers stay further west, near Montpelier and Burlington. The many ski resorts near the city provide easy access to pretty spectacular fall colors. You shouldn’t have too many issues with crowds in the Northeast Kingdom. However, if you do, don’t be afraid to hop across the border into New York, New Hampshire, or Québec. You’ll often find much smaller crowds there.

6. QC-247 and Autoroute 10: The Gateway to Fall Colors in Québec

Peak Fall Colors: Late September to Early October

Okay, this is technically not New England, but hear me out. With Canada having reopened its border to fully vaccinated travelers, don’t rule out fall colors north of the border. The landscapes can be even more scenic than New England, and crowds are few and far between. Fall foliage viewing opportunities in Québec alone cover more land area than New England several times over. And southern Québec is full of something you won’t find too many of in New England: National Parks.

Heading east out of Montréal, you’ll find four National Parks within 25 miles (40 km) of the US border. They’re all within a three hour drive from downtown Montréal. Head north from Montréal an you’ll find even more than the parks listed below.

If the National Parks leave you craving even more fall colors, head to any of the lakes that cover the southern Québec landscape. You’ll find the most accessible lakes near Sherbrooke and Magog. However, you shouldn’t stop there. Just 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Sherbrooke, you’ll find Lac St. François, which sits inside of Parc National du Frontenac, as well as Lac Mégantic. While much of the town of Lac Mégantic burned down following the infamous rail disaster in 2013, scenery around the lake that goes by the same name is simply breathtaking.

Don’t Be Intimidated By the Language Barrier

One of the primary reasons there are so fewer crowds viewing fall colors in Québec is due to many Americans being hesitant to cross the border because of the language barrier. If you’re near a major population center, such as Montréal or Sherbrooke, or a popular tourist destination, such as the national parks, you will not have any major issues speaking English only. However, once you get away from the cities and the tourist spots, it’s all French. You will stumble across people that speak English, but don’t count on it.

Like the United States, Canada’s federal government runs all of its National Parks. Because English and French are both official languages in Canada, everything inside the National Parks is bilingual. However, be aware that French is the only official language in Québec, so outside of the National Parks, road signs (and most everything else) are in French only.

COVID-19 Restrictions Entering Canada

Please obey all rules, regulations, and restrictions that Canada has put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we went over the process when Canada first reopened its border back in August, please visit the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) website for the most up-to-date requirements you need to enter Canada. While there are plenty of border crossings between New England and Québec, I make no guarantee that the smaller border crossings are open during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consult with either the CBSA or with US Customs to get their latest hours of operation.

Conclusion

Peak fall colors is a truly magical time of year in New England. The soft warm colors of the changing leaves against a brilliant blue sky only makes that crisp and clean fall air taste even better. Even through the leaf peeper crowds have grown in recent years, there are still plenty of places to get away from the masses, and enjoy the peace and serenity of having the spectacular New England fall colors to yourself.

Finally, while this post has focused on New England, don’t forget about New York. While upstate offers the best viewing opportunities, the entire State of New York has pretty amazing fall colors, too. Sitting just across the river from Vermont with plenty of wilderness to offer, New York is an easy escape from the crowds that can gather in parts of New England. Where is your favorite spot to see fall colors?

Top Photo: Peak Fall Colors on the Talimena Scenic Byway
Talihina, Oklahoma – November, 2013

The post 6 Lesser Known New England Spots to See Amazing Fall Colors appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Weather can be an incredibly powerful way to set the mood and tell your story. Indeed, you can use weather not just in your landscape photos, but also in other types of photography, as well as videography. While photography is primarily a visual medium, when executed properly, use of weather in your photos will stimulate other senses as well, such as sound, smell, and feel.

A grey, snowy scene might conjure up a cozy feeling of sitting around a warm fire with the smell of hot coffee or hot cocoa wafting through the room. On the other hand, a picture of a bright and sunny tropical beach bursting with vibrant colors puts you in a relaxing mood. Close your eyes and you’ll be able to feel the warm, gentle breeze and smell the salty air coming off the ocean. You don’t just want your viewer to see the scene in your photos. You want them to experience it.

Make a Specific Weather Feature the Subject of Your Landscape Photos

There can be a fine line between weather and landscape photography. And I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve toed that line more times than I can remember. While it may seem like everyone has their own definition these days, I prefer to keep things simple. If the landscape is the subject of the photo, it’s a landscape photo. Likewise, if the weather is the subject of the photo, it’s a weather photo.

So what kind of weather features can you use as the subject of your landscape photos? Turns out, just about anything. The only weather feature that really doesn’t work is a cloudless, sunny day. I would argue that no matter how hard you try to make the cloudless, sunny day the subject of your photo, your viewers’ eye will always be drawn to the landscape. However, I find that some weather features tend to perform better than others.

• Lightning
• Tornadoes
• Severe Thunderstorm Clouds and Cloud Formations
• Snow
• Heavy Wind
• Fog and Mist

And that’s just to name a few. The good news is that no matter where in the world you are, you have both landscapes and weather. You’ll need to know what the best photo opportunities are based on the landscape, season, and typical weather patterns. I certainly wouldn’t be trying to get pictures of snowy, majestic mountains in Texas or pictures of fog and mist in Arizona.

Example #1: Go All-In and Transform Your Landscape Photos into Weather Photos

If you have a homogeneous landscape or a landscape that leaves a little something to be desired, you’ll want to go for the straight weather photo. Anyone who has gone storm chasing in Tornado Alley has used this strategy. Coupled with the fact that these photo ops are restricted to such a small geographic area for only a few months of the year, it’s why photos of supercells and tornadoes so often leave you in complete awe.

Let’s look at a few examples of true weather photos. The landscapes in these photos all have one thing in common. Can you figure out what it is?

Were you able to spot what the landscape in all three photos have in common? They are all homogeneous landscapes that are, on their own, actually quite boring. It’s the weather in each photo that gives it its pop and pizazz. If we take the weather out of those photos and just look at the landscape, you won’t feel much of a reaction. As a result, your viewer won’t be able to get that fully immersive experience that truly great photographs can offer.

Example #2: Use Weather to Subtly, yet Powerfully Draw Out Reactions and Emotions in Your Landscape Photos

On the other hand, what if you’re somewhere that has particularly beautiful or dramatic landscapes? You’re probably a little hesitant to completely abandon the landscape in your composition like we did with straight weather photography. I don’t blame you!

Instead, you want to leave the landscape as the subject of the photo and use weather to set the mood, trigger an emotion, or tell a story. To illustrate how to properly do this, let’s take a trip down to the white sandy beaches of Florida. You should feel two very different emotions when you look at these photos, which were taken within just a few miles of each other.

How did you feel when you looked at those photos? The first photo should leave you feeling relaxed, secluded, and tucked away. You may even feel refreshed at the thought of cooling off in the inviting waters. On the other hand, the second photo should get the adrenaline pumping a little. You probably feel a bit threatened or exposed, too, like you need to get to shelter.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of showing how powerful weather can be in landscape photos. You’ve got two photos with very similar landscapes that would not appear boring or homogenous on their own. Yet at the same time, two very different weather phenomena leave your viewer feeling two very different reactions to each respective photo.

Before we move onto the next section, have a look at some more examples of using weather to draw out reactions and emotions in landscape photos. Pay special attention to how you’re reacting to seeing each photo. Then use those feelings to inspire your own landscape photography.

Use Color Theory to Your Advantage

The premise of color theory is simple. You want to use complimentary colors that not only look stunning together, but can also provoke reactions and emotions that align with your brand’s mission and values. You can keep color theory as simple as just looking at a color wheel, or your can dive into the fascinating mathematics behind it. We covered it all in full detail back in July, so I’ll refer you there for the details about color theory.

That being said, do recall that there are four bases that make up the basis of color theory.

Keep Color Theory in Mind When Composing Your Photos

Have you ever seen photos from Havasupai Falls in Arizona? The brilliant red rocks provide a stunning backdrop to the brilliant turquoise waters in the falls. Yet when you look at photos of the emerald waters of the Colorado River inside of Grand Canyon, it just doesn’t generate the same reaction and emotions that Havasupai does. Why is that? They’re equally beautiful places.

The reason lies in color theory. The red rocks and turquoise waters at Havasupai falls are nearly perfect complimentary colors. You can actually mathematically prove that just the turquoise waters alone at Havasupai falls will look more stunning against the red rocks than the emerald waters of the Colorado River.

While I have never actually been to Havasupai Falls, I have been to the confluence of the Little Colorado River, which has the same brilliant turquoise waters as Havasupai. Have a look at the following pictures yourself. They were taken within about an hour of each other. Which one do you like better?

The Psychology of Color

I am no psychologist, but research has proven that different colors invoke different emotions. Indeed, businesses use the psychology of color in their branding and marketing. It’s very subtle, but when used correctly can be very powerful. It’s all done in the name of portraying your brand exactly how you want to.

For full details, here’s a really good article about the psychology of color.

Use Overcast Skies and Winter Landscapes for a Dramatic Pseudo-Black and White Effect

Embrace the lack of color on grey and cloudy days. While color theory can make those brilliantly colorful scenes dazzle, the lack of color can be equally as beautiful. As good as the lack of color looks on thick overcast days, it really shines in winter scenery. A little bit of color poking through a fresh blanket of snow can be spectacular.

While you can certainly go full black and white if you want, I prefer to use the little bit of color in those images to my advantage. Use it to highlight the subject of your image or to accent the scene around the edges, like I did in the above photos.

You can also use light to highlight parts of your image in the total absence of color. Look for a situation where you have sunlight shining through broken clouds that shines on your subject like a spotlight. It should really stand out against a dark and colorless backdrop. Add a little color to your subject, and it’s pure magic.

I do want to point out one important detail. Even though the background and foreground are dark and colorless, you can still both see it and tell what it is. This important detail gives your photo both depth and context. Without it, you won’t generate the reactions or evoke the emotions you had hoped.

Experiment with Different Times of Day When Taking Landscape Photos. But Even With the Addition of Weather, the Golden Hour is Still King.

Armed with basic knowledge of weather and color theory, there is no bad time for landscape photography. I don’t ever want to hear an excuse that you can’t take landscape photos in the middle of the day because the shadows are too harsh. Go out and take them anyway. You’ll be surprised at what you get. Even more, in the worst case scenario, just delete them if they’re no good. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

I also encourage you to try taking landscape photos at night. You can add some really cool effects to your photos using long exposures at night. If you’re in a really dark area, try looking beyond the weather and into outer space. Try to capture the Milky Way Galaxy in the sky or use a really long exposure to show the Earth’s rotation in the stars. On the other hand, if you’re just beginning, start out with a classic cityscape at night. You can’t go wrong with the glistening skyline of your favorite city lit up at night.

The Golden Hour Remains Second-to-None

While you can certainly make the argument that you can take beautiful landscape photos at any time of day, the Golden Hour remains the best time of day for landscape photography. No amount of weather can change that.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Golden Hour, it refers to the last hour before sunset and the first hour after sunrise. During that hour, the low sun casts a warm glow across the landscape. Long shadows add relief, texture, depth, and drama to your photo.

Not surprisingly, some of the best landscape and weather photos I’ve ever taken came during the Golden Hour. While I consider myself very fortunate to have such beautiful landscapes in Arizona, the Golden Hour photos I’ve taken elsewhere rival the Arizona photos more often than not. I could go on, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

A Dramatic Sky and a Dramatic Landscape Are Spectacular Together

This one is simple math. The best of your weather composition plus the best of your landscape composition equals spectacular unrivaled beauty.

Use Long Exposures to Add Motion to Wind, Rain, and Snow in Your Landscape Photos

Because lighting for landscape photography cannot be controlled in a studio, using long exposures can risk permanently losing data to overexposure. To combat overexposure, shoot during the Golden Hour using a small aperture and/or filters. Once you lose data to overexposure, no amount of post-processing can recover it.

If you’re using certain types of weather to improve your landscape photos, showing motion is critical to your viewer being able to get the maximum experience. Unfortunately, showing motion in weather often subjects you to shooting in heavy wind. As a result, you really need to be using a tripod if you want any kind of viable results. Trying to hold the camera steady just won’t cut it. If you don’t have a tripod, try to use an elevated surface, post, or tree limb to hold your camera steady. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than nothing.

To properly show motion in your landscape photos, only the objects that are actually in motion should appear to be moving. Everything else should be steady. If you try to show everything in motion, you’ll just wind up with a blurry photo. It’s the same as when you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing no one.

It’s generally okay to show small amounts of motion in objects that sway back and forth in the wind. I’m talking about the ends of tree limbs, flags, waves, moving vehicles, and the like here. If your photos depict entire trees and buildings in motion, you’re not doing it right.

Here are a few examples of photos that show motion correctly. I also want to point out that some of these certainly fall into the category of weather photos as opposed to landscape photography.

After the Storm Can be a 24-Hour Long Golden Hour

When I lived in Oklahoma, one thing that really struck me was just how spectacular the weather was after a major severe weather event. Never was this more true than following the 20 May, 2013 EF-5 tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma. A few days after witnessing that disaster unfold firsthand, I was sitting in my back yard reflecting on what had happened. The sun was out, temperatures were cool, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

As I reflected on the tornado, it dawned on me how some of the most breathtaking landscape photo ops occur during the first 24 hours immediately following a storm. This is exceptionally true following blizzards and winter storms. You can’t beat a fresh blanket of snow on any landscape. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

You can also find some extended Golden Hours leading up to storms. In the case of severe thunderstorms, you’ll find amazing photo ops out in front of the storm as it approaches, too. This is what the entire concept of storm chasing is based off of, so I could write an entire post on it. However, that’s a discussion for another day.

Conclusion

Weather is one of the most powerful and effective ways to inject new life, mood, and story into your landscape photos. From dramatic scenes to vibrant colors to the beautiful Golden Hour, there’s something for every landscape photographer’s style. No matter where you are in the world, you have both weather and landscapes at your fingertips to perfect your craft.

The strategy to using weather to get good landscape photos is similar to storm chasing. A little knowledge of weather and forecasting will put you ahead of the competition. You’ll know where the best spots to target for the best landscape photos are instead of just having to guess. You won’t always get it right, and it won’t happen overnight, but your landscape photos will go from good to amazing.

Want even more photography tutorials? Please checkout out our full collection of photography guides and sign up for our email list (in the sidebar at the top of the page), where you’ll receive free photography tutorials directly in your inbox.

Top Photo: An EF-3 Tornado Tears Across an Open Prairie During the Golden Hour
Harper, Kansas – May, 2012

The post How to Use Weather to Take Amazing Landscape Photos appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Over time, I found these quotes were shaping more and more of my values and philosophies. Influences expanded far beyond the sports world to include musicians, artists, and leaders from all over the world. I’ve decided to start posting collections of these influential and inspirational quotes so you can get to know me a little better and hopefully find some inspiration yourself.

First up is someone who made a profound mark on me since the first time I watched his show. Tragically taken from us in 2018, Anthony Bourdain was a true gift to this world. Whenever I finish watching an episode of Parts Unknown, I want to do nothing more than get out, explore the world, and experience new cultures. You can find many of Anthony Bourdain’s influences in my photography mission and story. Here are 15 of Bourdain’s quotes that have had the greatest impact on me as a travel landscape photographer.

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you.”

Go back a little more than 10 years and I hated traveling. I had the completely wrong attitude towards it, seeing it as a chore instead of an experience. It was simply a way to get from Point A to Point B.

Storm chasing quickly changed that equation. It literally forces you to travel for an experience. It hooked me after I moved to Arizona and took my first solo adventure outside of the United States. I had traveled abroad before, but never alone.

Walking across the border from the US into Mexico is a unique experience. There are no customs checkpoints. You simply walk through a turnstile gate like you were walking into a stadium. Only this time when you come out the other side, you’re in a different country.

You step out on the street and your senses are instantly hit with foreign sights, smells, and sounds. At times, it’s almost a carnival-like atmosphere. My favorite part is the smell of street tacos that wafts through the air. When that smell hits you, you know you’re gonna be eating good that day.

Sensory overload is such an alluring feeling to me. It’s exotic and almost addicting, regardless of what country you’re visiting. Talk to the street vendors. Listen to their stories. Most importantly, buy something from them. You’ll have a trinket to remember the experience, and will help them support their families. Every time I visit Mexico, I leave the US Customs hall on my return trip already planning my next visit.

“The journey is part of the experience – an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.”

This is just good life advice for anyone. Don’t focus on the start or the end points. Enjoy the ride getting there. You only get one shot at this crazy game of life. Why not make the most of it?

“Looking at these photographs, I know that I will never understand the world I live in or fully know the places I’ve been. I’ve learned for sure only what I don’t know – and how much I have to learn.”

As a photographer, all I can say is why tell you when I can just show you?

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”

This quote really hits home after driving across the United States near the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in February, 2021. I got snowed in for 2 weeks in close to 40 below wind chills in Oklahoma. Then spent the night camped out in my truck on the side of a mountain in Kentucky in the middle of an ice storm. The lessons from that trip are heartbreaking.

Interestingly, seeing firsthand the pain that a year of pandemic, disinformation, and bitter divisiveness had wrought on this country left its mark in the most unexpectedly positive way. It’s time to bring good back to the world. After taking time to reflect and figure out what my true dreams are, the trip solidified my values as a global citizen. It finally allowed me to fully define my mission and goals for both Matthew Gove Web Development and Matt Gove Photo.

You only get one legacy. What’s yours going to be?

“Big stuff and little: learning how to order breakfast in a country where I don’t speak the language and haven’t been before – that’s really satisfying to me. I like that.”

On my first overnight trip to Puerto Peñasco, I found myself unable to find the breakfast hall at the hotel I was staying at. It was about 6:30 in the morning, and at the time, I spoke very little Spanish. I looked around for hotel staff to ask, but at that hour of the morning, they were few and far between.

I eventually found one of the housekeepers, and asked her. She shrugged her shoulders and pointed at her ear, a telltale sign me she didn’t understand English. Time to think quick to see if I could come up with my questions in Spanish.

With the tiny bit of Spanish I knew at the time and a big assist from my fluency in French, I was able to come up with “¿Donde esta el desayuno?” as well as “¿A que hora esta abierto?“. She led me right to the breakfast hall, where I enjoyed a delicious breakfast of eggs and chorizo. I was so proud of myself.

It remains my goal to become fluent in Spanish. My Spanish skills have come a long way since that day, but I still have a ways to go before I reach full fluency.

“Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s a start.”

They say that you always find the best hidden gems in the places that you least expect them. In 2012, a buddy and I took a road trip through the southwest. I was living in Oklahoma at the time, and it was my first time seeing the southwest.

Towards the end of the trip, we drove across southeastern Utah from Capitol Reef National Park to the Four Corners. As breathtakingly beautiful as the scenery was, it was also eerily remote. We drove over 150 miles. Other than the road, we saw no evidence of any civilization. No buildings, no parks, no rest areas, no cell service, nothing. Shortly after dusk, we rolled into Blanding, Utah, a small town near the Four Corners, and checked into one of the only hotels in town.

After checking into the hotel, the clerk informed us that they had a deal with a barbecue restaurant next door so people staying at the hotel could get a discount on food. Since I am a big fan of barbecue, it was no-brainer where to go for dinner. And boy did it not disappoint. To this day, it remains some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had.

We actually liked it so much we went back in the morning and had steaks for breakfast.

“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”

One of my favorite things about eating street food on my trips to Mexico is the people you meet. From the workers prepping your food to other patrons eating with you, it seems there’s always someone interesting to talk to.

Being a global citizen means getting involved as members of the international community and committing yourself to building on this community in a meaningful and positive way. I fondly remember a conversation with a candy vendor as we both ate lunch on the back deck of a waterfront seafood restaurant in Puerto Peñasco. It was a sweltering August afternoon, so everyone else sat inside in the air conditioning. Like most conversations with the locals down there, it was half in English and half in Spanish. It’s part of the unique charm I love about adventuring south of the border.

Open yourself up. Listen to their story. Try to understand where they’re coming from. And tell yours. You’ll be a better person, and the world will be a better place when we can better understand each other.

“I’ve seen zero evidence of any nation on Earth other than Mexico even remotely having the slightest clue what Mexican food is about or even come close to reproducing it. It is probably the most misunderstood country and cuisine on Earth.”

I thought I knew what Mexican food was. Then I started traveling to Mexico. Since then, pretty much every Mexican restaurant I’ve eaten at outside of Mexico just isn’t the same. There are certainly exceptions to that rule, but I found almost all of those eateries in either Texas or Arizona. Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican food are two very different things.

“I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”

In today’s world of disinformation, it doesn’t take much. Present your view and back it up with facts and sensible logic, and you’ll get my respect. Regardless of whether or not I agree with you.

“I am not afraid to look like an idiot.”

People’s obsession with what others think of them has baffled and bewildered me for decades. Sure, we all want to look good. But if it takes looking like an idiot to be comfortable or have a good time, so be it.

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”

Immerse yourself in new experiences and new cultures. Become a member of a community, and commit to build on that community in a meaningful and positive way. Broaden your perspective through travel and bring back fresh, new views to your own community. And encourage others to do the same thing. You’ll all be better for it.

“Don’t lie about it. You made a mistake. Admit it and move on. Just don’t do it again. Ever.”

We’re all human. We all make mistakes. When you screw up, just admit it. People appreciate honestly a lot more than BS. And they’ll respect you more for it, too.

“Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screw top jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don’t deserve to eat garlic.”

There’s no such thing as too much garlic. I put it in everything. And as someone who has cooked with and eaten both the spew rotting in oil in screw top jars as well as the fresh, Bourdain is right. If you’re too lazy to peel fresh, you don’t deserve to eat garlic.

“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.”

I grew up in Massachusetts, went to school in Florida, went back to school in Oklahoma, and now live in Arizona. I’ve lived in many different parts of the US and have traveled to even more corners of it. Those experiences set me on the road to being a global citizen and played a major role in shaping my views and values. I truly believe that I would not be in the position I am in today to go travel and see the world if I hadn’t moved around so much.

Far too many people remain far too narrow-minded today. Open your mind to new experiences. Go out and try new things. You’ll be amazed at what you discover about yourself.

“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico, and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald’s? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head?”

I am a firm believer that when you travel, you should completely immerse yourself the local culture. There’s one particular episode of Parts Unknown that stands out to me. Bourdain traveled to Chaing Mai, Thailand, and met up with a friend at a local restaurant to try some of the regional cuisine.

The general rule with food in Thailand is that it gets more exotic the further north you get. Some of the foods they tried in Chiang Mai sounded absolutely disgusting, but Bourdain said it was one of the most delicious and satisfying meals he ever had.

The lesson here is simple. Try the food. Speak the language. Participate in the local pastimes. You’ll have a much richer experience and can bring those new perspectives back to your own community. Save the McDonald’s for when you’re home.

Conclusion

The most valuable returns on the investment of travel are the experiences you have, the perspectives you gain, and the stories you can share with your community at home. Photography is an incredibly powerful means to engage communities and raise awareness both at home and abroad.

As you can tell from the quotes, Anthony Bourdain had major influences in my global perspectives and philosophy as a travel landscape photographer and as a global citizen. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever fully appreciate just how true of a gift he was to this world.

That is why we travel. Where will your next adventure take you?

Top Photo: Fannette Island and Emerald Bay
South Lake Tahoe, California – Feburary, 2020

The post 15 Powerful Anthony Bourdain Quotes That Inspire My Travel Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Then COVID-19 came along changed everything. After the pandemic exposed some horrific flaws in my business model, I had an epiphany. Instead of wallowing in the sorrows of lockdowns, let’s seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Learn some new skills, patch those holes in the business model, and bring something good to the world.

As a result, I am so excited to announce the new Matt Gove Photo store to you. Everything is on target to launch the store in late May or early June, 2021.

A Brief History

I first fell in love with photography as a college student in Florida back in 2006, when I started photographing sailing regattas where I volunteered. By early 2008, I had received my first request from a sailor wanting to buy a photo I had taken of them. At the time, I was deep into my junior year of college and knew nothing about running a business. I opted to just give the photos away via email and Facebook.

By September, 2008, demand for my photos exceeded my ability to send them out to people. At the time, Facebook was still only available to college students, which heavily limited the audience. As a result of the ensuing frustration, Matt Gove Photo was born in January, 2009. I finally had my own platform to share and distribute photos. More importantly, you could access photos when and where you wanted to without having to bug me.

Ever since then, I have always wanted to launch a store to sell photos. In 2010, I made my first attempt to set up a photo store. Unfortunately, my lack of experience at the time coupled with the after-effects of the Great Recession led to that venture failing spectacularly.

As my goals changed throughout the 2010s, the photo store largely remained an afterthought. Even after starting Matthew Gove Web Development, LLC in 2016, I thought about giving the store another go a few times. When I wasn’t too busy working on other projects, I couldn’t come up with the money to fund the store’s launch.

Everything changed once the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Motivation: Why Are We Launching the Photo Store?

It took us over a decade of adventure and exploration to find our true mission. Watching firsthand the horrific 20 May, 2013 EF-5 tornado tear a deep 4-mile long gash through the heart of Moore, Oklahoma was hard to put into words. Photography really helped capture and process all of the different emotions I felt during both the tornado and the recovery. It let me tell the story in a way that’s so much more powerful than words. Ever since that day, I try to tell a story with every photo and photo series I produce.

Photography is also an incredibly effective way to bring awareness to issues you’re passionate about. After moving to Arizona in 2015, I started taking routine trips to Mexico to expand my horizons even further. Stepping across the border and looking at your home country from the outside is a truly eye-opening experience. Photography is an incredibly powerful means to engage communities and raise awareness both at home and abroad. If the store can generate enough income to be able to help solve even one of the world’s issues, it will have made the effort to open the store worth it.

The Importance of Photography in Today’s Media-Rich World

If you don’t think photography is important across all sectors of the economy today, consider these statistics. A 2019 study surveyed web users about media and graphics in the context of web design.

• Judgements on a company’s credibility are 75% based on the design of its website.
• First impressions are 94% related to the look and design of a website
• 46% of consumers base their purchasing decisions on the aesthetic appeal of the company’s website.

Which of our websites would you be more inclined to purchase something from? The 2013 version (which I cringe looking at today)?

Or the 2021 version?

I rest my case.

Photography, videography, and graphic design are playing a major role in the diversification and expansion of Matthew Gove Web Development in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. With every day that goes by, the demand for rich media only continues to grow. Without stunning graphics, you are only putting yourself behind. In the worst-case scenario, you’ll go out of business altogether.

The Matt Gove Photo store is just a small piece of the master puzzle. Whether you’re adding character to your workplace or creating a central talking point in your home, our landscape photography will help you establish a high-quality brand that is trustworthy and dependent.

What Can You Buy?

We have partnered with several photo labs and wholesalers to bring you the finest lineup of products featuring our breathtaking travel landscape and nature photography from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and beyond. We’re including free shipping to the mainland United States (the Lower 48) on every item in the store.

• Standard, Metal, Canvas, Acrylic, and Wood Prints
  • Available in sizes up to 48×96 inches (122×244 cm)
  • Frames ranging from simple and elegant to exotic are made from the finest metals and woods
• Fine Art Photography
• Collages and Photo Art
• Home and Office Accessories
  • Coffee Mugs
  • Mouse Pads
  • Coasters
  • Face Masks
  • Much More
• Books and Calendars
• Photo Licensing
• Clothing and Merchandise

Both our wall art and our fine art landscape photography are a great way to add a little flair to your office or workplace. Hang a picture of a nearby tourist attraction to boost your brand and bring more customers into your store. Whisk yourself away to an exotic location when you can’t stand your annoying boss anymore. Or just add a cheery scene to boost your office morale.

You can also bring our photos into your home. Unwind from a stressful day in front of a serene water or seascape. On the other hand, pump your adrenaline with a dramatic mountain, cliff, or canyon landscape. Best of all, put a central talking point in your living room when you host your post-COVID-19 social gatherings. Do you really want to deal with that inevitable awkwardness when you see your in-laws for the first time in a year and a half?

When Will Everything be Available?

The store will initially launch around Memorial Day, with the remaining items added over the summer.

Photo Prints and Fine Art Photography

All photo prints and fine art photography will be part of the initial store launch. Right now, everything is on track for the grand opening to be sometime around Memorial Day.

Merchandise, Accessories, and Collectibles

The rest of the store items will roll out over the summer. I will be announcing launch dates for everything on our Facebook page as well as this blog. My goal is to have everything rolled out by the end of July.

Photo Licenses

Photo licenses are available today! We grant licenses for all commercial, journalism/educational, and personal uses. You can sign up for a license directly on our website.

New Beginnings Mean New Adventures: We’re Setting Off to Travel the World

Have you ever heard the saying “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone”? Nothing rings more true after losing our traveling and photography adventures to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Being shut down for over a year makes you question everything that’s brought you to this point. Fortunately, those doubts have only strengthened the drive to adventure, travel, and reinforce our values.

As the world opens back up, we will be expanding our operations far beyond the border of the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Life under lockdown made me realize just how important my traveling and photography adventures are. If you’re not going to do it now, when will you? In addition to opening up new experiences, traveling the world will elevate your status as a global citizen.

A global citizen is someone who is aware of the world and has a sense of their role in it. They are involved as members of the international community and are committed to building on this community in a meaningful and positive way. Becoming a global citizen will broaden your global perspective and allow you to bring fresh, new views back to your own community. As I mentioned earlier, photography is an incredibly powerful means to engage communities and raise awareness both at home and abroad.

When Do We Expect Travel Operations to Resume?

On 10 March, 2020, we made the painful, yet necessary decision to indefinitely suspend all travel operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That indefinite suspension remains in place to this day.

Fortunately, things are coming into focus as things continue to open up. While we expect to lift the indefinite suspension within the next month or two, it will be longer than that before we embark on any serious adventures. Travel is tentatively scheduled to resume in Fall, 2021. We will definitely be making some local day trip adventures before then!

So where are we heading for the first adventure of our world travels? I don’t want to give too much away, but we’ve got our eyes on the rich culture, exotic cenotes, and Mayan ruins of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. As always, you’re invited to join us on the adventure both on this blog and on the Matt Gove Photo website.

You’re Invited Grand Opening Sale! Get 40% Off Everything in the Store.

While we don’t have a set opening date yet, everything in the store will be 40% off for the first week following the grand opening. Give us a follow on Facebook for the latest updates. Be the first to know when we announce the store’s official opening dates and when we roll out additional products this summer.

Conclusion

As much as launching the Matt Gove Photo store has been a dream for much of the past 15 years, it means so much more than that now. After 14 months of lockdown, it’s a major step in the return to normalcy. Instead of worrying whether your next trip to the grocery store is going to kill you, you can actually think about starting to put some firm travel plans into place. I can’t wait. Where will your next adventure take you?

Top Photo: Crystal Clear Turquoise Waters in one of the many lagoons at Lake Tahoe
Near Sand Harbor, Nevada – February, 2020

The post New Beginnings, New Adventures: We’re Launching a Photo Store! appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Post-processing photos following a photo shoot is a fun and enjoyable process. It’s actually one of my favorite parts of my entire photography workflow. Unfortunately, the process can become tedious and time-consuming, costing you both time and money. Today, you’re going to learn about the Python Pillow library. It’s a somewhat obscure intersection where Python and photography meet. Let’s automate those tedious and time-consuming tasks so you can generate more billable hours and boost your income.

The Python Imaging Library, or PIL, is a powerful, free, and open-source imaging library. The original PIL library was retired in 2009 and has since been replaced with a new library called Pillow, which has full support for Python 3.

Python Pillow automation is not intended to replace your workflow in a professional editor such as Adobe Lightroom. Instead, Pillow should work in conjunction with those programs to enhance and maximize the efficiency of your workflow so you can focus on more important tasks.

Why Automate Your Workflow?

Many photographers work as freelancers, independent contractors, or are self-employed. In such capacities, we have so much more to do than just working for our clients. We need to do accounting, marketing, networking, and much more. Many of those hours are non-billable.

Automating your workflow means that you can spend more time pitching clients, going on photo shoots, and taking on more work. You’ll free up time to focus on billable tasks. You’ll reap so many benefits from investing in automation, such as:

• Save Time
• Make More Money
• Eliminate repetitive tasks
• Focus on your most important tasks
• Be Happier

Best of all, you can completely customize your automation to fit your workflow. Lightroom and Photoshop give you plenty of freedom, but it’s not limitless. Python automation, including Pillow, is.

Tools to Get Started with Python and Pillow

It’s so easy to get started. Python is not dependent on any operating system, so it will run on just about any device.

• Python 3 comes pre-installed on most computers, but if it’s not yours, you can download it here. It’s an easy programming language to learn because it’s designed so non-programmers can read and understand its code.
  • You’ll also need to install Python’s package installer, pip.
• A Command Line Tool such as Terminal, Command Prompt, or Windows PowerShell.
• A Text Editor to edit your Python code. An integrated development environment (IDE) such as Visual Studio Code is best for editing code, but NotePad or TextEdit will work fine.

Installing the Python Pillow Image Processing Library

Once you have pip up and running, open up your command line tool. It takes one simple command to install the Pillow library using pip.

pip3 install pillow

You can also install Pillow with Anaconda.

conda install pillow

Python Pillow Basics: Open, Display, and Close an Image

To do anything with Pillow, we first need to open the image file and read it into our Python script using Pillow’s Image module. Before we can use the Image module, we need to import it into the Python script. At the top of your script, add the following line.

from PIL import Image

We’ll open, display, and close our image with the Image module’s open(), show(), and close() methods. When the show() method is called, the script will pause until the user clicks the “x” in the corner to close the image.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

my_picture = Image.open("picture-1.jpg")
my_picture.show()
my_picture.close()

Read Image Attributes

You can easily access all kinds of information about an image using Pillow. A few examples include:

• File Name
• Image Format
• Size and Dimensions
• Color Info
• Camera Data

Compliment Pillow with built-in Python tools to easily perform calculations or export this data to any number of formats, such as a text file, spreadsheet, JSON, HTML table, and much more. Can you start to see how powerful automation can be?

Let’s look at another simple example. We’ll open up our image and print its format, dimension, and aspect ratio to the Terminal window.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

my_picture = Image.open("picture-1.jpg")
aspect_ratio = my_picture.width / my_picture.height

print(my_picture.format)
print(my_picture.width, my_picture.height)
print(aspect_ratio)
my_picture.close()

This code will output:

JPEG
1920 1080
1.7777777777777777

Now that we have the basics down, let’s dive into some actual automation.

Convert from One Image Type to Another

While most people don’t blink at having to reformat an image or two, the process becomes exponentially tedious once you scale it up. Or even worse, what if your images are scattered across many directories? Thankfully, converting images from one format to another is one of the easiest forms of automation. With Pillow, it’s just a few simple lines of Python code.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

my_picture = Image.open("picture-1.jpg")
my_picture = Image.save("picture-1.png")
my_picture.close()

In the real world, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be using Python to reformat just a single image. Instead, let’s scale this up and look at a folder of jpg images we want to convert to png.

We’ll use Python’s os module to interact with the files in the operating system. More specifically, the os.listdir() method lists the images in our directory. Then apply our algorithm to change their format one by one. The best tool to iterate through each image is Python’s for loop.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image
import os

# Get the path to the current folder
current_folder = os.getcwd()

# Use os to generate and sort list of image file names
image_files = os.listdir(current_folder)

# Loop through the images
for jpg_filename in image_files:
    # If not a jpg, skip it
    if not jpg_filename.endswith(".jpg"):
        continue

    # Generate the name of the .png file
    png_filename = jpg_filename.replace(".jpg", ".png")

    # Open the .jpg file
    jpg_image = Image.open(jpg_filename)

    # Save the .jpg image as a .png
    Image.save(png_filename)

    # Close the image
    jpg_image.close()

Rename an Image

Have you ever had to bulk rename a lot of images, or any type of file for that matter? There are tools out there to do that, but you often have to manually go through run the tool in each folder. It’s still a tedious process at best. With Python and Pillow, you just have to run it once and it’s done. It doesn’t matter if you have one photo or a million.

Take my Matt Gove Photo website for example. The photo albums alone consist of over 70,000 image files spread across 200-plus albums and nearly 500 directories. Can you imagine how long it would take me to perform any iterative task on all of those files if I didn’t have a tool that I could just hit “go” once and it would do it all for me?

In fact, I recently needed to generate bigger thumbnails for every single image in the Matt Gove Photo website. Using Pillow, I was able to write a script and generate new thumbnails for all of the tens of thousands of image files in less than 15 minutes. What would you do with all that time you saved?

Renaming images with Pillow is so easy. In this example, we have a folder with photos in it. They are called “picture-1.jpg”, “picture-2.jpg”, and so on. We’ve decided that instead of calling these images “picture-x.jpg”, we want to call them “photo-x.jpg”.

Like the previous example, we’ll use Python’s os module to list the files in our folder and a for loop to loop through each file.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image
import os

# Get the path to the current folder
current_folder = os.getcwd()

# Use os to generate and sort list of image file names
image_files = os.listdir(current_folder)
image_files.sort()

# Initialize a counter to name our photos
counter = 1

# Loop through the images
for img_filename in image_files:
    # If not a jpg, skip it
    if not img_filename.endswith(".jpg"):
        continue

    # Open the image
    img = Image.open(img_filename)
    
    # Save the image
    output_filename = "photo-{}.jpg".format(counter)
    img.save(output_filename)

    # Increment the counter by 1
    counter += 1

Do you know what the most powerful aspect of this code is? It doesn’t matter how many images you have in the folder. It will still work.

Let’s dive in and get our hands dirty working with some images.

Rotate or Flip an Image

Rotating an image is one of the most common post-processing tools photographers use. Easily straighten a crooked horizon or switch your photo between portrait and landscape mode. With Python Pillow, you can easily rotate or flip your images with the rotate() or transpose() methods, respectively.

We’ll use a picture of me at the Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, California. The picture was taken prior to COVID-19. Sitting at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level, Badwater Basin is the lowest point in North America. I chose this image because there is text on the sign so you can easily see the effects of each method.

To rotate the image, simply pass the rotate() method the number of degrees you wish to rotate the image counter-clockwise. If you want to rotate the image clockwise, pass it a negative number. Let’s rotate the image 45 degrees.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("badwater-basin.jpeg")
rotated_img = img.rotate(45)
rotated_img.save("badwater-basin-rotated45.jpg")

This script outputs the following image.

Unfortunately, we have a problem here. When you rotate an image to straighten a horizon, your photo post-processing program crops the rotated image to remove the black triangles from the corners. Fear not, Python will do that, too. We’ll cover cropping with Pillow shortly.

Flipping an image is easy to do with Pillow’s transpose() method. We’ll need to hand it one of the following parameters.

• Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT will mirror the image
• Image.FLIP_TOP_BOTTOM will turn the image upside down.

Let’s up our Python game a bit and use Pillow to create an upside down mirrored version of the original Badwater Basin image.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("badwater-basin.jpeg")
flipped_img = img.transpose(Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT)
flipped_img = img.transpose(Image.FLIP_TOP_BOTTOM)
flipped_img.save("badwater-basin-flipped.jpg")

Scale or Resize an Image

One of the challenges of running a photography website is trying to find the balance between high-quality images and fast load times. If you just post all of your full size images, nobody will wait that long for the page to load and you’ll lose your audience. On the flip side, the same thing will happen if you post low quality images, regardless of how fast the page loads.

The secret to optimizing load times while maintaining high-quality images is to use thumbnails. Unfortunately, this adds another layer of complexity in your workflow and requires you to generate 2 versions of each image. Even using a program like Lightroom, the process can be tedious, especially once scaled up.

Once again, Python automation with Pillow comes to the rescue. All you need to do is output the full-size images from your photo editing software and let Pillow do the rest. Even better, you have so much flexibility to define how you want to scale your images.

• Use a scaling factor
• Scale to a set width or height
• Custom dimensions

We pass the scaled height and width to Pillow’s resize() method with a tuple. A tuple is a fixed set of numbers that is enclosed in parentheses. While you can change the values of each element in the tuple, you cannot add or remove elements from it. The resize() method expects a tuple in the format (width, height), in units of pixels. Let’s scale our image to 30% of its original size.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("badwater-basin.jpeg")
scaling_factor = 0.3
scaled_width = round(img.width * scaling_factor)
scaled_height = round(img.height * scaling_factor)
resized_img = img.resize((scaled_width, scaled_height))
resized_img.save("badwater-basin-resized.jpg")

Shortcut to Create Thumbnails

If you’re generating thumbnails or need to scale all of your images to the same width or height, I highly recommend that you give Pillow’s thumbnail() method a try. Like the resize() method, it gets passed a (width, height) tuple.

The height and width passed to thumbnail() are handled a bit differently than they are in resize(). Indeed, they define the maximum height and width your thumbnails should be. Your images will maintain their aspect ratio as they are scaled. You don’t need to figure out the math yourself. Let’s create some thumbnails.

• Landscape thumbnails should be 200 pixels wide
• Portrait thumbnails should be 150 pixels tall

Because our photo is in landscape oriented, it will be 200 pixels wide. Pillow will automatically scale the height of the image to maintain its aspect ratio.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("badwater-basin.jpeg")
max_dimensions = (200, 150)
img.thumbnail(max_dimensions)
img.save("badwater-basin-thumbnail.jpg")

Tip: If you want to maintain the aspect ratio of your photo as you scale, I recommend using thumbnail() regardless of the size you’re scaling to. Just because the method is called thumbnail, it doesn’t mean it has to be used exclusively on thumbnails.

Crop an Image

We’ll use another tuple to crop our photos. This tuple looks a bit different than the one we used to scale images. Pass the crop() method the tuple (left, top, right, bottom).

Note: Pillow defines the (0,0) coordinate as the upper left corner of the image.

• left: left boundary of the crop as the number of pixels to the right of the left side of the original image
• top: top boundary of the crop as the number of pixels below the top of the original image
• right: right boundary of the crop as the number of pixels to the left of the right side of the original image
• bottom: bottom boundary of the crop as the number of pixels above the bottom of the original image.

The crop() method lets you crop your image any way you want. Start at the edge, in the middle, or anywhere in between. Size and shape your crop however you wish. We’ll cover the more advanced functionalities of the crop() method in a future tutorial.

A Cropping Challenge

I challenge you to write a Python script that uses Pillow to crop the Badwater Basin photo in a 600×600 square centered around the middle of the photo. Think about what parameters you need, and how you would calculate those values. Like previous examples, the opened image will be stored in the img variable.

Here’s how I would do it. We’ll start with a list of parameters we need. All parameters are in pixels.

• The coordinates of the middle of the photo
• How far from each edge is 600 pixels from the middle?
• The image height and width

Calculations

No matter what the problem you’re trying to solve is, always start with what you know. In our case, we know the height (img.height) and width (img.width) of our photo.

To get the middle of the photo, simply cut the height and width in half.

middle_x = img.width / 2
middle_y = img.height / 2

Now that we know the coordinates of the center of the photo, just add or subtract 300 pixels from the center to obtain the parameters the crop() method requires. You’ll get a 600×600 image.

left = (img.width / 2) - 300
top = (img.height / 2) - 300
right = (img.width / 2) + 300
bottom = (img.height / 2) + 300

Put it all together to get the complete script.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("badwater-basin.jpeg")

left = (img.width/2) - 300
top = (img.height/2) - 300
right = (img.width/2) + 300
bottom = (img.height/2) + 300

cropped = img.crop((left, top, right, bottom))
cropped.save("badwater-basin-cropped.jpg")

Add a Watermark with Python and Pillow

Watermarks have been a thorn in my side ever since I got into photography. It seemed like every time I created a photo album with my photo editing software, I forgot to add a watermark, or added watermark that was the wrong size, color, opacity, and/or font.

Thankfully, Pillow can automate the entire watermarking process for you. It an easy step that can be seamlessly integrated into your workflow.

Create Your Watermark as a Transparent Background png Image

Before we can add a watermark, we need to create a watermark. Create your watermark in your preferred image editing program and save it as a png file with a transparent background. Here is mine.

With both an image and a watermark, we can dive into the code. First, read both the image (Badwater Basin) and the watermark into Pillow.

badwater_basin = Image.open("badwater-basin.jpeg")
watermark = Image.open("mgp_watermark.png")

Now for the tricky part. It’s time to add transparency to the watermark. We normally define opacity as a decimal or percentage on a scale from 0 to 1. However, Pillow expects the opacity as an integer from 0 to 255, which is called an alpha value. We’ll have to multiply our opacity by 255 and round it to get alpha. Let’s set our watermark at 40% opacity, or 0.4.

opacity = 0.4
alpha = round(opacity * 255)

The next block is a bit outside the scope of this tutorial, so I won’t go into it too much. It converts the watermark to a format that can be opaque or transparent and applies the alpha value to the watermark to set its opacity.

mask = watermark.convert("L").point(lambda x: min(x, alpha))
watermark.putalpha(mask)

To position the watermark on the photo, we’ll use a technique similar to how we cropped the image earlier. I normally put the watermark in the bottom right corner. However, there is a lot of white on the bottom of the Badwater Basin photo, so we’ll put the watermark in the top right instead so you can see it.

First, define a margin, in pixels, for how far to set the watermark from the edge of the image. Then, calculate the x and y coordinates to tell Pillow where to position the upper left corner of the watermark on the photo.

margin_x = 20
margin_y = 10

x = img.width - watermark.width - margin_x
y = margin_y

Finally, paste the watermark onto the photo and save the watermarked version.

badwater_basin.paste(watermark, (x, y), watermark)
badwater_basin.save("badwater-basin-watermark.jpg")

Here is the final script after putting everything together.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

badwater_basin = Image.open("badwater-basin-20210205.jpeg")
watermark = Image.open("mgp_watermark.png")

opacity = 0.4
alpha = round(opacity * 255)

mask = watermark.convert("L").point(lambda x: min(x,alpha))
watermark.putalpha(mask)

margin_x = 20
margin_y = 10

x = img.width - watermark.width - margin_x
y = margin_y

badwater_basin.paste(watermark, (x, y), watermark)
badwater_basin.save("badwater-basin-watermark.jpg")

Two Real-World Examples of Python and Pillow

While these examples are all great, how do they apply to the real world? Let’s have a look at a couple of real-world examples that I routinely use in my day-to-day life.

Prep a Photo to Add to this Blog

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that I use a lot of photos. Prepping large quantities of images for the blog can be extremely tedious. Consider my workflow.

1. Scale the photo to a maximum width of 1200 pixels to balance load times with image quality.
2. Scale the watermark to 38% of the width of the photo
3. Set the watermark to 30% opacity
4. Calculate coordinates for where to paste the watermark
5. Paste the watermark in the lower right-hand corner of the photo
6. Close the images

Combine what we learned above into a Python script.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from PIL import Image

# Read in the image and the watermark
photo = Image.open("my_photo.jpg")
watermark = Image.open("mgp_watermark.png")

# Step 1: Scale the Image to 1200px
max_dimensions = (1200, 1200)
photo.thumbnail(max_dimensions)

# Step 2: Scale the Watermark to 38% the Width of the Image
watermark_width = 0.38 * photo.width
max_dimensions = (watermark_width, 99999)
watermark.thumbnail(max_dimensions)

# Step 3: Set the Watermark to 30% Opacity
opacity = 0.3
alpha = round(opacity * 255)
mask = watermark.convert("L").point(lambda x: min(x,alpha))
watermark.putalpha(mask)

# Step 4: Define Coordinates for Where to Paste the Watermark
margin_x = 20
margin_y = 10
x = photo.width - watermark.width - margin_x
y = photo.height - watermark.height - margin_y

# Step 5: Past the Watermark in the Lower-Right Corner of the Photo
photo.paste(watermark, (x, y), watermark)
photo.save("watermarked-photo.jpg")

# Step 6: Close the Images
photo.close()
watermark.close()

Add a Photo Album to the Matt Gove Photo Website

Complex workflows are where any kind of automation really shines. Automating the process to create a photo album for the Matt Gove Photo website with Python has saved me so much time since I wrote the script.

1. Create the directory structure to hold the photo album and properly name each folder.
   • A folder to hold the high-resolution images
   • A folder to hold the thumbnails
2. Create the high-resolution images that expand when a visitor clicks on a thumbnail. These photos are scaled to 1500 px and watermarked.
   • Crop wide panoramas to a 3:1 aspect ratio centered in the middle of the photo.
3. Save those images to the pictures folder
4. Create thumbnails that are scaled to 200 px.
5. Save the thumbnails in the thumbnails folder
6. Create an album cover that’s scaled to 400 px and saved in the root directory of the album.

Executing this workflow manually using photo-editing software has taken me as long as 30 to 45 minutes in the past. Instead, the script now does the job in less than 5 seconds.

Conclusion

Photography is far from the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of Python scripting and automation. Pillow is certainly not a replacement for professional editing software such as Lightroom or Photoshop, but instead is most powerful when coupled with those programs and working in tandem with them. This tutorial only scratches the surface of Pillow’s full potential.

Are you ready to start automating your photography workflow and freeing up time to focus on more important tasks? Get in touch today for more information or request a quote from Matthew Gove Web Development to get started with Python and Pillow today!

Top Photo: Victoria Falls – Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park
Washago, Ontario, Canada – August, 2019

The post Photographers: Here’s How to Boost Your Income with Python Automation appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.