Exploring the intimate landscape

If you think “landscape photography”, chances are you immediately conjure a mental image of a vista, a view or another “epic” kind of photograph:

These images do well in landscape photography competitions and tend to be popular on Instagram. But they are not the only kind of landscape photograph.

Quieter, closer photographs can be a lot more personal. They often create more of a connection with your viewer through being more relatable.

What is an intimate landscape photograph?

“Intimate” simply means that you the photographer isolate a small part of the view in front of you. You choose to take a piece out of the whole scene rather than cramming the entire vista in the frame. There are no hard-and-fast rules but the following ideas form the backbone of intimate landscapes:

probably no horizon in the frame
choosing to emphasise patterns and textures
limited context
the subject is often “within arm’s length” (the viewer could reach out and touch it) rather than being out of reach