A simple change for better photos.

Yo James, I got your preset and it works such wonders esp for icy landscapes. Big up.

Interesting stuff. I've never really had the luxury of planning ahead to much, so I've always been pretty spontaneous out of necessity. It's good to hear that a professional is coming round to feeling that planning ahead in detail is less helpful, as I think it reduces my fear pf missing out. Fascinating stuff on the editing, too- something I need to find more time to get into.

Thanks, very nice informative video :) Keep them coming mate ❤

Really nice photos and editing. Thanks for sharing

thank you very much for showing us your edeting thoughts again! It helps alot being a beginner and tying to understand edeting

“We haven’t got a plan so nothing can go wrong “ Spike Milligan 😂

Love these shots James and it was fantastic to meet you on the trip.
Thanks for all your help and laughs !

@james - linear gradient form the bottom of the water quite high up starting point with a -.15ev and your clarity reduction and then intersect with the foreground. 😘

Thanks for the video!

It was a nice picture before all that editing. especially before the blown out exposure.

Thanks!

The thumbnail for “so that’s why people shoot film” of the playground at Coney Island and this one for Antarctica look like such similar locations.

One’s New York , one’s Antarctica.

Do you ever consider you may be starting to homogenise your photos with the style you implement to the point where going to a new location is pointless. Antarctica and New York could look quite dissimilar in some ways. (I love your style and am a preset buyer of yours - it’s just striking how similar the resulting images are, which somehow feels.. something )

I understand planning your shots if you’re a professional as it’s your bread and butter, but as a hobbyist the pleasure is just taking and editing photos. I don’t want it to become a job or chore as it will then kill my hobby.

Enjoyed the Lightroom lesson.

When I plan photos, I don't come back with photos I like.
I prefer the photos where I can say : I had the luck to be there at this moment.
Thank you for your video. Always a good moment !

I'm so with you on that, James. When I traveled, I used to try and figure out all the best spots at the best times of day, then fight off the crowds who had the same idea. Now, I just wander, see what I see and it's so much more enjoyable and I'm getting more unique images.

Great video! I find it a bit spooky that I posted a text on my old school blog on my new tactic in photography minutes before I watched this clip. The text was all about the freedom and independence I feel when my planning before a day out is limited to finding out how heavy the rain is going to be. When the weather, light and my daily form gives me a nice subject I go all in with composition, exposure and the rest of it. So it's not a snapshot kind of thing, just a unplanned but hopefully well crafted image.

Love the photo have one similar playing around with atm. Trip was incredible and as you say no chance of planning just being ready to grab something. What I liked is everyone saw something slightly different each day.

I'd say you need to plan enough (but not over-do it) to increase your chances of getting the shot you want, but don't be discouraged when it doesn't work out or you have to deviate. I've been on a few landscape trips where my best photos were not the photos I intended to take, or they were better than the ones I had in mind when planning my trip. This is also a good exercise in learning to cope with the conditions as they come -- meaning know what you CAN do when things don't work out (for example, if it's raining or overcast, it may be a good day to go find a waterfall to photograph or do macro). So my thing would be have an idea, maybe do some planning, but leave room for changes and don't be discouraged if things don't work out 100% to plan. They never really do. I used to be rather detailed in my planning (down to how long I would spend at a location), but over the years I realized it was more or less wasted part of the time, since things would change usually once I got there (either the conditions/weather weren't right or I decided to stay longer at a location and that would screw up the schedule for the day).

Now I just make a list of place I'd like to visit, and where the sun will be (say for sunrise/sunset). The only other thing I might do is scope the area during the "harsh" hours but that's about it.
I no longer plan out in great detail these trips (which are usually landscape trips) and have sort of trained myself to go with the flow

Whenever I travel I get the usual planned tourist shots but in general I like the spontaneity of just stumbling across a scene in the moment, also makes it feel more like capturing a unique moment in time

Best of luck sorting your replacement drivers licence and bank cards. You must have been a tad tired after your adventures south. Take care.

Antartica is one of my dream trips and if it was a workshop with you and Mads i'd be wildly excited. 2026 might have to happen for me!

Not planning has been my plan for decades.

Plot twist, I need to plan something to go out. Then when I am on location, forget what the plan was and have a great time!

Please do a video on your print settings and how to size the image and canvas.

the very definition of a 'planned' photographic trip is making your way down to the Antarctic - somewhat ironic given the premise of the thread! -:) Still, I agree 100% with your thoughts on the matter.

Yep... the best feeling ever. Works the same in life. The best and happiest moments in life for me were when I had no money and no plans 🤣. Still valid today haha.

Love your content, watched most of it and especially appreciate that you take us with you when doing some photography. Not only talking out of a studio like many other creators.

Hope to see content of yours from Sweden some day. Everyone goes to Iceland, Faroe Islands, Southern Europe, Norway, UK, US, Japan but no one ever does photography in Sweden. Simply because Sweden is the ugliest country in Europe with boring flat landscapes, no real mountains, no huge beaches, no fjords, no palm trees, very few interesting man made structures. The only other country in Europe as boring as Sweden would be Finland.

Hope to see you prove me wrong one day! :)

Nice edit!

it caught my attention when you were discussing the reflection in the edit section. the water being choppy at the time you were able to take the picture adds to your commentary about the human/nature dynamic expressed in the picture. the buildings bravely stand despite the harsh elements mother nature batters them with dutifully serving their purpose but as is expressed in the choppy and fading reflection eventually, and with little relative effort, the tide of nature will engulf them and erase them

but what photographer doesn’t want a perfect reflection i mean cmon!

I was amused at the end when you softened the background to concentrate focus on the 'subject'. Was it Henri Cartier-Bresson who said “Sharpness is a bourgeois concept”?. It's a technique I use myself. It does rather mock the incessant chase for the ultimate Nth degree of detail and sharpness which the photographic hardware industry thrives on.
A very interesting demonstration of your use of LR. I don't use Adobe software but I can follow the techniques.Thank you.

This episode brought to you by The Ridge wallet with built in air tag holder 😂 (I do not endorse this product)

Every video you make, I immediately click the like button as soon as it starts. I love your content.

I love that photo with the blue and white roof. Absolutely beautiful.

The ending was too funny ahahah

All the planning in the world won't help you when for instance the weather changes quickly in a landscape or in street photography when a momentary scene presents itself round a corner, you need to be spontaneous and take pictures in conditions. A photographer who sets off with too many fixed plans very rarely comes home with a decent selection of images in my view, there's no fun in that 😂

Nice work James and I like your point of view/story telling in your images.

Love the video editing tips. Totally enjoyed the trip. Not sure my photos came out the way I wanted but I need to make another pass using these editing options.

I love your tutorial on photo editing, it is quite inspiring to me.

Thank you for sharing your amazing images.

You can only control so many aspects of your life, and when it comes to photography, you can choose the location, subject and time of year and day but as for weather, that is a different story as no matter what some people say or think you can't control the weather, it's something you have to deal with and be able to make adjustments for. When I have a few days to get a trip in that i have to drive a good amount to get to, i may pick it few locations that I want to photograph in but i always keep my eyes open to see if there is something of interest to photograph as i move from location to location.

Great vid. thanks! What is the song at the start?

Love you James but you totally blew the hell out of the highlights of that lava lamp / lantern in the top left corner.

Still, love you man and keep the content up.

great video. Thanks for showing the editing process. I really like your aesthetic, so it's great to see how you arrived there.

Absolutely LOVE when you show your approach to different type of photos in lightroom. Thanks James 👏🏼

Decreasing clarity in the water is genius! Thank You!!!

You'll get better sharpening results dropping your radius all the way down so that Lr's deconvolution algorithm kicks in. Then dial in about 50 in the sharpening amount.