A nature photographer gave me 3 simple iPhone photography tips before my trip to Iceland. My photos came out a thousand times better.
Talia Lakritz
- Nature photographer Chris Burkard offered me iPhone photography advice before my trip to Iceland.
- He said to use the wide-angle lens, put objects in the foreground, and play with lighting.
Iceland is known for its otherworldly landscapes and incredible phenomena like the midnight sun and northern lights. Ahead of my visit there this summer, I wanted to know how to capture the best photos with just my iPhone 13 Mini's camera.
Before embarking on my trip, I asked award-winning nature photographer and author Chris Burkard for his top iPhone photography tips.
Burkard has published 10 photography books and had his work featured in National Geographic Adventure, Surfer Magazine, and galleries across the US. His striking landscape shots have also earned him nearly 4 million followers on Instagram.
He gave me three main pieces of advice:
- Use the iPhone's wide-angle lens. "Any iPhone that has the wide-angle lens is critical," he said. "That's one of the things that I would just make sure that you have with you. If you don't, you're going to be really limited."
- Put objects in the foreground to create perspective. "I love to approach a place or a location utilizing a strong sense of foreground in order to make my background, which might be a waterfall, or whatever my hero subject is, feel more three-dimensional," he said.
- Play around with lighting and silhouettes. "The iPhone doesn't do super well when it's pointed directly at the sun because the sun turns into a blown-out orb of light. The one thing I'd consider is, how can you avoid that at all costs? Sometimes I'll hide the sun behind a leaf or behind just out of frame, or I'll use my hand to protect the lens from the sun."
Burkard's tips helped me see Iceland's natural beauty with a more trained eye, and my photos came out a thousand times better. Take a look.
Before speaking to Chris Burkard, I would have taken a beautiful, but basic, photo of the Seljalandsfoss waterfall.
Instead, I played around with putting different objects in the foreground, creating a more three-dimensional shot with dandelions.
I also used my iPhone's wide-angle lens to photograph a broader view of the 200-foot waterfall and the dramatic landscape surrounding it.
At Hotel Rangá in Hella, I took a photo of the sky filled with sunlight at 11:30 p.m. near one of the resort's outdoor hot tubs.
With a wider view of the sky and the midnight sun thanks to my iPhone's wide-angle lens, the scene looked more majestic, and I better captured the expansive landscape.
I also tried using the hotel's window panes to block the midnight sun to create a striking silhouette and shadows.
Víkurfjara, a black-sand beach in Vík, looked grey and underwhelming in the first photo I took.
I couldn't believe how the beach seemed to come alive in a photo I took closer to the ground with a simple stone in the foreground. Up close, the rocks looked shiny and metallic, creating a far more detailed and interesting image.
Like any tourist, I still took lots of selfies. But I was grateful for the way Burkard's simple tips helped me see Iceland in a whole new way.
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