Photography in PatagoniaIan Plant uses the Tamron SP 24-70mm VC and SP 70-200mm VC lenses to capture the magnificence of Chile and Argentina. |
Article by Jenn Gidman Images by Ian Plant |
The Patagonia region of South America, which stretches across Argentina and Chile, was reportedly first christened by Magellan, who is said to have bestowed the name upon the area after coming across supposed "giants" there during his travels (the name was loosely translated to mean "Land of the Big Feet"). While the people who live there now are of decidedly normal height, the landscapes of Patagonia remain giant in stature. With its epic mountains, glacial lakes, and spectacular granite spires, Patagonia offers plenty of big photographic opportunities - a landscape photographer's dream. |
Ian Plant visited Patagonia in March, at the beginning of their autumn. "I was there to teach a photo workshop for half the time, then I did some backcountry camping for my own photography," he says. "In Argentina, I went to Los Glaciares National Park, where the famous Monte Fitz Roy is located. In Chile, I visited Torres del Paine National Park." |
For his South American adventure, Ian used the Tamron SP 24-70mm VC and SP 70-200mm VC lenses. "They're both very sharp lenses, so they're excellent for landscape work," he says. "Being able to have sharp focus from near to far, throughout the whole image frame, is critical. When I took some nighttime images, being able to shoot with the 24-70 wide open at F/2.8 with the moon lighting up the landscape was really useful. It was especially sharp at that aperture - I was able to capture the faint moonlight and still get crisp images." |
Ian typically takes most of his images on a tripod, but he tapped into the Vibration Compensation feature of both lenses in Patagonia. "For example, if the light was changing quickly and I saw something that was interesting from a telephoto perspective, I'd grab the 70-200 and shoot handheld with the VC on," he says. "It helped keep my images sharp when I needed to move fast and work multiple compositions at the same time." |
Although Ian took pictures around the clock, sunrise was the sweet spot for Patagonian photography during his trip. "Both locations I visited have mountains with prominent eastern faces, so sunrise is the time to be out there," he says. "That also happens to be the best time to try to capture reflections. The wind, for which Patagonia is infamous, tends to not be as intense as it is at other times of day, so the water is calm then and allows you to get those nice reflection shots. I lucked out on this trip, because I've been down to Patagonia four times over the last few years, and we had some of the calmest days I've ever seen down there." |
To capture the Patagonian landscapes, Ian kept to his basic compositional tenets. "Composition is a complex thing - I recently finished a book on the subject that was 300 pages long (Visual Flow: Mastering the Art of Composition)," he says. "But the short version is to look for ways to engage the viewer's eye. I'm always trying to encourage the viewer to look deeper into the image frame and to have multiple points of visual interest so that his or her eye is bouncing back and forth between these elements. When you can do that successfully, you 'trap' the viewer's eye in the image. That's what holds interest over time." |
At the most fundamental level, Ian recommends just finding what appeals to your own aesthetic. "Composition is a search for cool stuff," he says. "You want to find things about an area that are unique to there and help tell a story, then figure out a way to arrange these things within the picture frame in an interesting and compelling way. For example, I was at Laguna Torre in Los Glaciares and saw all these small icebergs in the water, which I decided to place in the foreground. I managed to find a few rocks sticking out of the water that I could use as stepping stones to get deeper into the lake so I could surround myself with those icebergs." |
Salt deposits swirled on the ground near Laguna Amarga in Torres del Paine provided a similar photographic opportunity. "It was morning twilight, and as the sun rose, the portion of the sky right above the sun began to glow," he says. "The light started to illuminate the rest of the landscape, so I was able to take advantage of those soft pastel colors and the fact that there was absolutely no wind, so I could get a perfect reflection with no ripples on the water. But it was those salt deposits I spotted on the shore that really caught my eye. It was something interesting I saw that I was able to incorporate within the grander imaging scheme." |
Placing people or other elements in his shots against these vast landscapes can also help Ian give his viewers a sense of scale. "That scale reference shows how prominent those mountains really are," he says. "If I don't have a person to include in the image, I'll try to include some other reference cues, like maybe some boulders in the foreground." |
Ian was always prepared to capture the spectacular colors of Patagonia, even when he least expected them. "There was one sunrise in Torres del Paine where I didn't think anything was going to happen," he says. "It was gray, gloomy, a little bit drizzly. Suddenly there was a crack in the gray as the sun rose, and all of the pink color started coming through the clouds. I did a long exposure of 30 seconds to blur the movement of the clouds for that painted, watercolor look. I managed to get off about four exposures in two minutes before the light disappeared altogether - then it was raining again." |
Setting his white balance correctly also ensured that he was able to accurately show the colors he was seeing with his own eyes. "I took a picture at Lake Pehoé on a cloudy day at twilight," he says. "The only light coming through the clouds at that time of day is blue light, though that's not something the human mind really perceives. We tend to filter out those color casts. You want to choose a white balance that doesn't try to compensate for all that blue light. I used the 'Daylight' white balance setting with a 2-minute exposure and was able to capture it all." |
Shooting under the Patagonian moon is another way to capture the vast landscape in a gorgeous light. "Effectively, moonlight is just reflected sunlight," Ian explains "It's not as harsh. It's also fainter than direct sunlight, so I had to do longer exposures for those images. The moon is moving, but the rest of your scene isn't, so with a 1- or 2-minute exposure, you get clouds drifting over the water that blur nicely. And, as the moon moves, it also fills in some of its own shadows." |
Ian enjoyed scoping out more nontraditional scenes in Patagonia as well. "I took a sunset shot over the canyon in Los Glaciares," he says. "What's cool about this image is that it shows both sides of Patagonia - it's a really dramatic location. When people think of Patagonia, they think of the mountains, those classic icons of the region, but on the other side you've got desert plains and mountains that are much different than the regular mountains. This particular location shows one of the glacial-fed rivers that comes down from the mountain and cuts through one of these desert canyons. I was able to juxtapose the desert with the mountains in the background. It reminds me of the Snake River Overlook in Grand Teton National Park where Ansel Adams took his famous shot." |
With a camera, you can share scenes you see in your mind's eye with the viewer. "In Los Glaciares National Park, I shot what I call the 'Lord of the Lenga trees,'" Ian says. 'The sunlight was coming through one of these trees, and it really showed off the beautiful fall colors I saw down there, which are quite stunning. I was drawn to this particular image because of its anthropomorphic qualities - it looks like some old king offering a proclamation in front of his subjects!" |
To see more of Ian Plant's images, go to www.ianplant.com. |