Best Time of Year for Taking Scenic Photography

The best time of year to take scenic photography is when you can devote time to choose your scenes carefully. Study them so that you are taking all the advantages that each scene affords. Which season you choose to go photo hunting depends on what you want to shoot. If you are looking for wildly beautiful autumn scenes from the northeast then you'll need to decide the time when the colors are at or very near their peak. Use this same type of planning for whatever other scenes you want to shoot. Use common sense to know when each area will be at its best.

Even more important than the time of year for taking scenic photography is the time of day. If the sun is in the east you will want to be shooting toward the west, with the sun behind you. And if the sun is in the west you will find it best to shoot to the east.

The best time for taking scenic photography shots are in the early morning and late afternoon. Except for sunrises and sunsets, your optimum times for shooting scenes will be at about one hour after sunrise in the morning, and in the evening it will be one to two hours before sunset. The reason for this is that warmth, depth, form, contrast, and color are all affected by the angle of the light coming from the sun. Shooting during the right time of day often makes for the greatest difference between an amateur and a professional shot.