When looking for a good landscape to photograph, it is pretty straightforward to find a good mountain or a decent background if you look far enough … but to successfully compliment this with a good foreground … now this is the really challenging part about landscape photography.

In today’s video, I take you through my process of finding foregrounds in a very popular landscape photography location in North Wales.

The Ogwen Valley is a fantastic place to hike around with your camera and gives you lots of opportunities for very different photographs, including waterfalls, wildlife, Fighter jets and of course big landscapes!

Finding a foreground is like Hunting …

I sometimes find a foreground straight away, and other times it seems like I am just hunting around for hours … and that is what it comes down to, you are hunting for a foreground for your photograph, to make it come to life and to make it stand out from others you might have taken in the same area.

Sometimes you might not see anything and it might just be bland … and other times, you will see some nice patterns, shapes and lines.

These three photographs show bad examples of finding foreground elements.

Each of them in their own right is quite interesting, but I just didn’t capture them in the right way. The photograph on the left has a nice leading line with the stream, but the reeds in the foreground are just a bit of a mess. And this goes for the middle photograph as well. Those reads are pointing to the left and so not really leading the viewers eye into the frame…and with the image on the right, this is just a bit of a mess … The broken down wall is interesting but not like this in a photograph.

Tryfan rocks - finding foregrounds for your landscapes — 01 Look for lines, shapes or patterns
If you look for random things, sometimes it can look like you have just quickly found something and put it in to your photograph, like a log on a beach, or a single flower that has no relation to the background.
However, if you can find a line shape or pattern with a bit of a connection to the background, this is when it really all starts coming together.
I like how this rock takes on a similar shape to Tryfan in the background. Although there is better to be found.

02 Look for Streams and Rivers

Streams are a good place to look … and they can form leading lines themselves, if they are flowing in the right direction!

Whenever you are looking for places to photograph, be sure to see if there are any hiking paths along any of the streams in the area you are visiting. If there are, make a not of them and go for a walk alongside the stream to see what you can find.

These three different photographs show the development of my thinking. I found the stream and shot the photo on the left handheld. In reviewing it on the back of the camera, it really didn’t work for me, so I kept looking.

I then found the middle image but I didn’t like how the rocks to the right hid Lake Ogwen.

This then got me to the location on the right, where i finally put the camera on the tripod and did a slightly longer exposure.

I like how the river leads around the tree and then towards the lake. It really does lead your eye into the frame and to the mountains in the background. If you click on the photograph, you’ll see the person in the orange jacket in the distance … he’s a bit too small in the frame but also a little too bright, so if I was to print this, I would probably photoshop him out … it’s a shame he wasn’t closer to give some kind of scale to the photograph.

Look for Anything that Potentially Forms Patterns

On this hike up the valley, you will find lot’s of different things to put in your foreground. Everyone seems to gravitate towards the stream but there are paths and walls, as well as rocky outcrops as well … so don’t just follow what everyone else is doing … When you do find your own, this is so rewarding and what keeps me hooked on landscape photography!