Landscape Photography with Natural Light: Paige Tingey's Pro Tips for Epic Shots

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. Welcome into the Professional Photographer Podcast. I'm your host, Pat Miller, and we are live–Imaging USA in Dallas 2025. It's been a great conference so far and we are not done yet because we have another episode to bring to you. In the Scale Your Influence series. Paige Tingey is our guest today. We are talking about landscape photography. Our set–man, Sony went all out. Big old high five to Sony for bringing their cinema line cameras and their Monitor & Control app. No wires, easy to control on the iPad. It's made production an absolute breeze this week. So thank you, Sony, for putting in the hard work. Okay, today's episode, we're going to talk with Paige Tingey, and if you haven't seen her landscape photography, bro, you need to look it up. It's amazing. Unbelievable. And it's really envious to look at her stuff. She's traveling the world, but what does it take to do that? How do you get that image? You're going to be blown away about how she thinks about natural light, the amount of planning that goes into not only where she goes, but when, not only what she shoots, but how, and then afterwards how she processes the images. And shares that with you online. If you think landscape photography is cool and it's something you'd like to do someday, this episode will definitely help you out. So let's get into it now. Paige, welcome to the show. How are you today?

Paige Tingey: 01:32

I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. It's been a crazy week, so I'm actually glad that it's like the final day. We're wrapping everything up.

Pat Miller: 01:38

Yeah.

Paige Tingey: 01:39

Getting to chat with you. So, yeah.

Pat Miller: 01:40

You're an international woman of mystery. You just flew in from Guatemala. That's incredible. Tell me about it.

Paige Tingey: 01:47

No, it was amazing. So that is part of what I do. I travel. Lately, I travel almost 50% of the time. I wouldn't say that that's going to be always the way I do it, but lately, it's just been a lot of international travel, and Guatemala was unreal. I love a lot of different countries in that area, but I had actually never been to Guatemala, and I wasn't expecting it to be so underrated. There's places you can just stand and see five volcanoes circling you. The scale of everything is insane. The food was amazing. The people were amazing. It was just really beautiful. And we like, this whole plan to go all around the country and we went to three different places and we ended up extending in almost every place that we went because we didn't want to leave, we didn't want to go miss out on what we were doing. And anyway, so it was just like, every place was amazing enough that we just were like, I think we have to stay one more day here. So now I need to go back and go to all the other places I didn't even have time to go to, so.

Pat Miller: 02:47

So, doing landscape, how do you feel when you're in the presence of five volcanoes at once? Does that just get you so excited?

Paige Tingey: 02:56

Yeah, I think it's the reason that I started doing photography in the first place. Even from a really young age, I was always mesmerized by what I was seeing. And so being in places like that, it just does something to my soul that I can't really describe very well. It's just like it feels like your heart is just gonna burst 'cause it's so full. I just get so excited, so exhilarated. I could be on two hours of sleep a night. But I get to a viewpoint with all these volcanoes around me, and it's just like, I wish I could put words to it. I really can't. It's so good.

Pat Miller: 03:31

And that's timeless. Creators for centuries have talked about that feeling of inspiration and how difficult it is to describe. That's when you know you're doing what you love.

Paige Tingey: 03:41

Exactly.

Pat Miller: 03:42

Yeah. You shared with me that as a landscape photographer, it's not necessarily about the stuff you're seeing, it's about the light and the way that it falls on the stuff you're seeing. Can you talk about how an expert like you thinks about natural light?

Paige Tingey: 03:55

Totally. So the other interesting thing–I'm going to back up and then I'll answer your question–so before I became a photographer, my mom was a painter. And so I grew up doing a lot of different art and stuff. And I understood drawing and everything. And so if you take a blank canvas and you draw a person's face, right? Everything that you see on that canvas is either going to be a line or no line. Right? So it's either light or it's no light. And so the way that I think about everything around me is kind of from that same perspective. It's like, the only reason that we can see shapes and colors and everything is because light is actually hitting it. And so for me, light is just so integrated into the way that I think about how something will look. And I know that kind of sounds obvious, but just the shadows and the light are really what's making up what I'm seeing. And so when I'm taking pictures, I take it in a way, and I look for certain scenarios where I know that even when I'm post processing it, I'll be able to kind of capitalize on the light and the shadows, bring them out, bring them down, like whatever it needs to be to kind of maximize the actual composition of the photo. And so that's kind of the reason that I've kind of started being so obsessed with light is partially from like the artist side of things and also just like the way I think about why we're even seeing what we're seeing.

Pat Miller: 05:18

So that's not obvious though. Civilians like me don't think about sound or heat or light like you. It's as if you perceive it in a different way. Is that fair to say?

Paige Tingey: 05:30

Yeah, I think so, I guess. Well, I mean, you can confirm that that's true. I guess for me, it's like always how I've thought about it. But it does make sense that other people think of things as, I don't know, maybe just in simpler form.

Pat Miller: 05:43

Yeah, totally. Yeah, we take it for granted. We don't think about those types of things in the way that you do. One other thing that you shared that just blew me away is, okay, you walk up and there's the volcano. You're not showing up by accident. You're pre-planning. Talk to us about how you pre plan to get the shot that you think you want to get.

Paige Tingey: 06:03

Yeah. So I think there's a lot of tools that we all can use to make our lives a little easier. I will say that when you're traveling internationally, and you have to book your tickets way in advance, and then you just show up and you're shooting in 10 different locations and some locations you didn't even know you were going to show up to. The planning can be very difficult in that scenario. But I'd say in a perfect world, the things that I really like to utilize is, well, there's a couple different apps. First one is PhotoPills. Second one is called Windy. So, as a landscape photographer, if people are not using these apps, they are game changers for me. So what they do is it allows you to understand. PhotoPills is a great app where you can go in and you can see exactly what direction the light is going to be rising from in the morning. You can see exactly where it's going to set. You can see exactly what time of day, like what angle it's going to be at. You can check so many different things about the light in that app. And so it's really heavily used in landscape photography for that purpose. Astrophotographers will use it because they can see exactly where the Milky Way is going to be at what time of night. So there's a lot of information in that that is really vital. And so if I am chasing a specific shot and I know that, you know, if I know the direction of the viewpoint that I'm gonna be at, if I know it's facing south or something, I'll be able to research beforehand even down to what day of the year I want to get to that location, because I'll know it's gonna–if I want the sun to rise to the diagonal left of the view, then I can actually go map that out. And I can see like, oh, on August 5th, it's gonna be in that perfect spot, and I'm gonna be able to get a really good sunflower right as it comes above the mountain, like things like that. So if you really want to go hard at planning, that's ideal.

Pat Miller: 07:50

We're going hard, man.

Paige Tingey: 07:52

But it's like, it's not always like that perfect, right? So I would say that still in general, I try to get locations in certain times of year that I know it's gonna be good when I'm actually. If I'm going international, and I'm actually trying to plan my week. So, like an example, last year, I was in Madeira, Portugal, and the island is amazing. It takes an hour and a half to drive across the island, and you feel like you've gone to 10 different countries by the time you get to the other side. It's really cool. And so there's forests that you want foggy. There's viewpoints that you want clear skies and beautiful sunrise light. Like, there's all these different conditions that you're kind of chasing on this very small island. And so while I'm there, that's when I use Windy. And so I'm there for about five or six days, and so I'll be every night, every morning, I'm looking at web cameras. I'm getting on the Windy app, and I'm checking like, okay, where is there going to be low clouds? Where is there going to be high clouds? And what elevation are those clouds going to be? And so I kind of plan out my week according to, okay, if I want to be in this like foggy forest and I want foggy conditions, what morning should I go do that? Or it's like, maybe, you know, if I want a clear sunrise and I want light actually breaking through the horizon, I need to track like where the clouds are going to be. I need to make sure they're not going to be blocking the sun when it comes up. And so it doesn't ever work out perfectly. But that's kind of how I plan things if I have that luxury to like pick days and stuff. And it works really well. So those are really, really useful tools for it.

Pat Miller: 09:24

Those are high tech. Do you also low tech sketch, and that kind of stuff too? Or how do you conceptualize the shot that you want that begins all the planning?

Paige Tingey: 09:34

Yeah, I think just because I am like a photographer, but I'm also like a social media person, I get influenced, definitely myself, by other people who travel to these places. And so I typically have a sense of just like different photographs that have been taken in that area. Or there maybe was a photograph that was so well done that I was like, dang, I need to go to that place. It inspired me to want to travel there. And so I think I don't do a lot of sketches, now that I think about it, but I do a lot of like kind of mood boarding. And so I'll kind of go into different, I don't know, maybe I'll go online and I'll look up things, even places where not a lot of photographers have been. I'll even go into Google Maps and I'll start looking through like pictures of people that have just gone there, like on a hike or something, and just uploaded a photo from their phone. Because even that I can, I can check like where things are kind of positioned. I'm like, oh, there's a big mountain to the left of that viewpoint. And that kind of stuff really does help so that you don't get there and you're like surprised about something.

Pat Miller: 10:39

I didn't know that was there. Yeah, there's a water tower in the way. What's going on?

Paige Tingey: 10:43

Exactly. And that does still happen for sure. You get to locations all the time where you're like, what the? I didn't–like, what is that thing? It's totally blocking the view. Or things change. You know, people knock down bridges and things like that will happen. And so, nothing that's perfect. But I do a lot of research. I read blogs before I go places. Sometimes I'll watch YouTube videos of bloggers, because video gives you a different perspective of seeing, like people will pan locations and things like that. But I honestly like, when I'm actually composing a photo, most of it is really done in the moment. Like, I don't do a ton of pre-planning of 'oh, that's the exact composition I want to get when I get there.' I think that's part of the fun when you actually get there is being able to move around, change your perspective. I often like to try to change my perspective because us, as humans, we see everything at eye level, and so everything seems to be a little more interesting if you can get lower, put up a drone in the sky. I really love that.

Pat Miller: 11:46

Fun. Are you taking drones around with you? That's super cool.

Paige Tingey: 11:48

Yeah, it's awesome.

Pat Miller: 11:49

All right. You said something that I'm connecting, and I hope I'm not making a bad connection. I had the chance to interview a couple of days ago, Kevin Dooley, wildlife photographer. You're talking about chasing the shot, and it reminds me of him talking about chasing the shot with the animals because they're moving around and he doesn't have control over them. You're chasing what the light is doing, what the clouds are doing. Is that a fair comparison?

Paige Tingey: 12:14

I think so. I would say that I have such mad respect for any wildlife photographers, because I think that is another level of difficulty, because like–

Pat Miller: 12:22

It seems like it.

Paige Tingey: 12:23

Yeah. At least my mountain isn't running away from me.

Pat Miller: 12:27

It doesn't have teeth.

Paige Tingey: 12:28

Yeah, exactly. So I think that I have it a little easier than that maybe. But, yeah, the conditions is hard to chase sometimes for sure. Like, it is a lot. The amount of times that I've gone to a place that I've wanted to go to for so long, and I get there and it's just terrible lighting. I'm like, no, it happens all the time. Or even the volcano. So this volcano erupts every 20 minutes. And I wanted so badly to see it erupt. And we get there and they're like, "Yeah, oddly enough, it just hasn't been erupting for days." And literally the exact window that I was in the country, it just wasn't erupting for who knows what reason. And I was so sad. It was erupting days before we got there, and then just nothing. So, it happens.

Pat Miller: 13:09

So frustrating.

Paige Tingey: 13:10

Yeah. You travel across the world, and also you get there and you're like, the one thing I really wanted to happen isn't happening. And it's kind of hard mentally, I'm not gonna lie, because you put so much investment into it. But I think giving up and just being in a bad mood is not gonna help anybody either. And so you just kind of have to work with what you have, stay positive, and then maybe it's a good excuse to go back in the future.

Pat Miller: 13:33

Yeah. You said Guatemala was great.

Paige Tingey: 13:35

It was great.

Pat Miller: 13:35

You get to go back.

Paige Tingey: 13:36

I know.

Pat Miller: 13:37

Okay, so you capture the image. Let's talk about natural light in editing. So you get it home, or you've got it on the computer now. Talk us through how you deal with it once you have it in post.

Paige Tingey: 13:48

Yes. Okay. So I think with natural light, there are kind of three scenarios that that I kind of bucket my photos into three different buckets. So you have maybe golden hour light, where the sun has actually come above, whatever, it's actually risen, and it's kind of casting side light into the frame and stuff like that. It's really warm. It's really beautiful. It's really soft. So that's my favorite type of lighting. But then there's also amazing sunsets and sunrises where the sky is burning. There's no actual sunlight. It's just illuminating the clouds. Or maybe like, a blue hour shot where it's you have some stars and maybe a little moon. And it's very soft, even lighting. And then you have the harsh, harsh lighting where it's midday. There's shadows everywhere. Oh, no, sorry.

Pat Miller: 14:30

Ah, it came unplugged.

Paige Tingey: 14:42

I need to stop talking with my arms. And then maybe that would help. But, yeah, so basically you have those three sort of scenarios. And most people hate one of those, right? Like, most people prefer to kind of shoot in a certain type of light. And I definitely like shooting in the golden hour light. And so when I get home, depending on which of those lighting situations will absolutely influence how I actually edit the photo. If I'm on location, I do try to use the light as part of the composition, especially if there is a strong light source. And so I guess you could say an example of that would be if you are composing using triangles, which is a really common way to balance negative space, positive space, and weight in the photo. Basically, I might use that as actually one of my triangle elements, because even though it's negative space, it's still taking up a lot of weight in the photo. And you still have to consider it an element. Whereas a lot of people forget that they can do that. They think like, "Oh, when I'm composing something, I'm only using physical solid objects or things." Right? And so when I get home, hopefully I've composed that correctly when I was out shooting. And then when I get home, I really try to bring out those elements as I'm editing. So if I have that light source kind of coming in from the left, I'm going to absolutely use sort of a dodging and burning type of effect where I bring that out a little bit, make sure that it really stands out as a strong element in the photograph. Whether I need to add some more warmth into it because it's sunlight and it's warm, whether I need to brighten it even more than it was. I really go crazy on the live stuff. It's fun.

Pat Miller: 16:14

And there's really three stages. It sounds like you've got this intense planning of where you want to go and why and something you touched on. I just want to come back to is the middle stage. You're capturing the image. You talked about being present and being positive. Is that important for you while you're trying to capture the image?

Paige Tingey: 16:30

It is. Because I think if something's not going your way, it's just so easy to just be frustrated. And I actually think one of my favorite photos that I ever took in Washington was we did this like five-hour hike and we got there, and it was like just the worst conditions. It was just like cloudy. There's a beautiful mountain that like, you can barely see it. Anyway, but to this day, it's like one of my favorite pictures because the water was like getting blown everywhere. It's an alpine lake, so it was just really–so the water's so blue. And the water was just getting like blown around. And I got a photo where I was like sitting on a rock and the water's just like raging beneath me and the sky is like super moody and stuff. And I was like, dang, this photo is actually way better than it could have been with my preferred light. You know, it just had a whole different feel to it. So I think, it's so common for people to get to their location and they're like, oh, this isn't what I wanted. This sucks. Like, I don't want to shoot. And then they kind of lose motivation and then they don't really get anything. But yeah, if you just capitalize kind of what is happening around you and really focus on finding a unique composition that works with like the light that you have, then you can come up with really cool stuff, so.

Pat Miller: 17:42

So I had a six-hour layover for this, right? No, we gotta stay in it. You gotta get it. All right, we're almost out of time, but I want to touch on something that may be obvious to you, but I think everyone else feels it's obvious. If we had the opportunity to pick what kind of photography we get to do. Oh, my gosh. Who doesn't want to travel the world and take beautiful pictures? Like, it seems like you're doing one of the aspirational styles that everyone wants to do if they want to do what you're doing, like they're trying to follow your footsteps. What kind of advice or guidance would you have for them if they want to also do landscape and all of these exotic, beautiful places?

Paige Tingey: 18:19

Yeah, I feel like there's so much advice I could try to give, but I'd say like trying to narrow it down. I think that the way that I've done it is to absolutely through like social media. Because I started posting my photographs on social media so long ago. That really just opened up a lot of doors. It's not the only way to do it 100%, but that's just what worked for me. And so people are able to see my portfolio, their brands are able to find me. My work goes really well with like tourism boards and things like that. And I've done that intentionally. You know, I've kind of curated this online portfolio that enables me to continue to travel and stuff like that. But I'd say, I see so many people that they think that they want like travel and this kind of life and they maybe don't like actually love like photography and they don't actually like really love the creative side enough to make all the other hard stuff worth it. Because it's amazing. And I feel like so privileged to be able to travel the way I do. But there are things about it that are really difficult, really tiring. It's a not all easy lifestyle. And so I think if I didn't love creating and I didn't love photography to the point where it's like I'm having the worst travel trip. I'm like, everything has gone wrong. But I get to that viewpoint and I just feel that sense of calm. If that didn't do that for my soul, I don't think I could do this as a lifestyle. And so, yeah, I think some people start trying to post on social media to be like a influencer or something like that, but I don't think they would last. I don't think they would be able to make it through all the hard stuff if it doesn't feed their soul enough.

Pat Miller: 20:07

You gotta work really hard to make it look that easy, right?

Paige Tingey: 20:11

Yeah, I guess.

Pat Miller: 20:12

I would imagine it sounds like from the research to the actual shoot and the travel is no joke. Some of these places are so remote.

Paige Tingey: 20:17

Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. Yeah, it's like weeks of very little sleep sometimes. So, it's hard, but again, I love it so much that it's all worth it, so.

Pat Miller: 20:27

So it's been an inspirational conversation not only for the photography stuff but also the hat tip to what it takes to do what you do. And obviously, the work is amazing. Paige Tingey, thanks for coming on the show. I appreciate it.

Paige Tingey: 20:40

Thanks for having me.

Pat Miller: 20:41

Thanks for tuning in to the Professional Photographer Podcast live from Imaging USA 2025, and a big thanks to Sony for making this look great. Well, as great as you can make this look, but we appreciate you being here. So here's what's next. You need to like and subscribe to this podcast feed because we release this show every week where I get a chance to sit down with the leaders in the industry, and our point of view is to help you build a better photography business. So like and subscribe, and if you want bonus points, I'll email them to you. You'll get bonus points if you leave a comment on this episode. What did they share on the episode that you wanna make sure that you're going to put into your business so you can get further down the road? One other way you can get further down the road, become a member of PPA. If you're watching this and you're not a PPA member, come on bro. You are missing out of all the good stuff that PPA provides. I'm talking about equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a community of photographers around you that are serious about improving their craft. If you wanna know more, go to ppa.com. That's ppa.com. At PPA, you belong here. Thanks again for tuning in to The Professional Photographer Podcast. I'm your host, Pat Miller. We'll see you right here next time. Talk to you soon.