• Wed. Jul 30th, 2025

I used to be a bad photographer. In this video I talk about the main reason that my photography has improved. I also travel to the coast to photography the sand dunes and amazing grasses.

Get a free eBook if you sign up for my newsletter – https://www.nigeldanson.com/newsletter-sign-up

Instagram (follow my daily stories) – https://www.instagram.com/nigel.danson/

Useful photography resources:

Where I get my AWESOME MUSIC – https://goo.gl/7LWnFh
FREE 19 page eBOOK on composition – https://sellfy.com/nigeldanson/

All my gear (inc. clothes) is listed here – https://www.nigeldanson.com/nigeldanson-camera-gear

NIKON GEAR (Main STILLS camera)

Current landscape camera – Nikon Z7 – http://geni.us/nikonz7
Awesome telephoto lens – Nikon 70-200m f/2.8 – http://geni.us/nikon70200
Fav lens – Nikon 24-70mm Z f4 – http://geni.us/nikon2470
Great wide angle lens – Nikon 16-35mm f/4 -http://geni.us/MCglWI
Amazing Bokeh – Sigma 24mm f1.4 https://geni.us/Sigma24

FUJI GEAR (Main FILM camera)

Fujifilm X-T3 – http://geni.us/fujifilmxt3
Awesome Bokeh – Fuji XF35mm F2 – http://geni.us/fuji35f2
Sharpest long zoom – Fuji 50-140mm F2.8 https://geni.us/fuji50140
Killer wide angle lens – Fuji 10-24mm F4 – http://geni.us/fuji1024

OTHER PHOTO GEAR

Awesome sensor brush – https://geni.us/brush4sensor
GorillaPod – geni.us/Kb9mV
The great printer I use Canon P1000 – http://geni.us/cIIc
Clever camera strap (peak design) – http://geni.us/PDstrap
Great bag for hiking – Tenba 24L – http://geni.us/orPwh
Great bag for travel (carry on) – Tenba 32L – https://geni.us/tenba32l
Super light Benro Travel Tripod UK – https://geni.us/Benrotravel
A must have for tripod (L bracket) – https://geni.us/myLbracket
Lightweight tripod – Benro Mach3 Carbon Fiber Tripod – https://geni.us/benromach3
Paper I use for all my prints – Fotospeed – https://geni.us/fotospeed Use DANSON10 to get 10% off your paper.
Screw on ND filter – https://geni.us/polarproND

#photography #photographer #seascape

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By Guest Author

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Alias Jim Wirth
4 years ago

Fabulous job with your audio in these opening conditions. Impressive.

Alexander Severinsen
4 years ago

I really loved the first image at 7:00 . I feel that th path has a nice C curve that gets continued by the beach diagonaly towards the human, which again creates scale and mood to the image. The colors are also very very nice 🙂

Bobby Brady
4 years ago

I recommend people take a course on art appreciation and learning all about color. Those two things will greatly improve a photographer. The technical side is actually pretty easy.

I also tell people to not be tempted to overly edit their photos. To many, if not most, photographers feel they need to use Photoshop or every tool in Lightroom, for example, in order to make great photos. In most cases the results are awful and unrealistic.

Julugoma Mogil
4 years ago

I love your videos and I love your british accent 🙂

Tom Mraz
4 years ago

Really appreciate you taking the time to honestly voice your internal thoughts about your work – thoughts no doubt shared by all of us. Great to hear them from you, and broken down. Thanks mate 😊

Reynardo P
4 years ago

There are lots of photographer in instagram that have more followers than nigel
But when i searched them in youtube, Nigel still has more

I guess because Nigel is more education oriented than others, and thats what people search in youtube

Still they all amazing photographers tho

Sue Hutton
4 years ago

sorry, too long winded. Much prefer vloggers to get to the point, so I never watched to the end

Chankii
4 years ago

I started photography few months ago and I feel like my biggest issue is the ability to judge whether a picture is good or not.Therefore I always go on reddit like r/photocritique to ask others to judge my picture and I've learnt alot from there.

Steven Ranger
4 years ago

Great lesson !!

Nebojša Stojanović
4 years ago

Get to the point already!

Broken Toy
4 years ago

Listening to a middled aged man describe something as “ super good “ is painful, love your images though

Don Dons
4 years ago

Nice video but what’s with all the heartbreak music?

Howard Boylan
4 years ago

Unless you are amazing you will never find the “best shot” from a location on the first visit, only the obvious shot. Every other time you visit you will find something new and often better.

Nick Bristol
4 years ago

Excellent thoughts…thanks!

Jamie Scott-Gobin
4 years ago

Formby is near me! lovely beach especially the Anthony Gormley statues

Susan Slattery
4 years ago

This is good. I do feel like I've improved over the last few years specifically because I consider "how could I have made a better image" and I never blame the weather or anything external, I think, "where should I have stood, crouched or climbed" to have made a better composition? What setting SHOULD I have used. I love watching photographers on You Tube. I learn so much. I'm not a landscape photographer, more of a documentary photographer, but I still learn from videos like this, also Simon Baxter here on You Tube. Love watching Jared Polin's image critiques, Fstoppers, SLRLounge etc. So inspiring, to see beyond the surface.

Peter Stockton
4 years ago

i like you nigel, your down to earth and honest about your journey to where you are now. there are a lot of people who watch videos on you tube and think that every pro photographer turns up some place take one shot and its perfect but we all know thats not the case although i think we all get that lucky shot at some point. im glad i subscribed to your channel. i like going to cornwall as there are so many places down there and with the change in seasons and weather every visit is different even high and low tides make a huge difference

Diane- S
4 years ago

Good educational video! What type of lighting do you use? It looks like, particularly in your cabin studio, that you have window light (or maybe it is window light).

Burkhold St. Rudderberg

What the public sees: A GOOD photographer is popular or gets paid for their photography while a BAD photographer is unknown or makes little or no money with photography. We photographers all know that a great photographer may be unknown and even a little light on cash. However, we have also seen popular photographers, especially on Ewe Tube, who are full of hot air with minimal talent ( other than Nigel, of course ).

Mark Goostree
4 years ago

When you started the beach segment the first thing I saw was how all lines pointed to you. It was like you were in the center of a starburst…well, sort of.

heinkhel
4 years ago

The mark of a good chef is that he can make a delicious meal with any ingredients. It's the same with photography. A great photographer can make any environment look beautiful.

Sam and Hannah Bose Photography

Funnily enough, I've been thinking along similar lines just this last week. I made a list of everywhere I have scouted out for (wildlife) photography and made notes on each- to make sure that I wasn't discounting any locations prematurely, and to encourage me to go back to some. Anything to encourage me to be more organised is a good thing! Thanks for sharing this video. Hannah

Rob Stammers
4 years ago

Photography should not be defined as good or bad. Every picture is worthy of being good, because some aspect of existence or emotion is visualised. I don't want to be some arty farty photographer, I don't have a high end expensive camera, I don't have any fancy lenses or expensive photo edit software, what I do have (in my humble opinion) is an eye for composition, and this is more important than trying to define photographers as good or bad.

David Huffman
4 years ago

Hey Nigel! I like the videos when you go in depth describing what works and (even more) what doesn’t work in your compositions. I love seeing the photos and critiquing the photos before I hear your reactions to them and learning more about composition that way.

jorge moro
4 years ago

Log burner. Lol. Wood stove here in the states.

Corey Toms Realtor
4 years ago

Love this simple video. Love the the slight difference of perspectives also vs showing lightening differences. Crazy how much of a difference it makes.

Devonian in Dorset
4 years ago

Good video, I actually really liked the simplicity of the 1st portrait image.

schwunsch
4 years ago

Very inspiring, thanks for sharing these thoughts!

TheLADub FoVi
4 years ago

Great video, and great message (revisiting photos, and revisiting the location!!). I think Ansel was bragging a bit at the end though – don’t you?😉🙊

David Will
4 years ago

An old rule for taking photos like this one is to have a clear subject. A lone tree, weathered and decaying structure, large rock, clump of flowers, person, animal, or any other object. There needs to be something for the viewer's eye to center on. You were trying to do this with the trail, but it does not stand out enough to accomplish the goal. The frustration with shooting landscapes is there's rarely anything in the frame that accomplishes this. The best shot I saw was video of you walking in the tall grass. The simple truth is while a scene can be very pleasing to the naked eye, it just doesn't work when photographed. It's why great landscape photos are so appealing. They are difficult to find, but really stand out when discovered and captured properly.

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