On May 21st, Allen’s Camera welcomed photographers for Enhance Your View: Landscape Photography Concepts, a class focused on helping photographers strengthen their landscape photography skills and gain a deeper understanding of the tools and techniques that bring outdoor scenes to life.
Led by Fujifilm Field Product Technical Expert Carson Marks Gordon, the presentation combined creative insight, camera techniques, and gear education designed to help photographers of all experience levels improve their landscape photography.
Learning Landscape Photography Fundamentals
Carson Marks Gordon—an award-winning photographer and cinematographer with more than 15 years of professional experience—guided attendees through important landscape photography concepts including composition, depth of field, focal length selection, exposure settings, and techniques for building stronger images. Throughout the session, Carson emphasized how thoughtful camera settings, lens selection, and composition choices can transform an ordinary scene into a compelling photograph.
Attendees explored key concepts including:
-
Compositional Depth: Working with foreground, middle ground, and background elements.
-
Visual Drivers: Utilizing leading lines, reflections, and framing techniques.
-
Perspective & Light: How changing perspective, lighting conditions, weather, and time of day can completely transform a final image.
Fujifilm Lens Options for Landscape Photography
A major focus of the evening centered around Fujifilm gear and how different lenses can help photographers achieve specific creative goals outdoors.
Wide-Angle & Prime Options
-
FUJINON XF 14mm F2.8 R: Highlighted as an excellent ultra-wide prime lens for expansive landscapes. Its wide field of view and minimal distortion make it ideal for capturing sweeping vistas, dramatic foreground elements, and larger scenes while maintaining sharpness throughout the image. Carson also noted its strength for low-light and astrophotography work.
-
FUJINON XF 16mm F1.4 R WR: Offers photographers a fast aperture and weather-resistant design, making it particularly useful for outdoor photography in changing conditions. Its bright aperture also makes it a strong option for low-light landscapes and night sky photography.
-
FUJINON XF 10-24mm F4 R OIS WR: Provides wide-angle zoom capability along with optical image stabilization. Carson discussed how zoom versatility allows photographers to quickly adapt compositions without changing lenses, making it an excellent travel and landscape option.
Telephoto Lenses for Compression & Detail
The evening also emphasized that landscape photography extends beyond wide-angle lenses:
-
FUJINON XF 70-300mm F4-5.6 R LM OIS WR: Demonstrates how telephoto lenses can isolate distant details and compress perspective, helping photographers create dramatic mountain layers, tighter compositions, and unique landscape images that go beyond traditional wide views.
-
FUJINON XF 50-140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR: A versatile telephoto zoom combining fast aperture performance with image stabilization. While often favored for portraits and sports photography, Carson demonstrated how it can also create compelling landscape imagery by emphasizing distant details and creating strong visual compression within a scene.
Allen's Camera has a wide selction of Used Lenses ideal for landscape photogrpahy.
Essential Gear Beyond the Camera
Beyond camera bodies and lenses, Carson covered important accessories that can elevate landscape photography:
-
Tripods: Maintain stability during longer exposures and low-light shooting.
-
Shutter Releases: Wired and wireless releases minimize vibration for sharper images.
-
Filters: Neutral density (ND) and graduated neutral density (GND) filters provide greater control over bright conditions, balancing skies with darker foreground elements and enabling creative long exposure effects like smooth water and cloud movement.
Preparation was another major takeaway from the evening. Carrying extra batteries, formatted memory cards, and comfortable camera bags—along with basic field readiness like staying hydrated—allows photographers to stay focused on creating images instead of managing avoidable problems in the field.
Taking the Next Step Outdoors
Attendees left with practical techniques they can immediately apply whether photographing mountains, waterfalls, coastlines, cityscapes, or local parks close to home.
Thank you to Carson Marks Gordon and Fujifilm for sharing their expertise with the Allen’s Camera community. We hope attendees left inspired to head outdoors, experiment with new techniques, and put what they learned into practice on their next adventure.
