First off, what do I mean by pre-visualisation? Ansel Adams introduced the idea into the photographer's lexicon; a term he used to label the importance of imagining, in your mind's eye, what you want the final print to reveal about a subject. It's essentially knowing what you want the final photo to look like when you press the shutter release - or even earlier back to the time an image was first conceptualised in their mind's eye. Adams even describes it as the most important photographic skill and that which distinguishes the artist from the casual ‘snapper’.
When I look back over the last 2-3 years of my photography (or even longer), the images that really stick out to me, the ones that I'm proudest of and look back on with the greatest fondness are ones that involved recognising the potential of a scene and then planning the conditions under which I could return to get the best possible out of the composition. These have been compositions that I have found under less than optimal conditions, such as the classical shot of the Llanddwyn Lighthouse below, but where I've instinctively realised the weather and light conditions when that composition would sing. Sometimes, as with Llanddwyn, this has been a well known image, othertimes - such as here - it's been an otherwise unknown composition or constellation - such as the bridge at Bad Hindelang. Sure, other people have taken photos of the bridge. A covered bridge like this is never going to be an original subject, but I've yet to see other people with the wide-angled composition of the bend in the river.
But why are the conditions important? A (landscape) photograph lives from two components that come together in a special way; composition (the landscape with all its associated shapes) and conditions (the light, weather and season). When these components come together correctly, the totality becomes greater than the sum of the parts. Anyone can reverse engineer a composition, I’ve even been guilty of this myself in the past when looking at a particular image from ‘Der Heimatfotograf’ in Oberstdorf. But the conditions not only make a photograph special, they can make it unique and set it apart from the rest.
I think the idea for the shoot was born a year ago when we climbed the Wertacher Hörnle for the second time in winter. It's a great winter ascent if the conditions aren't too rough. The path is well trodden and easy to navigate (essential in snowy conditions). It's a bit of a trek; at nearly 700 m it's more than just a walk in the park, requiring about 2½ h to the summit and you need to factor in the snow in the winter.
This is the scene that triggered my synapses at the beginning of last year as we reached the summit of the 1695 m high Hörnle at lunchtime: 'What would it look like up here at sunset?'
These were the conditions that I had in my mind's eye for the shot. Setting off at lunchtime, the forecast promised clear skies until 20.00 - a sunset like in the photo above, taken a little over a week prior near Dießen am Ammersee. I just love these peachy winter sunsets. Even without clouds they're an absolute dream, bringing a bit of warmth to an otherwise cold scene. The pastel tones just bring the image to life. As we set off from the car park at -5°C it was clear that we were going to have at least a little bit of cloud to deal with - not, however, the amount of cloud that we actually had that day (see top).
On a recent episode of the Photography Pubcast with guest visitor Thomas Heaton*, they advocated not going out with an image in mind, rather that you should allow yourself to be surprised by the images, otherwise if you wait for the perfect conditions, you might never go. For myself, I think there's definitely room for both approaches. On the one hand, go, explore, don't be restricted by the conditions and photograph reactively in response to the scene in front of you and don't get weighed down by the expectation of getting the killer shot. 100%! But I would add to that by saying store up your compositions in your database - whether literal or merely cerebral, and when the conditions are right for THAT scene, put everything down and go for it. This is what saw me spontaneously take off on a Friday afternoon last October to revisit a favourite old bridge (see below).
*see from around 55 min
Looking at the shots from my 2025 calendar a full ⅓ of the images were planned shots from places that I had visited before but returned to under better conditions. Another ⅓ were from planned photo trips and the last four were spontaneous shots.
Llanddwyn Lighthouse
A classical example of a shot taken under suboptimal conditions is this one of Llanddwyn Lighthouse on Anglesey, taken in May 2023. Although the seapinks at the bottom of the rocks help the composition, there's no denying that this is a midday landscape photograph. The light is awful and the lack of cloud makes the sky insipid.
Coming back the following evening at sunset though really gives the image a bit of life and character; the soft warm glow on the white building, the colours in the sky and the presence of a few wispy clouds really come together with the composition to create something special.
Nightscapes at Wankerfleck and on the Aggenstein
Some more examples of recognising the potential of a scene are these two astro shots of the Wankerfleck and the Aggenstein, both in the Allgäu mountains of southern Germany not far from my home. Neither scene is particularly compelling on its own, but combine them with the majesty of the Milky Way and these two images come to life.
Similarly, when we visited the Breitenberg for the first time in May 2024, I couldn't help but think that this would be the perfect spot for another night shoot. The light from the tiny village of Grän in the far valley was an added bonus in this case that I hadn't planned for.
The Bridge at Bad Hindelang
Last but not least is a composition that I discovered back in 2020 on the way back to Bad Hindelang after hiking in Hinterstein. You can just about see the covered bridge from the road which runs along the opposite bank behind the trees. As soon as I saw it I thought that this was definitely a scene that I would have to revisit in better conditions. It was a cloudy day with flat light and although the autumn colours were strong, the image lacked the punch that I thought were possible.
I came back a couple of years ago to find the bridge under massive reconstruction with planks of brand new bright orange timber ruining the shot. Returning on a bright autumn day in 2024, I was finally able to catch the autumn colours under much better conditions:
I also tried capturing the bridge in winter, though this shot from January 2021 lacked sufficient snow.
Returning after a heavy snowfall just two weeks later paid off in spades:
Conclusions
I guess at the end of the day, whilst I agree with the chaps of the Photography Pubcast that it's important to remain flexible when taking photos and not to be overly restricted by the image that you intended to get, for now I'm going to stick with what works best for me: going out with a plan and a specific image in my mind. It's what saw me visiting the Seiser Alm in the Dolomites twice within a month in 2023 because the autumn colours weren't fully developed, leading to some fantastic late autumn images.
Here are a couple more bonus images from the winter visit to the Hörnle:
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