I Made a Mistake & Now I Have One of my BEST Images

[@thomasphillips5850]

Thanks for a great video Thomas, love the lily pads. Just proves the old adage less is more. Thanks again..

[@Vsmehdi]

I've been following you for the last five years and each time you post a video I save a bit of special time to watch it. I live in iran and right now the government is killing people in the streets. Your video was a brief scape from all the heartbreaking news. Thank you Thomas.

[@judilecompte9377]

Thomas, I’d love for you to do a video on how you focus. It sounds like you have a process, and it would great info for you to share! Thanks for another great video!

[@laurabronson3717]

Watching your videos is a zen moment for me. An opportunity to slow down and appreciate this wonderful world we live in. Thanks for all you do.

[@howardtowler6146]

Glad to see you going out taking photos. Last two weeks I had time to go to take photos and it's absolutely chucked it down. So it's a bit much you rubbing my face in it to see you going out and enjoying your self. But as I can't go out at least I can watch your great videos while I drink a nice hot coffee.

[@hjones451]

You are so lucky to be out in these landscapes on your own - The WORST scenerio is when you have someone tagging along who hates and just doesn't understand photography.

[@Mcguppy]

Just made the same mistake this morning. Lined up my composition, took the shot, checked exposure and moved on. And it was soft , didn’t check the focus…. Wonderful video again.

[@antonoat]

Proof that with experience comes the ability to see! I’ve felt that for at least twenty years wide angle lenses are actually rarely the best choice for landscapes! Great work Tom👏👍😀

[@Meraxes6]

Dude the mistakes are where the magic happens. I discovered my style as an artist from “mistakes” (happy accidents). Learned so many new techniques this way. Of course most mistakes are just that, but those few happy accidents make it so worth it

[@ThomasHeatonPhoto]

Couldn't agree more. What's that saying: The more we try, the luckier we get? yeah, I've had a few happy accidents in my time 👍

[@michaelnothumjr.1660]

I love your explaining the process of how you choose to compose the image. To me, that musing is what makes each image so personal. And, I love how personal and open you are on film and how totally terrified you are of a complete stranger passing by 😅. I can totally relate.

[@Thetravelphotocoach]

Wow love the 4 lily pads, seeing the viscosity of the water where the lily pads are sat and the smoothness of the water

[@corkyman24]

Seeing the water tension around the liliypads is so cool

[@SummersSnaps]

Do take care Thomas. I shoot waterfalls and streams in the Blue Mountains Australia and once joined the creek with camera in hand from simply slipping on a completely large flat piece of rock quite far from the river. There must have been a moss of some kind that was like black ice, I tried to get back up from the spot I slipped upon but no joy and I steadily but slowly started to slide towards the river and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. I had to hold the camera up and accept the fate that I was joining the cascades. Fortunately there were no major waterfalls and after a few meters down the creek I could pull myself out. But the lesson here is sometimes we think where we are is safe spot but in reality it might not be at all. It's not always about where you currently are situated but where you currently COULD become situated should unforeseen events unfold. Use rope, anchor yourself to a tree or something when near cliff edges and dangerous spots, it will only increase your respect for your fellow viewers. You simply can never be too careful or safe, over engineering is best practice. Stay safe.

[@martyd5819]

As one of the long time viewers I just wanted to say..... stunning!

[@johnwesley4713]

The water tension around the lily pads looked amazing, really nice image.

[@altrujillo3566]

Always enjoy the unique style of your videos.

[@datbarricade9995]

I saw the first image you names "House in the hills" but I immediately thought of "Tucked in" like in under a blanket. Looks so calm and cozy.

[@cliftonwhittaker260]

Another fine trip afield with the camera, Thomas. My favorite was the serendipity shot of the lily pads. :)

[@siddheshgawde7949]

Even the first image looks like a painting ❤️

[@kumarparichay]

"Creative story telling that has an impact", that's what this is!! 👏👏

[@burrdaddy]

That first shot - what a stunning location!

[@williamlong63]

Love the explanations about what goes on in your head before pressing the shutter. Thank you Tom.

[@doncason6108]

You continue to deliver even on difficult days. Enjoyed!!! Being a professional photographer for 40 years you always have to deliver.

[@LandscapePhotography]

the results are very stunning bro.. the photos are so cool, success always bro📸📸📸

[@tonymckeage1028]

2:44 Amazing composition just about every line in the image goes to the house! 5:59 Yes I agree you can return to this anytime! 7:59 the Larches are beautiful, personally I don't mind the boulders, I like the texture contrast between the harsh rocks and the sort Larches 12:03 I love it? simple and close is best! 14:36 Yes, I think this one is the best of the Video, simplicity, closeness and movement! WOW!

[@ThomasHeatonPhoto]

Thanks for all the feedback, Tony. Much appreciated.

[@GillesMartin151175]

The “blurred “ water lily are superb!

[@andrewscott743]

Good to see you out again working your photography Superpowers! Thanks for always making it fun and educational!!

[@philbraithwaite1316]

I was at work late this afternoon and I suddenly realised it is Wednesday and there’ll be a Thomas Heaton video ready to watch. My mood was lifted! As usual I can relate as I’ve got one of those shots (unintentionally camera movement) that looks like a painting. A masterpiece lol

[@foundlightprints]

Thomas - Saw the last two photos on Vero - OUTSTANDING!

[@shootmalones]

I bet this guys photo portfolio is amazing. great work as always.

[@marcusoutdoors4999]

Nice to see you found the spot on Loweswater with the lilies. Personally I go there at dawn when it’s frosty. Anyway I’m the fool in the black Volvo that said hello.

[@elusivelens1744]

Surprised there was no reply.

[@MakotoHawkins]

"Original Gangster", which is what you are, Thomas! You are an OG of landscape photography vlogging and we love ya for it. 😁

[@louisburley1597]

This is the only channel I that I really love the long formats. I look forward to these! I want to buy a 10 Stop ND filter for times similar to the end of the video. No light? Let's just blur the clouds with a 5 minute exposure and make it black and white.

[@leod1671]

You showed us that there is always hope to be able to get a wonderful shot. Thank you!

[@christinacooperfilm]

I love the lily pads! Both photos were beautiful!

[@andyblessett1282]

A touch of the Bob Ross's "happy accidents" there.... great shot of the lily pads.

[@allansisson355]

Fantastic video, you made another flawless one.

[@aquietreality]

“No one will hear me scream.” that took a dark turn! 😅 Love your videos Thomas!

[@phot183]

Great work again Thomas, sometimes we can make happy mistakes!! 👍

[@Trblmkr07]

I gotta tell ya Thomas, every time you get close to an edge, I just get a knot in my stomach for your safety. PLEASE please be careful on those edges!!! I wonder what the trees and the quarry would look like in Infrared ?? Great Video as usual.

[@ThomasHeatonPhoto]

I had the same feeling about IR in that quarry. When I return, I'll take my camera and see how it looks.

[@Shuvransu_T]

Amazing images, as always. At 13:41, there could have been a very beautiful image of the dead silver tree over the lush green trees and mountains in the background. Maybe you can visit that place again, and try to take the image

[@luisfigueroa3300]

I liked the way you display your pictures at the end. Seeing the completed photo twice reaffirmed what I had seen the first time. Thank you for doing that. Keep up the great work!😊

[@creeks-and-peaks]

Beautiful video--I love it when you go out for a misty morning woodland shoot. English woods have such a lovely mysticism about them it seems. Cheers from USA.

[@amalieemmynoether992]

My heart stopped when you tripped backwards 😬 I love both lily shots❤️📷

[@thomaschamberlin2485]

These videos remind how we all see differently. In the first scene I was jumping up and down pointing at the rock walls and silver birches above them. But you see rock walls every day. It is quite fun to see the wide angle video shot and then what you came away with versus what I saw. I do tend to extract vignettes more than landscape photographers on You Tube. My 70-200mm is on the tripod as much as the 24-70mm is.

[@ThibaultMaccotta]

Hi Thomas ! Since I follow your channel, you convinced me to go visit the Lake district. And I just did it last week ! I spent 4 days hiking alone and it was "absolutely stunning ! 😄 So thank you, and I will go back for sure !

[@Rob.1340]

Thank you. All the best. 👍📷😎

[@g__rtz]

The ‘opportunistic image grabbing’ you mentioned at the start is what I used to call “harvesting photos”.

[@phawkinsphoto]

Thomas, Thanks for another great video! The Lilly pad shots reminded me of some images I made last year. I have been shooting B&W Infrared since the late 1970s as a teenager. In recent times I have started to look at subjects for IR that I never used to, and I did a whole bunch of Lilly pads in IR and was blown away with the results. I was drawn to a couple of the IR images you made on cloudy days, which made me rethink IR subjects. As for making mistakes, that is how we learn and move forward. Peter

[@bensmith612]

love your video lad keep up the good work

[@danncorbit3623]

Liked the images, especially the two lily pad shots. But you can't fool me. That second one was definitely a Van Gogh. ;-)

[@tomjohnson3728]

Take an improve class if you have adult night school or acting classes nearby. Part of the problem is you need to not care who's there and focus on what you are doing. But better off enjoy entertaining someone. I was told in acting school that even if you are looking at a lens, picture someone to talk to through the camera! Cheers and GREAT PHOTOS!!!

[@mstraitefamily]

Thank you so much for sharing your mistakes as well as your victories. Makes the rest of us feel human. Thats a good thing. :)

[@stuartschaffner9744]

I love the way you are continuing to grow artistically, even after all these years. You are always a source of inspiration to me. Let me make a few suggestions, more from physics than photography. First, at least try to use a light hood on your lens. I know that you got used to having lots of big filters on the front of the lens, but now there's no excuse for leaving the hood off. Flare, not the smears of light from the sun but the overall leakage of unfocused light into the shadows, ruins contrast and texture. In this video the problem is not the sunlight, but the big areas of bright sky only a few degrees of angle above your scenes. I still think that primes have less flare than most zooms, although I admit that the latest zooms on the market might have narrowed this gap. At least with a prime the lens hood can be optimized for the focal length. Your slow shutter speed picture of the lily pads was genius. Perhaps you can try some different shutter speeds to see what happens. A bright but gray sky does not generate light that is "flat as a pancake" unless you are taking grand landscapes. You just have to look for the contrast. Your shoreline discussions at about 17:50 show the edge of a wooded area over your left shoulder. There's a huge amount of contrast there. I'm not saying there were any good photos in that exact patch, but the light was gorgeous. As others have mentioned, there's a lot of light from the sky on the larches in the old quarry. I would claim that in many cases this light is reflecting off the blue-gray rocks, sort of like an array of giant reflectors. Since that light is much bluer than the light from the sky, this might be the source of the play between green and blue that you mentioned. Anyway, thanks. You are a true master of your art medium.

[@helmutNO]

Great video, as always! I just love your chill vibe :)

[@CalebWeston_dubland]

Love that lily pad photo the surface tension on the water really makes it pop. I’ll be curious to see how that upside-down tree looks with some fall color. Keep up the the good work!

[@brianbeattyphotography]

What a beautiful view right off the bat! Stunning. And funny enough, all of my best selling prints are what I initially considered "mistakes" in the field. Thankfully I'm too lazy to delete until I get them loaded up at home and saw the potential. Beautiful images!

[@ConstantinSPurcea]

Why would you ever delete anything in the field?! Nonono, never do that! I’ve done that once also because I had no more space on the card and I ended up corrupting the card by writing over deleted data and I messed up everything on the card. Since then, the delete button on my camera is only ever used as focus peaking on and off

[@hfranke07]

Super video. Thanks.... and Ian Post music is just right.

[@williampetersen2899]

I love all your videos Thomas but this one was exceptional. It's going right to my favorites list. Love your photos, love your honesty, love your humor and really love the attack of self-consciousness you get when "caught" talking to a video camera! I would have the same reaction yet if I was that jogger in a blue shirt I would think "Cool, that guy's making a video" and not give it another thought.

[@terrylstarks]

Thomas, the word that leaps to my mind is “ Vicariously”!!!! Next is well done!!!

[@baharam98]

I would pay top $$$ to tag along on your journey and learn one on one! Simply love your work. THANK YOU!

[@karthikkosm]

The pedestal one was wonderfully funny 😄

[@scotty4418]

nice selection of images Thomas and nice to see the transition between seasons taking place. Look forward to see your return visit to the inverted tree when the conditions are right for you

[@stevefrith7283]

Stayed in a cottage not too far from Lowestwater. A short walk found us next to this amazing body of water. I'm no landscape photographer but was happy to visit there on numerous occasions. The light varied from visit to visit and I was happy with some of the images I came away with.

[@rash0r255]

Ive had problems with the Z7ii autofocus too. You can focus while using the + and - buttons to zoom in to the exact spot you want to make it much more reliable.

[@ronnyheinemann1283]

Loved this vlog great pictures,humor and honesty well done 👌👌

[@Pvince73]

Hi Thomas, i ve been folowing your chanel for a couple of years now. I started when i found your videos mentioning the canon 5d4. Been using this cam eversince and very happy with it, although you have upgraded sincethen. It always makes me smile when artists say gear doesnt matter 😉 Anyway, this week my girlfriend is away and i don’t need to watch my favorite youtube channels on the iphone; so i cast your latest video on the livibg room home cinema with a big oled tv screen and… it looks so beautiful! What you are saying is intetesting as usual but i realise the work you put in the production of your videos! The image and the sound are superbe! Many more tx for your wiork!

[@AndrewMacdonaldPhotography]

Strange, I usually fond that weather app really reliable for shooting. Still got some shots none the less. A nice honest video !

[@lostinthewoodsproductions]

Great video! (as usual). As a photographer some of my best photos have been happy "mistakes"

[@calieeldalie2547]

Nice mistake indeed! My favorite is however the very first one photo, with the stone wall ondulating (not sure it's a word..) and wrapping the forest. I'm maybe also biased because I love fog. I can't wait to see a nice crisp and clear photo of the upside down tree. And on this one, maybe a bit of fog in between the cliff+ tree and the trees in the first background to provide more separation between the star of the photo and the overall image. Thanks again for sharing all this!

[@nevvanclarke9225]

It’s funny Thomas because I teach photography locally to community members and one of the things I always say is take at least three shots of the same scene especially when you’re a beginner but I do like the analogy of learning from mistakes as well and I say in photography there are actually no mistakes they’re just learning opportunities if we can change our mindset to the art of creation and that we learn more from our steaks than we ever do from what we do well when we take a great image we tend to just look at it and feel good but we don’t analyse it for the critical aspects. But when we take a photo badly we will sit there and analyse it because we want it to be better.

[@DrAgan_tortojed]

The biggest omission is that you forgot to make a double exposure/bracketing the second photo with floating leaves - you would've had interesting blurry-sharp leaves on a troubled water.

[@chriss2761]

That lily pad image is stunning 👌

[@CookedLight]

It was really cool getting a meniscus curve on the lilly pads, even the wavy ones 👍🏻 Mr Gray will be pleased that you still like the (un)intentional cm 😅

[@MHLandscape]

Really enjoyable video as always, cracking locations, that quarry was spectacular! Just love the images at the end of the lily pads, really struggle with those intimate scenes.

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

Not a bad day! However, my favorite is the shot of the lily pads in calm water.

[@leehawkinslee]

@14:47 A wild Pac Man and his cousins, great photo.

[@rafiqmalik2818]

This was funny and amazing 😂❤❤❤ we love you thomas

[@victormultanen1981]

I like how this photoshoot went.

[@romiemiller7876]

I like th one with the downside up tree even if it is soft. Maybe it'd work on textured paper like Hahnemuhle's William Turner (?). Also, Nikon's 24-120mm f.4 is my go to lens. It's better than I thought it would be.

[@TypicalBenYT]

" I need to be careful here" - immedately leans over the edge with the video camera 😂

[@arnemacht...]

Great video and thanks for showing your process. Mistakes happen and sometimes dicovering new pathways through mistakes is an exciting adventure in itself. Weather can be the bane and the lucky star of every outdoor photographer. I feel your enthusiasm facing the unpredictable weather.

[@rajeevatsamuelsohn]

i like! being OG :D, thanks you Lord Heaton

[@studiokaufman]

Thank you Thomas, …there are, may I offer, a couple of points-of view: your photographs, and also, of course, your process--aka, your channel. I learn something from both; thank you.

[@ThePurpleHarpoon]

That dead tree in the background at 13:06 was what I'd have been exploring. It looked like it was crying out to be photographed. Alas, it's cry was not loud enough.

[@giuseppecapilli1954]

At 13:10 you missed the beautiful dead tree behind you, but you can still get it next time. Good job!

[@reiddickson]

"Sit back, and enjoy today's video" -- I am, indeed, fully reclined. Wow, you got some nice weather that morning.

[@andysuzierawlins5462]

Cool shots Thomas

[@whitefootimages]

like the quarry and trees shot

[@hotshotbv]

Hi Tom, can you add a link for the windshield suction cup you have,as i need one for my camera please,thank you

[@sergueilarionov632]

Good one. Thank you. Something new there ( I mean video).big fan

[@phynx2006]

The first image and the last image 👍👍

[@idophotography4611]

Lets gooooo love you Thomas ❤️

[@lphilpot01]

Wow... your "end up" drives look better than mine! LOL Very nice and a great video / story.

[@chriskoran836]

I think your last image, slow shutter of the lily pads, just seems a little too busy for me to feel at peace while viewing it. Reminds me of some of the older glass with such sharp and gnarly bokeh that it makes your head hurt a little. For me the best was the one looking down into the quarry from above. But that tree hanging off the edge has great potential too. It did seem to have lots of green foliage - so it either fell recently or it is doing fine. If then latter then I'm hoping you get a second chance soon when the colors are changing. Combine that with a chance glow of light on it and you'll have a beautiful shot. Plus I'm certain you'll not only nail focus on it but also take more than one click! Great work as always, sir.

[@Black3ternity]

Bob Ross always said "happy little accidents". And I try to stick to it. I am not the kind of person to "run and gun" everything and come back with 5.000 shots after a day. But when opportunity lends itself, I take shots that others would not and tinker around, test things and maybe keep myself busy while waiting for my "real" shot or better conditions. Often times it's these kinds of images that you will keep in mind because "you learnt to do otherwise" and "the rules say it should be different". I think in one of your old videos you said you need to know when to break the rules but you need to understand them. And this is one of these examples. Regardless of that: I appreciate the content and I am always inspired to head out and shoot stuff.

[@kristeencochran4753]

Love the lilies!

[@markattardo]

I beg to differ regarding the dangling tree comp. At some point, it is in fact going to go somewhere😂 Interesting photos this week. I like the moving lily pads.

[@Landscapephotographyvlog]

Your video so attractive and instructive, I think it will be so useful and full of experience for landscape photographers and nature lovers. I am landscape photographer too i worked 18 years of my life photographing trees, which I called it "The Passion Of Trees". I exactly understand what you feel in your video, Thank you Ali

[@gordonbrunner9429]

..lily pad photos...both fantastic, love the second