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Ben Strauss
@benstraussphotography
Nature photographer based in the US
Introducing Ben Strauss
Born and raised in the mountains of Colorado, the natural world has always been Ben’s playground – exploring as a kid, backpacking as an adolescent, and photographing since 2016. Although Ben is a full-time aerospace design engineer, his photography career has always gotten proper dedication and passion, allowing him to grow as a visual creator with a distinct, vibrant style.
One of Ben’s goals nowadays is to give back to the photography community and be a source of knowledge for others to learn as well. This resulted in doing free tutorial videos on his YouTube channel, giving seminars on different topics and creating start-to-finish “live” editing tutorials: “With the tutorial videos in The Vault, it is as if you are sitting right there with me; editing a photograph for the very first time together. I purposely do not edit the videos, thereby revealing in all of my editing decision-making, second guesses, and mistakes.”
Also, in this interview, Ben shares some first tips on what is important when editing photos that are colorful and vibrant like his, and on how to grow a business using Instagram. Beyond that, Ben mentions: “…focus on your craft and develop it into the best work you can produce. No amount of hashtag research and feature page pursuits will help grow your page if you don’t master your skills and creativity!”
His home base in Colorado has been the area for Ben to hone his photography skills in the early days. Although not a typical epic scenery, Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins, is therefore a landscape he’s particularly been inspired by and underlines his belief that no longer travels or extraordinary destinations are needed to foster a steep learning curve in that phase of experimentation and exploration of the craft.
Over the years, Ben has collected many photographs and experiences, and he managed to highlight three of them that he is particularly proud of in this interview. The best experiences he’s had are shared with his mother, a photography lover too, and his wife, with whom he goes on long backpacking trips, shooting together the lesser-known areas of the US. “It’s great to have a shared passion and to explore nature together.”
Interview
Welcome Ben! Before you started photographing, you were rather a backpacker and mountain biker that had a somewhat negative perception about landscape photographers, who would be missing out on “real” moments happening in front of them as they are looking through the lens. Nevertheless, here you are, being a professional photographer yourself. Can you tell us a little about how your love for nature, backpacking, and eventually, also landscape photography started?
I was born and raised in the mountains of Colorado. So as far as thinking back to when my love for nature materialized, it’s as long as I can remember! I have found childhood memories of going on hikes almost weekly at a very young age. Who needs a room full of toys when you’ve got the world as your playground, am I right? Before I was born, my parents spent at least a decade backpacking all over the American Southwest, often for weeks and sometimes months at a time. So needless to say, I think I also caught the backpacking bug early on. There is something extremely special about spending days in nature, far away from any roads, trailheads, and crowds, and this is what backpacking is all about.
When it comes to my love (and borderline addiction) to landscape photography, my mother gets all of the credit. She has been an avid photographer long before I was born. At a younger age, I remember having the hardest time slowing down and waiting for her to take photographs along our hikes. All I really wanted to do was go go go! I honestly can’t recall exactly why taking photographs turned from an annoyance to something of interest, but when it happened, it happened hard; I caught the photography bug badly! I do remember it occurring around the time when my mother bought a new Canon camera, and offered up her old Rebel T4i to me in the event I wanted to poke around. It wasn’t long until I had my head buried in my camera’s operational manual, learning every technical detail I could. I was also spending endless amounts of time watching Youtube videos on the art of photo-processing. In a lot of ways, I was self taught.
"Whether some may call it an addiction or a passion, I sure came a long way fast!"
An interesting side note: Many people mistakenly believe I am a professional full-time photographer. At the time of this interview, landscape photography is actually a side occupation of mine. I currently work full-time as an aerospace design engineer, working on various spacecraft mechanisms that will find their way in orbit and on neighboring planets!
On your website, you mentioned that landscape photography is a “grounding mechanism” for you. Can you elaborate on that? How do nature and photography contribute to your wellbeing?
Before my career in photography, I can’t confidently say I have spent hours sitting out in nature, in a single location, watching the setting sun and evolving light change the dynamics of the scene in front of me. While landscape photography most definitely has its chaotic, exciting, and adrenaline pumping moments, more often than not it forces you to slow down and take in experiences around you. I notice details in the surrounding landscape that I’ve never picked up on before. It’s almost as if you become hyper-aware of how the landscapes are constructed, and how everything serves a distinct purpose and is exactly where it’s supposed to be; nature doesn’t make mistakes. This is what I mean when I say photography is a grounding mechanism.
You studied Mechanical Engineering and your idea is to work with renewable energy technologies. How do you manage to combine this interest with your passion for photography? How do you feel they are connected?
I spent a good amount of my time in school with the interest of working on renewable energy technologies. Like many things in life however, it’s difficult to predict where you’ll end up in the future. So while I am still a large environmentalist, I currently work as an aerospace engineer. Nevertheless, the nerdy engineering aspects remain the same across these different fields. Before beginning my engineering degree, I actually completed a degree in music performance. More specifically, a jazz performance degree with the saxophone. Since I can remember, I’ve gravitated pretty equally to the creative and the technical. I believe photography perfectly bridges this gap. On one hand, mastering the operation of your camera and learning the ins and outs of post-processing software is extremely technical. And on the other hand, how you choose to utilize your camera and apply the post-processing techniques is purely creative. This is probably why I am a nut for photography!
"Returning back to the idea of renewable energies, and ultimately bringing more awareness to the importance of the health of our planet, landscape photography can be a double edged sword."
I truly like to believe in the good that sharing images of our planet can do. It instills a sense of awe and inspiration to thousands of people across the globe, further opening their eyes to the beauty mother nature has to offer, and hopefully instilling in them the desire to preserve this wonderful place we call home. However, it also encourages more people to travel to these gorgeous natural gems, and we must take extreme care and precaution so as to not cause additional damage. There is such a thing as loving something to death, so do your part when you visit your natural areas, and leave no trace!
Related to that, what is your ultimate goal with your photography? What brings you fulfillment?
My goals for photography are always changing. So much so, even I have a hard time keeping up with it! It used to be nothing more than a fun hobby I did for just myself, but it has evolved over the years into something bigger than I ever could have imagined. I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me 5 years ago that my work would be viewed by hundreds of thousands, and sometimes even millions of people all over the globe on a frequent basis. My goals have evolved from self development to giving back to the landscape photography community in the form of knowledge. This is the main driver as to why I started making free tutorial videos and uploading them to my youtube channel. I want to help those who are beginning their journey in landscape photography much like others helped me when I started. This then quickly evolved, including giving seminars on various photography related topics, and creating full start-to-finish editing tutorials that are available on my website. I’ve even started a subscription based platform on which I upload the full editing process of all my new images, and I don’t have any plans to stop! In the end, I think what brings me fulfillment in landscape photography is actually quite simple; I love creating beautiful pieces of photography and art.
"Art that accurately represents the way my mind’s eye remembers the experience of being there in person, and then sharing this with people from across the globe who don’t have the opportunity to do so."
Your photos are quite colorful. What is your opinion/vision about using color in photos? How do you make sure the colors are bright, but not overexposed, and catching, but not distracting? What three tips or things to consider would you give someone who’s struggling to incorporate color in their own photos?
As you’ve pointed out, I love vibrant colors in my photographs! It’s such a solid way to tell a story in an image, and to provide contrast and separation between all of the elements in a given composition / landscape. Now with that said, adjusting and enhancing colors can be a tricky and dangerous game! There is a fine line between an image with too much saturation and tasteful but creative amount. Even I get a bit disgusted at how much I pushed the colors in some of my older images haha.
It’s all about making small adjustments at a time. Don’t add too much color in any one step or layer. Take your time in delicately and subtly bringing the colors out in your image. The next part is key. Take a break from editing! Walk away from your computer and do something else for 10 minutes, that’s all it takes. This allows your eyes and brain to reset. When you stare at your photograph for hours on end, your brain will essentially adjust to the colors, temperature, and tint of your image, rendering you blind to how it looks to a fresh pair of eyes (your viewers). Taking that 10 minute break, you’ll immediately realize if you’ve pushed the colors too far the first second you look at your image again.
In the captions of your photos, you share on Instagram, you always share the camera settings of the photo. This could somehow be a way to help your community learn and develop their own photography. Could you share four other strategies that you figured contributed significantly to your growth, to ultimately help our readers learn?
You are exactly correct on the reason behind sharing my camera technique. I came across this idea back when I was a fairly undiscovered account. I was reading an article on how to achieve a higher “conversion ratio”, meaning out of all the people that visit your page, a larger amount hits that follow button. Giving out free information such as a YouTube channel link with tutorial videos, or in this case the camera and photo details, is a way to offer value to those who follow you beyond just your photography. I’ve actually given a number of presentations on how to grow your business using instagram, and the key takeaways are as follows:
(1) study the types of hashtags and accounts bigger photography pages are tagging.There is no shame in stealing the hashtags used by large accounts. Please feel free to go through all my photographs and copy and paste the hashtags I use for your own posts!
(2) Seek out feature pages in your genre of photography. Some great ones to start with for landscape photography include Earthpix, ArtofVisuals, earthfocus, earthofficial, Nature_perfection, Nature, Nakedplanet, Nowdiscovering, earthescope, and the list goes on and on. It’s also a great idea to tag pages that feature work of a specific location. For example, any shot I take in Iceland I search for pages that feature Iceland photography.
(3) In the end however, focus on your craft and developing it into the best work you can produce. If you make amazing work, the people will follow. No amount of hashtag research and feature page pursuits will help grow your page if you don’t master your skills and creativity!
You traveled to different places, but Colorado dominates your Instagram feed. We are curious to know, among all the places you have visited until now, could you name three landscapes that really sparked your creativity and inspired you? Why do you think that was?
Colorado is my home base! So a majority of my photographs are naturally from this gorgeous state. I’m going to give a fairly cliche answer for the first landscape, but it has to be Iceland. There is just no other place like it on earth. This island has such a wide variety of different landscapes, from moss-covered black volcanic rock to massive glaciers. During my 10 day trip last August, it felt impossible to take a bad photograph. Some of my favorite landscapes in Iceland made you feel like you were dropped straight into a Tolkien novel! My photographic style has always been geared towards the cinematic look, so it’s a no brainer why Iceland’s scenery inspired the heck out of me.
My second landscape would have to be the epic and massiv views from atop the Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. There is just so much depth, atmosphere, and texture in the canyons seen below. I’ve even done a 5-day backpacking trip with my best friend and beautiful wife Abby down in those canyon walls! One of my favorite ways to compose a photograph is using a person as scale in front of a massive scene. This location lends itself so well to this, and one of my favorite images produced from this area depicts Abby standing atop a sheer vertical cliff overlooking the Green River thousands of feet down.
Finally, the third landscape isn’t an obvious one, as it’s not your typical epic scenery. Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins, Colorado, is where I honed my photography skills. It’s a massive long man-made lake that sits right along the foothills of Northern Colorado. A huge amount of my experimentation and development as a photographer happened over the 100+ times I shot this area. It was only a 15 minute drive from my house back then, so I would keep my eye on the weather, and head out every time the sunset looked like it might be a banger. You don’t always need epic magazine cover landscapes to learn and grow as a photographer. Explore your local areas, and you might be very surprised what inspires you.
I am sure that you have many favorite photos. Or probably even all of them have a special meaning to you 🙂 But can you share with us three images you are really proud of? What is the background story of these photos and what makes you feel proud of these ones in particular?
1) “The Towers of the Virgin”
This one was actually one of my most recent images, so it’s awesome that I am still capable of outdoing my previous work haha! I shot this exact location a few years prior, but didn’t quite stumble upon as strong of a composition as I did this time around. The first thing that really makes this image something special is the foreground. I had found a perfectly oriented dead pinion pine with stunning detail and textures in the wood, pointing straight towards the Towers of the Virgin. For a while there, the canyon walls were not catching any light at the time of sunrise; the sun must have been blocked by a bank of clouds out East. However, after about 10-15 minutes the light all of a sudden materialized, illuminating the Towers with a beautiful copper-colored glow. Not only that, but a full moon was setting as the sun was rising! What makes this one of my favorites is despite having a clear sky, the image was equally impactful. This is proof that clear sky images can be just as powerful and stunning.
2) “The Observer”
This is the image I was describing when sharing my top three favorite landscapes. I love using a single person to make obvious the massive scale of some scenes, and this is an example of that. The individual in this image is none other than my best friend and beautiful wife Abby! Before you get too concerned about how close she is to the 5000 ft drop-off, let me relieve you by saying she wasn’t as close as it seems. By shooting from the right angle, and using a larger focal length to compress the scene, I was able to give the illusion she was standing right on the edge. I don’t think I have another image in my gallery quite as powerful as this one. This is epicness at its max.
3) “The Perfect Sunrise”
As the title suggests, this was by far the best sunrise I have been lucky enough to witness. The conditions were absolutely ideal: still glassy waters, early morning steam rising off the surface, a gorgeous mountain peak, and jaw-dropping clouds that caught more color than I’ve seen in a long time! This photograph was taken while on my most recent trip to Crested Butte during the peak wildflower season. I had visited this spot about three sunrises over the course of that week, all of which didn’t pan out. The night before this final attempt, I remember making a joke to Abby how tomorrow will be perfect, including details like steam on the water and still reflections of the mountain. Lone behold, I got exactly what I was after!
Your partner and your mom are both travel lovers and photographers, too. You also go on yearly trips with your mom, which we think is something very special and beautiful. How does it fulfill you differently, when going on an adventure with them (or one of them) instead of alone? And what are some of your dreams for the future in terms of adventures and photography?
Partaking in the journey of landscape photography is always infinitely better with either one of those two. It’s great to have a shared passion and to explore nature together. The trips with my mother have turned into a bit of a yearly tradition. It is such a special experience and will result in lifelong memories with her. Some of my best photographs are a result of our lengthy and open-ended road trips across the great American Southwest. Now these trips are a bit different than the ones I take with my wife Abby. Our trips are more about roughing it in nature on long backpacking trips. We get to visit areas where vehicles cannot, and find ourselves on some awesome adventures. It’s always exciting photographing the lesser known areas of our beautiful states. Looking towards the future, I am eager to get some more international travel under my belt. There are so many countries I want to visit, including Norway, Scotland, Chile, Peru, and China to name a few. I want to continue pushing the limits of my craft, and will probably never be satisfied with my current level. With the explosion of the NFT space and recent exposure to tons of amazing digital art and 3D renderings, I have been getting more and more interested in the world of Dreamscapes. Maybe one day I’ll start playing around with creating fantasy landscapes on the side! For now, I am having a blast traveling, exploring, and photographing the amazing moments Mother Nature has to offer.
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