Zoe Reardon, an undergraduate student studying language and business at Southern Methodist University, enjoys a variety of hobbies outside of her academic responsibilities. The daughter of an artist, Zoe Reardon expresses her creativity as an amateur photographer who often captures landscapes of places she visits during trips.

While anyone can take pictures of landscapes, it requires special attention to detail to capture the appearance and feel of the landscape in a photograph. Following are several things to remember when taking landscape photos:

1. Plan the excursion - To get some of the best landscape photos, photographers must plan their excursions ahead of time. This involves choosing a specific location and time of day that will yield the best results. Planning helps photographers maximize their time without rushing to get a specific shot.

2. Keep everything in focus - While there are exceptions to this rule, keeping the different elements of a landscape photograph in focus helps create depth in the image. Photographers can accomplish this universal clarity by using a mid-range aperture on their camera that is about two to three f-stops higher than the lowest option.

3. Use the rule of thirds - According to this guideline, photographs are divided into nine squares by placing two horizontal and two vertical lines over the picture. To improve interest in a picture, subjects or focal points fall either on or near these lines.

4. Bring a tripod - Regardless of the lighting, tripods are an essential part of any landscape photograph. This is because tripods eliminate the need to hold the camera steady. As a result, image noise and blurred pictures from camera shake are dramatically reduced.