Proper EXPOSURE is a Critical Element

It is this "averaging out" process that makes it somewhat tricky to correctly exposure landscape photography pictures. Camera manufacturers have developed ingenious metering systems to try to solve this situation. Check your camera. You may find that there is a choice between center weighting, spot metering or weighted average. Unfortunately, none of the three metering approaches can guarantee a perfect result every time. (By the way, if there is a mountain icon on your camera, that does not mean landscape photography. Typically it means pictures where the focus is set for infinity since the subject is at a great distance from you.) We all get lulled into the temptation of thinking that your camera knows what it's doing. And, most of the time it does. The operative word here is most.