Rouse the landscape maestro

I'm hopeful that this will provide a little inspiration to budding landscape photographers everywhere this week...

I claim be many things, including an optimist ( a necessity as a west ham fan), but I have never in my life claimed to be any kind of landscape photographer. The thought of standing for hours, camera on tripod, for a cloud to move into the correct position is like a horror story to me. And there's the kit. I mean a Tilt and Shift lens, focal planes, working to get two rocks in focus 5 miles apart - it's all beyond me. I used a tilt and shift lens twice, I bought it just because I thought I needed it and it's sat on the shelf every since. I understand that my professional landscape colleagues see things that I don't, and can capture them in a way I can never dream of...except when it comes to being on a ship. There, I can claim some kind of landscape skill.

Despite the fact that I'm the frontman for the awesome Flexshooter head, I am really a hand-holding specialist. That's why on a ship, where the goalposts are moving every few seconds, I can see and take landscapes that work. I don't have the time that shooting on land gives, the picture is often gone in seconds. That's why over the years I have developed a good collection of commercial landscapes of Svalbard that sell. I've developed a vision for them that incorporates a lot of the usual rules and allows me to work quickly and efficiently. And that's the point really, I'm not a traditional landscape photographer and I've heard that a few of the established "names" look down on my work as it is hand-held. Well to be honest that's fine they can be snobby, I'm a pro and my landscapes are good enough to make money, for me that is what counts.

So here's a few images from my recent Svalbard trip, all shot on Olympus wide angles with the E-M1X body and processed using Photoshop and Topaz software, hope you like...

There you go, all hand-held generally in awful light. I am actually very pleased with them. As I mentioned in the previous BLOG I am getting used to processing the images from the M43 sensor. Yes they don't have the dynamic range of a full frame and yes you have to work with them but I'm happy doing that as I am getting great results from the system. Seeing through an EVF really helps my creativity, both the monochromes above were shot in monochrome mode in camera as that is how I want to produce my images.

The moral here for everyone is to ignore the nay sayers who just say all the time that you can't do something. Put your mind to it and do it in your own vision and style and you certainly can. Don't talk about it on forums just go do it!!!

Good cause Shout Out

This weeks's shout out is on the excellent Back from the Brink, who aim to save from extinction 20 of the UK's most endangered animals, plants and Fungi. This ambitious program will also benefit more than 200 at-risk species, carried out by 19 projects at more than 40 sites across England. Anyway it's awesome and the National Lottery Awards have shortlisted them in the heritage category of their 25th birthday awards. They DESPERATELY need your vote so please use the link below to support them. Thanks.

Vote here

And Finally

The Creating Atmospheric Images workshop has been a great success and we still have places. We are just talking to a venue for a more northern workshop location and hopefully will announce this soon via our social channels.

Also great news is that we have now stocked Amazon with our very popular Little Owl book for the bargain price of £15. We are the only supplier on there offering this book new as it's ours! So please check the link below and get yours today as it's ace!