Rory Bremner eat your heart out*

Welsh Hillside, originally uploaded by http://andrewskelton.net.

I hope you weren’t hanging around waiting to see some wildlife photography from my my trip to mid-Wales last week? They say a change is as good as a rest, and my transition from Wildlife Photographer to Landscape Photographer has certainly rejuvenated my love of this later’s discipline. Predating digital photography, I used to go out armed with a Fuji STX-1N and a 50mm lens. This prime lens mimics on film (or sensor) the world at the same magnification as we see it ourselves – I used to use the fact that there was no distortion in the final images, (magnification or reduction in scene size) to create panoramic montages where I would overlap the 6” x 4” prints over each other to produce rather effective composite images. If you’re ever in the area, Dear Reader, you’re welcome to pop in for a coffee and I can bore you with a book I put together with such photos.

Transitioning across to digital photography, my first camera was a pretty basic one – a point and shoot – and without the reach of lens like my 150-500mm or the mighty 600mm I was restricted in the type of photos I could take, again more scenic images. In the early days, I would still print photos to combine them as the software didn’t exist to combine them digitally, of course these days it’s built into most major graphics software, and has become so sophisticated that it can correct any lens distortions. I try to get things right on camera first, to ensure the result are as I want them, and are consistent – with my current gear that meant I had to use a focal length of 35mm to gain the equivalent focal length due to the cropped nature of my camera’s sensor (1.3x) which is handy as there is a guide mark on the lens for this focal length. It’s as if the manufacturers knew!

Of course this has nothing to do with today’s image, these were taken with the 150-500mm lens which isn’t an obvious lens choice when it comes to landscape photography, whilst traversing a very large and VERY steep hill of the hill opposite us. The heather, bracken as well as the odd tree on the opposite slope looked as if a master stroke from the brush of Renoir or Monet had passed over the land; I am in no way comparable to such great and innovative artists but I hoped to try and capture some of the natural beauty. Actually, the real reason I stopped was to catch my breath – and taking photos is certainly a good excuse.

* He’s an impressionist… Monet.. Renoir.. oh well, I did try!