UKC

I've taken a lot of photos in 2021 and shared more than few here. Mountain and landscape photography is a new(ish) interest for me after mainly just taking snaps on climbing trips over the years. I'm not so much into social media but enjoy sharing pictures with like-minded people on UKC.

I've written a small piece about my 10 favourite photos of 2021 and some stories behind how they were made, which I've posted on my website (which was a bit of a lockdown project) here: 

https://www.brianpollockphotography.com/news

I put it together for myself and to share with family and friends but I thought some of you might enjoy it. 

I get a lot of inspiration from many of the talented photographers on UKC and if anyone would like to share a favourite shot or two and a story, please do!  

Thanks

I love the light, and the other-worldly nature, of your last photo "The Grey Corries & Binnean Beag from Binnean Mor"

My favorite photo taken in 2021 was a test shot using my new 12mm prime lens.

I just pointed the camera at the sun and went click.

Very well done Brian, a wonderful collection. The Coigach and Assynt one is quite stunning.

Wow, Lemming, that's a great photo. Best part IMO; the clouds. But the whole thing works well

That's beautiful Lemming - amazing sky. Bay of Naples is it?

ps. welcome back.

I spent a shed load of money on a f1.4 prime lens and with my first test shot, I cranked the aperture to f16 so I could get a sexy sunburst.

I also noticed that the UKC site has made the image a tad more saturated and vibrant than my version.

It almost makes you believe that my home town is paved in gold.

Probably this one. But I have a cunning plan involving quite a lot of effort and even more luck to get a better one on Sunday

I should imagine that there are rivers of it, some weekends.

T.

Oh, and nice shot.  

It's usually 'Damn clouds" whereas your shot is "Dam clouds".  Terrific stuff.

T.

Some of these are just stunning. Thanks for sharing.

Am I right in saying that your shots are all straight out of camera? With no post processing? I’d be interested in what kit your using.

Like you I’m relative new to photography. And whilst I’ve managed a few half decent shots (albeit on an APS-C mirrorless), they’re nowhere near what your producing.

Some lovely shots there Brian, and knowing a few of your locations very well I really appreciate the naturalistic nature of them -- they look like what you see rather than what your software can do  

This year hasn't been great for my photography -- climbing usually won out when I got chance to get away. Despite a fantastic weekend up in Fisherfield (same time as Robert's shot above), I wasn't terribly impressed by what I got in the camera -- turns out inversions are interesting for a bit, but all the shots look the same, and I found my desire to take picture fizzled out. I was probably knackered too. 

So, closer to home, I really like this one. A spontaneous hand-held grab on the way down from climbing at Bell Stand, Eskdale, but I did take my time composing it. I really like more subtle light nowadays, and the autumn foliage was shouting at me that it wanted it's photo taken. https://flic.kr/p/2mK5tSL 

Bloody hell.  That's fantastic!

That is really lovely.

Looks like there could be an inversion bonanza in the NW between now and Christmas - I'm hoping to spend a good part of the next week above the clouds (warmer up there too!). I'm not sure I agree all shots look the same - it just needs careful planning to be in the right places at the right times.

That's a lovely shot Jon and thank you for your comments. Representing what is there is definitely the goal and whilst I would never claim these shots are straight out of camera, they do represent what I saw.

I know what you mean about inversions - there is definitely a fine balance there between too much of nothing and just enough. I have a few inversion shots that won't see the light of day for that reason. Robert's shot is good example of getting it right. I would also really recommend looking up Simon Atkinson who took one of the best inversion shots I've seen (ever) recently (second shot in this gallery https://simonatkinsonphotography.com/landscape-photography-of-torridon). A few of his recent shots from Kintail would probably break the UKC 3 star barrier as well!

Some of those are absolutely amazing - inspiration for the coming week!

Graeme, thanks for your comments.

In answer to your questions, no they are not straight out of camera. My understanding is that the vast majority (although certainly not all) landcape photographers shoot in RAW and process their pictures with a RAW converter like Lightroom or Capture One. I use a Nikon Z7 which has a full frame 45mp sensor. My most used lens in the 24-70 f4 'kit lens' which is actually very good and affordable. I have a wide angle and telephoto too (an adapted Canon lens I picked up for relative buttons compared to the newer models). I used to use a Ricoh GR (16mp APS-C) and micro 4/3s before that.

The difference between full frame and cropped sensors in my experience is the flexibility of the RAW files they produce. Put simply, I can get more out of my Nikon files than I ever could from my older cameras - I suspect most modern full frame cameras will be on par (since many use the same or similar sensors - Nikon use Sony sensors for example). By that I mean, I can lift shadows, recover highlights and adjust tones to balance contrast without adversely affecting the quality of the image by introducing artifacts (i.e. such as bright halos around edges, etc). In good daylight the difference viewed on a screen is negligible, but in low light (around sunset/ sunrise) it does make a difference. 

I should also mention that the megapixels only matter if you intend to print your photos big(ish) or crop (a lot). I print a lot at A3+ and I often need to crop a bit so 45mp gives me loads of scope to print big at high resolution - 45mp is actually probably still overkill. If I didn't print, I'd stick with a 20-24mp sensor (or less - 16mp looked good on my Ricoh). For example, all of my photos on ukc and my website are downsized to a resolution of an HD 1080p screen. The file sizes are about 1mb against a native (unprocessed) raw file of around 60mb - so I am throwing away a ton of information (none of it perceptible viewed on a screen).

For what it's worth, my experience has been that processing is sometimes the difference between elevating a good image and trashing it. It will never make a bad image good, but it can make a good image bad. That is, of course, subject to what you consider good and Instagram and the like have probably contributed to the bar being lowered substantially in that regard.

In my experience, the main benefit of learning how to process effectively is to get it out of the way to the point that it isn't holding you back. For example, you take a potentially great shot of a sunrise but after processing end up with weird HDR shadows that are as bright as your sky and a sun that looks like an egg yolk.

Once you can process effectively, I found it just reveals everything else that is holding you back. James Roddie wrote a great article on here about improving mountain photography which basically sums it up. Some of my better shots are opportunistic, but most of the ones I'm proud of were a result of a fair amount of effort and a degree of forethought and planning. Like climbing, I've found the easy gains come quick but the more you improve the less you improve thereafter relative to the effort you put in. What I'm trying to work on now is developing an 'eye' for a good shot/ composition and learning ways of stacking the odds in favour of coming away with something decent. What that means in practice is getting out as much as possible, thinking about weather/ conditions and flying around Google Earth. Robert's moon over the Cairngorms is a prime example of that approach I imagine.

I would caveat the above on the basis that I, like you, am still learning and will no doubt look back at a fair few of my pictures a few years from now and cringe.

In short, I would learn to process your images before getting any new camera gear. Get a something like Lightroom if you don't have it already (free trial maybe) and then look up Alex Nail on Youtube (or just watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKPOSDY-ESw&t=1358s). Between this video and his video on the curves tool in Photoshop (a little bit more advanced and more of a bonus really), I honesty don't think there is much if anything else worth knowing about processing for landscape shots and they are not particularly long or complicated tutorials.

I seem to have gone a bit OTT with this but hope it helps!

Beautiful collection Brian!

These are some of my favourite shots from this year.

https://adambenhall.tumblr.com/post/668398508930383872/autumn-colours-at-wa...

https://adambenhall.tumblr.com/post/666558336647430144/warnscale-bothy-look...

https://adambenhall.tumblr.com/post/660751123986120704/the-duke-of-portland...

https://adambenhall.tumblr.com/post/658773214939496448/the-grotto-at-rydal-...

https://adambenhall.tumblr.com/post/659131345804673024/scaleforce-lake-dist...

It does, thanks. I bought an A6400 a couple of years ago and find I’m now taking much better photos than anything previous. My images are significantly sharper and I take a lot more time on my composition, much to my friends’ frustration (“stand there”…”look that way” etc). 

I think my problem is that I’m trying to cover too much (portraits, wildlife, landscape, astro, histograms, white balance, ISO, post processing RAW…..) such that I can’t see any evidence of improvement in any one area.  

Thanks for taking the time to reply with such detail. It definitely gives me food for thought as to what I need to do next. One thing being, get out of bed earlier.

Some lovely understated (and I mean that in a good way) shots there.

Great post. I'd like to echo almost all of it. 

Everything I have seen from Nikon Z cameras makes me covet one, but I am rather heavily invested in Fuji. If money were no object.....

That shot was thoroughly planned and then needed the luck to make it happen. I make a lot of use of the Peakfinder website for panoramas and sun and moon positions. This Sunday there is again a moonrise shortly before sunset. I know precisely where I want to be standing, ideally above an inversion, if it looks like being clear to both the NE and SW horizons. But I do have several plan B's!

I'll second Alex Nail. His tutorial videos keep things simple and effective and his videos of photographic trips into the hills are really inspiring (I've even toyed with the idea of paying to join him on a trip - he just comes across as a brilliant bloke!)

Thanks Robert. I originally included this but took it out in favour of the similar portrait shot from the same set. Maybe because the midday shot was 'on a plate' it doesn't quite resonate with me as much as the earlier shot which I couldn't believe was (a) sharp and (b) not ruined my moisture. It definitely takes me weeks before I can be objective about any of my photos. My favourite is always the last, until a few weeks later. I should probably learn to wait before sharing photos.

If your Fuji ever kicks the bucket, there's certainly deals to be had second hand. They brought out a version 2 of the Z6 and 7 which seems to only improve on continuous autofocus - so irrelevant for landscapes. All the original Z cameras dropped massively in price after that and you can get a Z6 for under £1000. Nikon also released a firmware update the other day which seems to massively improve autofocus on the original Z series. So they are far more capable now than they were at release. The lenses are also generally cheaper than the better Sony's and far cheaper than Canon's newer lenses. Perhaps comparable to Fuji prices.

I might have to steal some of that knowledge. Perhaps post your cunning plans more often!

I've done 2 image critiques with Alex about 1 year apart. I think he charges £30 or so. They were invaluable. He is very adept at cutting straight to the nub of what works/ what doesn't and why. I think that is a great place to start. Although I would consider a trip to the Drakensberg if he runs them for sure.   

That's good to know. Hopefully I can improve on this attempt.

youtube.com/watch?v=GQYb9sUpTd8&

Good start to the inversion bonanza here on Skye🙂. Sunrise was exceptional.

Not much 'photography' from me this year, but I did really enjoy volunteering to take shots of this village running/walking event (again):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/105343926@N08/albums/72157720023742313

Nice. I wondered how you’d got on.

I recommend the Lemming's hour-long Blackpool sunset, if you just need to chill. Fabulous.

Search: youtube "Blackpool Sunset Slow TV"

ff

Day 2 not too bad either .......

That's very kind of you to say.

Cheers

😀

We did an overnighter in Knoydart. The cuillin looked stunning and our views weren’t bad either. A lot of photos to go through later!

Middle of winter looking and feeling like late spring is just so odd.

Did you catch the aurora? Saw photos from broadford this evening.

Day 3 shaping up nicely......

No. Came down straight after sunset. Summit camp tonight, so fingers crossed.

I hope you brought a load of memory cards!

Followed your moon rise tip and came away with something I've had in mind for a while last night, so thanks for that!

Looking forward to seeing your final shots.  

Due to forecast of high cloud to north, I switched from plan A (moonrise over An Teallach from Ben Alligin) and stayed on Skye. Plan A would have been fine I think now, but plan B was still great. If I had been in south, moonrise over Ben More and Stobinian from Ben Narnain would have been plan A. Anyway, now camped on summit of Alligin after great sunset and then moonrise. Plenty of hours of darkness to start culling some of the 600 or so shots I have taken in the last three days........ 

And day 4 not exactly looking rubbish....

If interested, here is a selection of photos from my four days of inversion before Christmas.

On Garbh Bheinn on Skye from sunrise till sunset: https://robertdurran.smugmug.com/Garbh-Bheinn/ 

Sunrise on Sgurr Mhic Coinninch and sunset on Sgurr Dearg: https://robertdurran.smugmug.com/Sgurr-Mhic-Coinnich-and-Sgurr-Dearg/

Overnight on Ben Alligin:  https://robertdurran.smugmug.com/Ben-Alligin/

My favourite photo of 2021 is probably among them somewhere!

A wonderful shot, Jon.

The Beinn Alligin collection is particularly beautiful. Almost as good as being there!

Only “probably”?

Theres some absolutely stunning shots in there. Cracking conditions. I’m very jealous.