Loch Maree is a long and rather straight glaciated loch
in the northwest of Scotland.
Its dominated by the magnificent Slioch Munro that is a mountain over 3000 feet.
The environment that surrounds it is very rugged, there are wonderful
fragments of ancient woodland, mostly Caledonian pines,
and lots of scattered, erratic glacial boulders.
All around its terrifically exciting from a point of view of colour and texture.
This is an uncommonly fine day for Scotland in the middle of winter.
I'm looking to explore well away from the roads.
I'm going to walk down into this bleak moorland behind me, down to the loch shore,
about a kilometre away from the road.
Never been to this spot before so I'm really looking forward to see what I can find.
There's a dead tree on the rock behind me, and its looking potentially really interesting.
The textures are beautiful.
I'm going to see if I can make something of it.
Just hand-held to start with.
ISO, I'll try 100 here and I'll go with a 40th of a second.
The shapes are just amazing and the colours, too, I think.
Especially as the sun goes down. This may be one to come back to.
Let's see if I can make it work.
Wonderful arching shapes, across the middle of the composition, quite soft,
not too contrasty, just using a little bit of a grad.
Approaching these two old dead trees that looks like an obvious framing device.
The rocks in the foreshore are creating a really interesting,
almost improbably perfect arrangement as if it were in trap the reflection.
That looks like my picture.
I have used graduated ND filters for balancing light now for 25 years,
and although in theory with RAW files you can get away without using them,
I just prefer to use them, partly because I always have done,
and because it works really well with digital.
Anyway, it means you get better shadow detail, less recovery to worry about and less likelihood
of clipping highlights, so it makes sense to continue using them as far as I am concerned.
Here I'm shooting the standard lens.
Very simple composition, structurally, but quite complex textures, so its really important
to get all of the alignments absolutely right.
Actually, alignment is a big part of what composition means to me.
Once I've got an idea on the way, I try and clarify all the elements within it.
And everything else looks after itself.
Sometimes its a little bit deceptive to know everything's level
that is when it is actually really handy.
The IQ with a built-in spirit level which as time shows is spot on,
its pleasing, nearly ready to go here, just check the position of my grad
that looks pretty good, and make sure that when I shoot - let's check what I've got.
Slowest possible ISO on, … is 35 which means
I have to drop the shutter speed down to 15th, I think.
I'll go further and use a little more depth of field, 11 should be fine here.
Quickly check the exposure. That looks good.
And to allow the camera to determine focus, it is extremely accurate,
and shade the filters so there's no risk of flare.
And shoot.
The instant feedback is really reassuring. It shows me that the exposure is correct.
And since I'm just about to lose the sun behind the ridge, its really nice to know that's the case.
Quite often I only need to shoot one exposure.
Its really quite something, its quite astonishingly liberating,
I think, to work with a device like this, knowing that you can make some pictures
of unlimited enlargement size and exceptional quality without having to use a tripod.
Its completely counterintuitive.
I'm looking at them, just checking them from time to time at 100 % on the back
and where they're shot, they're absolutely fine. This camera is truly hand-holdable.
Its sometimes a challenge to know which camera system to take.
If I take the 645DF it is for a kind of faster working process
where I respond to things more spontaneously. As an all rounder its a fantastic camera.
If I'm absolutely certain that the requirements for this shoot are textual and a lot of
receiving planes then I may be inclined to take the Linhof Techno because the additional camera
movements gives more focus control so that is in certain situations a better back.
Moonrises often works best if you use a long lens because
then the moon is not diminished too much in the frame.
Once I've plotted the light clear ….of the moon, I'm also looking to
make a composition that can be shot, if possible, with a longer lens.
If I can also do that in a place that will reflect the moon,
you're increasing the kind of sense of depth in the image.