Show Notes

When ever I go to the grouse moor to photography red grouse (you can watch a vlog about that) I always look over at some rocky, craggy hills and wonder if they would be good for landscape photography. 

There are plenty of tracks to head up into the hills, so one evening my friend and I decided to have a walk up those hills and explore them for landscape photography, and as always there was the hope of a decent sunset. 

Walking along the weather was extremely variable, wind was a constant factor but it didn’t impact us that much apart from making recording the audio a bit difficult. But there was an excellent mixture of rain and sun, both coming and going, creating amazing landscapes. 

The first shot I got was just a quick reaction to some amazing sunbeams streaking through the clouds, I had no idea if I got the shot or not because the rain was coming down all over the front element of the lens, I was working handheld and as quickly as possible and I thought I had missed the settings in my haste. But when I got it on the computer it was great. 

Because I was working handheld a lot of the time, with varying weather it was a struggle to talk to the camera about what was going on. The compositions were definitely all about how the weather was interacting with the landscape, and I was reacting to it without time to set up the camera and talk about what I was doing. 

The trek up the hill was definitely worth it in the end though! With a brilliant view and a strong foreground interest, the only question that remains is, did I get any sunset colours? 

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Onto the Images

For this first image I didn’t think it actually worked out at all. I was shooting it handheld, the rain was beginning to fall quite heavily onto the camera and the shots after this one are covered in raindrops, I didn’t think I had got the settings right at all.

But it worked out well!

The subject that I wanted to capture was the sunbeams falling through the clouds. The light was such a brilliant feature that I couldn’t help but want to make a composition out of it.

The natural high contrast elements of the scene leant itself easily to a black and white conversion, especially with the lack of a foreground interest and rather flat (in both topography and light) landscape leading to the hills beyond. The black and white conversion focuses on the light and the contrast between that and the rest of the scene.

I can’t help but wonder if I wasn’t getting rained on, would I have been able to create better definition in the sunbeams? Who knows? But I’m glad this image turned out well.

After that first image the rain came down and we continued our walk but soon after I saw this. It’s easy to see why I stopped to grab an image. The layers in the landscape caused by the rain and light interacting over the hills makes for a classic landscape photograph.

Black and white conversion again to help accentuate those contrasting layers and to build definition in the foreground that is in shadow.

Again I was shooting it handheld, I didn’t have time to set up the vlog camera and talk through what I was doing. I was reacting to the light and the landscape.

After I got the image, I sat down with the video camera to talk about what I had just captured, but something amazing would happen . . . . .

A rainbow would appear!

I was sitting there talking and was just about to make a move and continue walking when I looked up and saw this beautifully bright rainbow. From where I was I quickly snapped off a couple of frames.

The rainbow itself is beautiful but the landscape was a bit flat, I wanted it to have some sort of element to frame with the rainbow. Just to make the composition a bit more interesting.

I ran out of the grouse butt that I was sheltering in, we had passed a conical shaped hill that I thought would look interesting if I could get the rainbow positioned over it, so I ran over the track and up a hill of the other side in an attempt to frame it.

But instead of the hill I found . . . . .

A herd of sheep!

They were running across the hill with the rainbow arcing above them. I started to grab some pictures but the herd was just a bit too big. But I could see that they were spreading out and with any luck only a couple would be left at the back and would frame beautifully with the rainbow on the right.

Moments after I got this image the rainbow dissipated and the sheep disappeared into a valley below the hill. It was a very exhilarating few minutes, but I love this image!

Finally making it to the end of the track and the end of our hike, I was looking for compositions when I saw the sun was just catching the undulations in the landscape.

I really liked the strong contrast between the light kissed ridges and the deep shadows that they created. I was busy working handheld trying to frame it up. And in my frantic attempts to capture the light before it faded I made a fatal error!

I forgot the 1 Over Rule, when working handheld if you can keep a 1 over the focal length of the lens then in most cases that will keep camera shake to a minimum. In this case I was shooting at 200mm, so using the rule I should have had a shutter speed of 1/200sec but instead I had a shutter speed of 1/80sec and so there is a little bit of camera shake in the image. (I talk about that rule in my article about image stabilisation)

Oh well! It happens.

I still really like the image even if it’s not completely in focus. The light quickly faded and I searched out a new composition to capture if the light came back.

After the shot above, I switched to a wide angle lens because I saw these rocks sticking up out of the heather and I loved the textures.

I stuck with handheld for the time being as I was looking around, trying different compositions. The light just peeked out for a second I grabbed this image, side on, with the Cairngorm Mountain range enshrouded by clouds in the background.

I continued to try different compositions and the sun dipped behind the clouds again. But I had found a new composition and I wanted the tripod set up ready for when the light came back . . . . .

I saw a composition with the rocks forming a leading line and foreground interest to the mountainous landscape beyond, the elements that would make or break the image was the light and the clouds. So I left my tripod set up waiting for the conditions to come.

Now I had some time to kill waiting for the sun to make an appearance. I had brought a hot chocolate with me and a couple biscuits, so we sat down and enjoyed those. Mid way through a sentence the sun appeared from behind the clouds. I moved quickly!

I had the tripod and camera set up, ready for the image. I threw on a polariser and 4 stop soft grad to bring in the highlights in the clouds and snapped away!

The light was amazingly beautiful, slightly orange from the golden hour and casting great shadows across the landscape. The clouds were doing amazing things as well. But the wind was picking up and moving the clouds at a quick pace. So, I asked myself: what would a 6 stop solid ND filter do to those clouds?

I put the 6 stop on and the light came back almost immediately. The Kase Filters (affiliate link) are the most ‘neutral’ of neutral density filters I have encountered with hardly any colour cast affecting the white balance. You can of course see a very light difference, but otherwise perfect.

The golden light was even better this time around and I love the way the clouds have been smoothed out due to the longer exposure. Definitely worth the hike up to this hill.

After this the clouds came in heavy from the west blocking out the sun. We decided to head back down as the likelihood of sunset colours had vanished completely.

I kept an eye out as we descended, just in case some colours developed but there was no luck and no more images than night. A fantastic evening of photography and a great little walk as well!

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About the Film

Just a little information about the film and how I made it, as well as some links to equipment.

I edited the film using the Free Version of DaVinci Resolve. It’s an incredibly powerful piece of software that I am still trying to understand and will possibly write an article about in the future.

The tracks featured in today’s film were licensed via a subscription with Epidemic Sound. (By following that link, if you purchase a subscription then I will be gifted with a month free for referring you to their services)

• Breathe One’s Last by Jakob Ahlbom

• Sun Fade by Of Water

• Fluxuations by Dew of Light

• Purple Lilies by Sum Wave

A short Kit List

These are affiliate links, which means if you follow them and make a purchase I will earn a small commission for referring you to Amazon UK. You can find out more about affiliate links here.

Main Vlog Camera is a simple Panasonic G80 with the kit lens, its a great little mirrorless camera that I got for the sole purpose of creating YouTube videos. It’s capable of filming in 4k and seems to do everything that I want it to.

Rode Mic, I got this little microphone to boost the audio quality from the inbuilt microphone.

Action Camera, I use this to film myself when walking. It’s a simple DJI Pocket Osmo camera that has a motorised 3 axis gimbal head, which means that I stay in focus and static while the landscape around me moves. It’s also capable of filming in 4k and the audio quality is quite good.

Voice Recorder, to boost the audio quality when it’s windy or I’m using the action camera I use this handy little voice recorder with a lapellier microphone to record audio.

For a complete Landscape Photography Kit List you can read through what equipment I take with me when I go out here.

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Written by Daniel Long

Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.