Improve your mountain photography

Why is it so difficult to capture mountain images like the ones we see in those lavishly produced coffee table books? Is it just down to equipment, or is the photographer simply better at it than we are? Was he just lucky with the weather that day? And if so, why am I never that lucky?

Well, luck does come into it, having the right equipment is a necessity, and if the weather's not right, there's not a lot you can do about it, but you don't have to be a John Cleare or Colin Prior to produce fantastic mountain images that will capture the essence of your perfect day in the hills.

Himal Chuli, Manaslu and Peak 29, Nepal Himalaya

I use a 24mm or 50mm lens on an Olympus OM1 (still going strong after 28 years!), or a 35mm-80mm zoom on a Canon EOS300, usually at its widest setting, or a 28mm wide-angle. Wide-angle lenses are necessary to include the large physical area occupied by mountain scenes, and impart a sense of scale and space. It is a good idea to include some foreground detail like figures or buildings to emphasise the scale of the scene.

skiers at Aiguille du Midi prepare to descend to the Vallee Blanche

I generally shoot film, and get Kodak Picture CD processing, which gives me the best of both digital and traditional worlds, in that I get a set of prints, negatives for archival, and a set of superb Kodak scans suitable for use on my web site with little adjustment. These can also be used to produce photo-quality prints from the PC.

But owning the latest Canon or Nikon 35mm will not turn you into Ansel Adams overnight. Ask any photographer what is the most important element in the picture-taking process, and he will reply - the person behind the camera. The camera should become an extension of your eye, allowing you to frame the image in the viewfinder the way you see the scene in your mind's eye. This is where viewpoint, composition, and lighting enter the equation, and although the best photographers do this instinctively, there are basic principles that you can adopt, and apply to your picture-taking, which will dramatically improve your photography.

Castell Y Gwynt (Castle of the Winds) from Glyder Fach summit

These viewpoints are often well known, and books like The Welsh Peaks and the Lakeland Peaks by W.A. Poucher contain specific information about the best viewpoints for mountain photographs in these areas. There is also every chance that your normal walking routes will pass several striking viewpoints during the day.

Emily on the rocks of Llyn Idwal, Devils Kitchen behind

A common failing of the pictures we bring back from our day in the hills is that they seem empty and flat, when at the time we were surrounded by soaring peaks and dramatic views. To remedy this, we need to include an object of known size, your walking partner for instance, to impart scale - lack of foreground interest also makes pictures look boring, so try to include something like a cairn, a tarn, an interesting bit of rock, anything which will improve the composition.

One trick landscape photographers use is to angle the camera downwards, to avoid the inclusion of too much empty sky, and to fill the frame with more of the foreground. Of course, the sky is often an interesting feature in its own right, and a dramatic cloud formation can often rescue an otherwise mediocre scene.

walkers top out on Carnedd Llewelyn, Snowdon range in the background

Generally speaking, lighting for mountain photography is better early or late in the day, and from autumn through to spring, when the sun is low in the sky, producing side-lighting which emphasises the shape of the mountain. During the middle of the day, and particularly in summer, the sun tends to be very overhead, and produces lighting which flattens the contours of the landscape.

Sunlight on a crisp winters day, with snow on the peaks, often produces the most satisfying results - the air is cold and clear, intensifying the blue of the sky, and definition of the landscape is at its most pronounced. In summer, heat produces a dust and photochemical haze in the atmosphere, reducing definition, and causing the sky to appear grey and colourless, even in bright sunshine.

ice pinnacles on Yr Elen

It is also important to remember that the light moves around the points of the compass from dawn to dusk, rising in the east, passing through south in the middle of the day, and setting in the west. Light illuminates different facets of a mountain at differing times of day, so that an east-facing mountain will receive light in the morning, west-facing mountains will be lit in the afternoon, and south-facing will receive light all day. Often a shot from a desired viewpoint must be timed to suit the timing when the light will be at its most advantageous - side-lighting generally yields better results than flat over-the-shoulder lighting.

sun breaks through on Glyder Fawr summit

So keep the camera accessible - that way, if the perfect panoramic landscape does appear during your day out, you'll be able to record it - and even if every image on the film isn't an award-winning spectacular, photographs are a great way of recording your walks.