George Standen is an early contributor to UKlandscape and we sincerely appreciate his work. A skillful photographer who isn't afraid to try new methods. More of his work can be seen on his website - www.btinternet.com/~georgestanden
If you like his images here check out - www.uklandscape.net/George-Standen/gs00.htm
I’m often asked why I rise before 5.00am throughout the year, drive for miles in all weather, trek around the countryside, and return home shattered. I could give many answers, peace, tranquillity, beauty, isolation but the real reason is the search for landscape photography locations.
Anyone interested in landscape photography must have a love of the countryside, otherwise how can you get the best from your photography. You also need an understanding of the landscape, and how light affects it. How changes occur throughout the year depending on the season. A particular location in the depths of winter will look quite different in the middle of June. The same is true for different times of the day and how urban landscapes take on a new appearance as the sun sets. The only way to understand these changes is to visit a number of locations at different times of the year and the day.
When planning a trip I rarely begin more than 24 hours in advance and will often go on impulse if the weather seems promising. January is one of my favourite times of the year, and if the weather's right I will be out most weekends.
After deciding on a location, I leave before the sun rises. I'm lucky, living in Cheshire, I can be in Wales in under an hour, my favourite locations being Llangollen, Bala, and surrounding area. I also venture into Yorkshire and Derbyshire and have frequently been rewarded with some good landscapes there. But I’m back to Wales again soon after. After deciding on the location, I will map out a route in a circle of approximately 10 miles and if time permits I will cover the route before 11.00am.
By midday I'm on my way home as the light is very flat and uninteresting then. Some exceptions are made in the winter months when the sun's low or there is a promise of a good sunset.
After driving to the location I park the car and walk to fully explore the area. On occasions you may notice scenes from the car, and be lucky enough to stop and photograph them. But this is the exception rather than the rule and in order to fully understand the landscape you have to become part of it, which means walking.
I use a Canon EOS 600 body, Canon 50mm, 28-70 and 70-210 lenses, various Cokin filters, Minolta auto-meter three, and a Manfrotto tripod. My 28-70 zoom is the workhorse of the outfit, and is constantly attached to my camera. The quality of this lens is amazing. I’ve had cibachromes printed up to 20"x 16" and the quality is superb. My Manfrotto tripod is used for every shot. Like any tripod it's heavy, cumbersome and awkward but the benefits of using this piece of equipment outweighs other disadvantages. It does slow you down, makes you stand back and evaluate the scene and most important of all, prevents camera shake.
I regularly use filters and in particular grey and blue grad's to balance the contrast between the sky and the foreground also a polarising filter to reduce glare and deepen blue skies. To determine exposure, I normally use the camera in aperture priority and rely on the camera's six zone evaluative metering system, which is brilliant. I’ve found that using the camera's metering system and a graduated filter gives near perfect exposures in the majority of situations. I do from occasionally bracket exposures but find in the majority of cases the first reading was the right!
In situation's of high contrast, I also use the camera's spot metering and take a reading of a mid tone, or my hand held meter for an incident reading. The spot meter is also very handy to determine exposure for various parts of the landscape I may want to expose for.
Over the years I have tried many films and always return to Fujichrome 50 and 100. On dull days, especially during the winter months, the colours have more punch, but this can have its drawbacks if you are using grey graduated filters. You get a pink cast, which you either love or hate. Film stock is a personal preference and each film has it's own characteristics. The only way anyone will understand how various films react is to try them.
When the transparencies are returned they are scanned into Photoshop using a Minolta Scan dual. Once adjustments are made the image is then cleaned up to remove any dust marks and to remove any unwanted items such as signs, posts etc. The final stage is to apply unsharp mask to sharpen the image for printing.
George Standen.
