I used to do a lot of landscape imaging.
One of my favourite haunts was “The Gorge”, about 30 mins walk from the middle of Launceston and a surprise to most who visit it.
First you encounter open parkland, then more closed in, semi-wilderness.
My processes involved the mandatory tripod, often as heavy as I could bother with*, some type of timer delay, filters, various lenses etc. I was not Robinson Crusoe here, packing much the same as the rest, only variations in format made any real difference.
Oh how things have changed.
Today I went with;
G9
12-60 Leica
…………
Yep, that was it.
All the images were taken at f5.6 to 7.1 (about f11-16 in full frame), all hand held at 1/5th to 1/200th with ISO’s of 100-400 and the full range of the lens was employed.
The day was not ideal. The best days there are high overcast after rain, employing a polariser to cut glare. I got patchy cloud after a short dry spell. Kinda cool to think this is only 5 minutes drive and 10 minutes walk from the centre of the city.
The stream bed these were taken in was obviously damaged last flood season. A lot of settled, open woods were literally washed away, or smashed up, trees fallen, then pushed into clumps.
A good season for moss has helped.
Higher areas were mostly untouched.
The under growth was healthy.
Some classics were revisited.
Hard to believe how far we have come. I remember once toting six Canon “L” primes up to the same spot one balmy spring day. What a sweat-fest. Straight after I repurchased the 17-40L and 70-200 F4L lenses, just for landscape.
Yes it is lazy and a tripod does have the advantage of slowing me down, but is that actually an advantage? I have found over the last few years, that speed is important. See-shoot can be handy in other environments other than just for street. Often I “work” the frame far better and more easily than when I employ a tripod.
Once, the thought of hand holding at 1/13s and f6.7 for this type of image would have been a bad joke, but with all of the advantages available now, it is more than possible, sometimes to the point of realistically nullifying the need for more.
Detail is retained up the a level I need for fine art printing.
This redimentary kit can even be used for some basic wild life.
Leica 60mm crop.
*I used to rate my tripods by range. Studio only, near the car, a short walk, a long walk, an over-nighter.