What Are The Best Camera Settings for Landscape Photography?

This is a question I get asked a lot, and I mean A LOT. Not just about landscape photography, but about all sorts of different photography - what are the best settings for portraits/ICM/product/wildlife… the list goes on.

The bad news for some people is that there is no ‘best’ settings for any of these types of photography. The best settings for the photo that you are taking are the ones that you need to be able to take the photo you want to take.

Let me unpack this a little…

For some situations, there are preferred settings. In a landscape shot, I am going to want use the sharpest part of my lens, and for the lenses that I have, that’s usually somewhere around the f/8 mark.

This is going, to some extent, dictate the rest of my settings as I am making the aperture smaller; other things are going to need to change in order to compensate. If you’re new to photography, then reading my blog about the exposure triangle, is going to help you to really understand what I am talking about in this entry.

Once I have set my aperture, I have a number of things I want to consider… do I want to freeze motion or do I want motion blur? Do I need to inject a ton of ISO into the image to get my desired exposure length? Does the ISO value I choose mean that I am going to be adding a load of noise/grain into my image that is going to ruin it?

Even though I want to use the f/8 aperture, this might not be possible and I may need to make some compromises.

It may even mean that to get my desired level of sharpness across the whole image, I need to consider focus stacking.

There’s a lot going on in just this one scenario.

Thinking again about the original question, “what are the best settings for landscape photography?”, we then need to remember that as landscape photographers, everything we do is at the mercy of that staple of British conversation, the weather. As a landscape photographer in The Lake District, I know only too well the perils of the changeable Lake District weather and understand that at certain times in the year, it isn’t uncommon to experience all four seasons in one day! However, the most common thing you are going to come across is changing light, no matter where you are.

Sometimes the light will be bright, you’ve got your camera settings dialled in and made your image. You want to take another couple of images at the same location, or of the same subject, but the light has changed, the clouds have positioned themselves firmly in front of the sun and everything that you have just done correctly to nail the first exposure, now needs to change. This is normal and for me, it’s one of the challenges that makes this pursuit so much fun!

But I’m Not a Landscape Photographer!

To be quite frank, this doesn’t matter. What I have just said can apply to all manner of photography genres, particularly those where you have little-to-no control over what the light is doing, because you are shooting outside and are at the mercy of Mother Nature.

To give another example…

I used to live in London and was used to shooting in low light - night photography was a real staple for me, as were shots of “bus trails” and light trails. For a time, I was obsessed with taking cityscape images, with long exposure times to get either light trails or capture the motion blur of a bus that was driving through my scene.

After much experimentation, I figured out that for me, on my camera with my lenses, the optimum exposure time for a perfectly (in my opinion!) blurry bus was around 0.3 seconds. Notice that I said “around” in the last sentence? This is because it wasn’t always 0.3 seconds, there are a lot variables at play, not least the speed of the bus that was driving through your scene. If it was going too fast for my settings I wouldn’t get what I wanted. If it was going to slowly for my settings, it wouldn’t make it out of my scene and I would end up with something that I didn’t want.

What about portraits?

Surely for portraits, what you need is a fast lens and then just to shoot everything at f/1.8 also that you get good bokeh? Not in my experience.

Bokeh is great, we all love the way it looks, be that light orbs in the background of our images, or a blurry background that makes your subject ‘pop’ and creates some separation from background.

The issue is the focus plane. I try to imagine the focus plane of my image as an invisible entity that stretches from the front to the back of my scene. The higher my f number, the deeper the depth of field and the more of the image will be in focus.

But when it comes to shooting portraits, you want to be sure that all of your subject is in focus. I have found in my experience, the shallower the depth of field, the less of my subject is in focus and by the time I have looked beyond the focus of someone’s nose, I am starting to see a fall off in sharpness and by the time I have moved along that invisible plain to their ears, I am really not seeing as much sharpness as I should.

In the portrait scenario, your settings are not only going to be dictated to you by the amount of light that you have available, but also by your distance from your subject, and further more, your subject’s distance from the background. You might need to adjust your settings, your positioning and your subject’s positioning to make sure you are getting the level of focus you want and the correct exposure that you need.

If you’re doing headshots in a controlled lighting environment, against a backdrop and you can have your subjects stood on a mark, then this is going to be a little bit easier to figure out and to maintain your settings.

But if, for example, you are trying to tell a story in your images, then you are going to want completely different settings. Let’s say for example you are taking a series of portraits of people that tell us about the job they do and you are taking a portrait of a fisherman who works on a boat. You’re shooting on location at a harbour and his boat is moored up.

In this setting, you could set your aperture to f/1.2 and have a really buttery-smooth, bokeh’d background. Or… you could stop down your aperture ring to give you more of the background in focus so that you can see the harbour and the boat behind the fishermen. All of a sudden you have gone from a photograph of man who looks and dresses a bit like a fisherman, to a man who is a fisherman, with his workplace and working environment behind him to really sell the concept and to help to tell the story. Context, sometimes, is everything.

How About In The Studio?

Again, it’s a similar story here, but you do have much more control. This is because in a studio, you have full control over the lights - if you have a decent set of lights/strobes/flashes etc then you can control the brightness/intensity of the light, how soft or hard the light is (with the use of modifiers), how long it lasts for, where it is coming from and its distance from your subject, the way the light is diffused, the colour of the light… the list could go on.

What this means is that you could set your camera up and change the lighting settings or you could adjust your camera to the lighting scenario depending on what it is you are going for, but generally, if you’re changing one setting, you are going to need change something else.

In the studio, there is not a single set of perfect settings, the settings you need are going to be dependent on the look you are going for, what you are shooting (shape, size, etc) and how you need to present the final images to the client.

We are however, always looking for an image that is sharp, so our aperture is likely to be the overriding factor in our decision making here.

There are preferred settings…

… but there are no best settings!

Your preferred settings are the ones that you prefer. It doesn’t mean that they are the best ones - they might not be someone else’s. Think of it like this: If there were a set of best settings for every scenario, someone would have written the book, we’d all have a copy and we’d all be shooting the same images in the same way.

We’d also all be reading the book and thinking to ourselves “well they’re not the best settings for that situation, because what about that photo of x that I took at y”.

There’d be umpteen YouTube videos on the topic of “why I disagree with the best settings manual and what I do instead”. You see my point? These are personal, artistic choices/decisions based on an infinite number of possible scenarios with an infinite number of desired outcomes.

As you have probably gathered by now, there isn’t one single set of best settings for each of the situations you are looking to shoot. The best settings are dictated by where you are, the time of the day, the weather, the kit that you are shooting with and what your final intentions are.

Some of this is also going to be dictated by personal taste, especially when it comes to the creative aspects of your own work (if you’re doing client work then a big part of the creativity is going to be dictated to you, but remember that you’ve been hired for the way that you shoot, so your creativity still plays a role).

The best way to ensure that you can get the correct settings for your intended outcome is to practice, learn your camera and what it can do, what it is capable of and how to make it do what you want it to and how to programme the settings effectively. Spend some time learning about lighting, experiment and always have a project on the go so that you’re actively creating.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this useful/insightful! If you’d like to be the first hear about new blogs and reviews and to keep up to date with what I am doing and see my latest work, please consider spending a few moments signing up to my newsletter.

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Affordable Landscape Photography Accessories

Landscape photography can be an expensive way to spend your time, but is there a way you can do it cheaply without being “cheap”. But what items are there out there that will give you the best experience whilst ensuring you can still get great results and being confident that your kit is going to survive?

In this blog I am going to look at some of the items that are staples of many landscape photography setup and find you some back-pocket-friendly kit that won’t break the bank, or your camera.

This blog contains Amazon affiliate links. If you mae a purchase after clicking one of these links, I may receive a small commission at not cost to you. This is a great way to support the blog and allows me to continue writing posts like this, I really appreciate every purchase you make.

Getting into photography can be expensive, and that expense can be magnified if it’s something you don’t end up pursuing as much as you thought you would. No one wants hundreds, if not thousands of pounds worth of gear just sitting in cupboard, unused and gathering dust.

When you’re starting out in Landscape Photography, the amount of stuff you ‘need’ to buy can be overwhelming and some of the prices are absolutely eye watering. There are tripods that run into thousands of pounds, filters that cost hundreds and other accessories that you don’t even know if you need or not. I am going to try and demystify some of that, starting now!

Tripod

Do you need it? Yes.

This is probably one of two things on this list that I would say is an absolute must, the other being the camera bag. Most of the other stuff you can get by without, but I can’t think of many applications, other than perhaps street photography, where owning a decent tripod is worth its weight in gold. Maybe not so much if you’re run and gun street photography.

Like I said before, these can run into thousands, but that’s not what this blog about.

I’m going with K&F concept for this choice. Until I went down the road of the more expensive Benro Mach 3, this is what I used for everything. They’re strong and steady enough for most applications, are lightweight and this one comes with a ball head, so you’re not going to have the expense of shelling out for that too!

K&F Concept Tripod

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L-Bracket

Do You Need It? If you have a tripod, you will wish you had one of these!

This is one of the best photography purchases I ever made. An L-bracket is a piece of machined metal which attached to the bottom of your camera and fits ‘inside’ the ball head of your tripod and allows the two things to attached to each. Because of its shape, it allows you to switch between portrait and landscape orientations quickly without having to rely on the your ball head. It seems a bit of an odd thing to have/want given that one of the major functions of the ball head is to switch your camera’s position, but trust me when I say that having an L-bracket makes this process much more straightforward and when you need to switch quickly, you'll be really grateful you have one. You can pick one up for less than a tenner, but they do run into three figures. I paid £9 for mine 4 or 5 years ago and it’s still going strong.

Some options are designed for specific cameras and because they are made in much smaller numbers, the price is much higher, the universal ones tend to be much cheaper. Just make sure that you get something hat is compatible with your own camera. I’ve linked a really affordable universal one below for your so you can start exploring some options.

L Bracket

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Filters

Do you need them? Not necessarily, but they’re really useful!

This is going to depend on the types of shots you are aiming for, when you shoot and what kind of look you want to achieve in your photos. If you want to do long exposures when there is a lot of light, then you’re probably going to need some ND filters. If you’re shooting buildings with lots of glass, cars or bodies of water, then you’re probably going to want a polariser. Then there’s UV filters, colour filters, star filters and mist filters, as well as a bunch of others that I can’t/haven’t remembered.

Filters can also be crazy expensive and you get what you pay for, but as a starting point take a look at the range that K&F Concept offer.

K&F Concept Filters

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K&F Concept do a wide range of filters, but the ones in orange boxes are an affordable entry point, usually around £20, but this is going to depend on the size of your filter thread - look on the barrel of your lens or check your camera’s manual.

Strap/Cuff

Do you need it? Probably!

Your camera probably came supplied with one, and if you’re happy with it, stick with it. Some people like to change because they want something more comfortable around their neck. Some people prefer a cuff/hand grip instead of a neck strap because it suits their style of photography better and some people just want something a little less ‘obvious’ - it’s not always a great idea to have the make and model of your camera hanging round your next.

There are tons of options available, but some of them are borderline prohibitively expensive. The one I am suggesting for you is from PGY Tech and looks seriously like the Peak Design Slide Light and has a similar quick release system. Camera straps are a really personal choice, you might prefer a woven one, a leather or one that’s more rope like. Get something comfortable and something you trust!

PGY Tech Camera Strap

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Camera Bag

Do you need it? Yes.

You’re gear is the only gear you have, and you want to be able to move it around be that in the landscape, off to a location shoot, or just in the car to an event. You have spent good, hard earned money on investing in your new kit and you need to make sure it is safe and looked after.

Camera bags are essential, but also a minefield. If you search Amazon you will find page upon page of results, if you visit the major photography retailers you will find at least ten different brands, none of them especially cheap. The last time I visited a major camera retailer, I piked up a bag that caught my eye to have a look at and as soon as I saw the £400 price tag, it went straight on the shelf.

Depending on your kit (how much of it you have and how big it is), you might want to consider bags from well known manufacturers like LowePro,Think Tank and Peak Design, but expect to pay big(ger) money for these.

Like straps, these are a really personal choice, and unfortunately if you decide to stick with photography then this won’t be the last one you buy - none of them ever are. I have been doing this for years now and I still switch between a couple of bags depending on what I am doing. That said, when I first started, I was using the Lowepro Tahoe 150 for everything, and at £60 this is a really good option for the beginner photographer, it holds plenty, is comfortable, unobtrusive and isn’t a massive bag.

I’m also recommending the one I have linked on the card below, the Tarion 15L Waterproof backpack. I like the back opening on this one as well as the side access, which is great for when you need camera quicker than you thought you would! Oh, and it’s only £38!

Tarion 15L Waterproof Camera Bag

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RGB Light

Do you need it? It depends.

This is something that I have in my bag 90% of the time. When I was living in London and mostly shooting in low light, it was there 100% of the time and I’d have two of them. Landscape photography in the Lake District tends to call for their use a lot less, but I like to have options to light any macro opportunities a little more creatively if the light is a bit flat, or simply if there isn’t enough of it!

There are hundreds of these available on Amazon and they are not all made equal! I have a couple of Smallrig P96L (catchy, I know) RGB lights. They are small and light with decent colour accuracy, and best of all can be picked up for less than £40

Smallrig P96L RGB Light

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Remote Shutter Release

Do You Need It? Yes… If you’re shooting on a tripod.

This is something that I think is essential if you’re shooting on a tripod. The whole point of stabilising your camera is to limit or negate the amount of movement that you are introducing into your camera and lens. If you press the shutter button by hand, no matter how careful you are, you’re going to introduce movement, and if you’re shooting at longer focal lengths then you’re really going to notice it. Yes, there is an argument for using your camera’s self timer function, but there are some situations where you don’t want to rely on something happening in 2 or 10 seconds time. Sometimes you want full control over the moment of capture, and that’s where your remote shutter release comes in.

Be careful when you’re buying this - they’re more often than not brand specific, and in some cases even model specific so be sure to find one that works with your model and brand and camera.

Believe it or not (there’s a theme emerging here), there is a wide range of these on the market, some are really simple and some are more complicated and have extra features like interval timers and bracketing.

I’ve gone for something wireless, which pushes the price up a bit, but it’s always nice to have something without a cable that has the potential to move your camera. And again, don’t forget to check that you’re ordering something which is compatible with your camera!

Aodelan Remote Shutter Release

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In Conclusion…

Landscape photography is often associated with expensive cameras and specialist equipment, but the reality is that many of the tools that make the biggest difference are surprisingly affordable. Simple accessories such as a sturdy tripod, a polarising filter, or a remote shutter release can dramatically improve image quality and open up new creative possibilities.

What matters most is not having the most expensive gear, but having the right accessories that help you work more effectively in the landscape. A tripod allows you to shoot long exposures and keep your images sharp. Filters help control light and enhance colours. Small items such as spare batteries, memory cards, and a headlamp can make the difference between capturing a great shot and missing it entirely.

Many photographers gradually build their kit over time, adding accessories as they discover what they need most. Starting with a few well-chosen, budget-friendly items allows you to improve your photography without making a huge investment.

If you’re just getting started with landscape photography, these affordable accessories are some of the most useful additions you can make to your camera bag. They will help you shoot in more conditions, experiment with different techniques, and ultimately get more enjoyment from being out in the landscape with your camera.

Landscape photography is about patience, light, and being in the right place at the right time. The accessories listed in this guide simply help make that process easier, so you can focus on what really matters: capturing the beauty of the landscape.

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Focus Stacking: How to Get Sharp Images in Landscape Photography

Sharpness. It’s a hot topic in photography and it’s never going to of away. We all pixel peep whether we admit to it or not, and not just for our own photos.

However, there are limitations to our equipment, even the very best, most expensive lenses can only achieve so much sharpness - you can’t beat physics, you just have to adapt to it. You can come close. Coming close is expensive, and expensive will only get you most of the way. Sometimes we just have to work with what we’ve got and that usually involves using our computer and some editing software.

For this one, we’re going to be using Photoshop, as it’s the easiest and quickest way for us to get the results we want.

What is Focus Stacking?

A good starting point for this would be to look at my blog on exposure blending if you’re not sure about it and then come back and finish this off. If you’re already au-fait with exposure blending/stacking then read on!

Focus stacking helps us to ‘remove’ some of the limitations of our lenses. Even at their sharpest f/stop, there are parts of the image (often the corners), that aren’t as sharp as we would like them to be. With focus stacking, we can take several different exposures of the same subject, with different focus points, usually working from the front of the image to the back and then we can blend them together in Photoshop which creates one image which is sharp across its whole area.

How Do You Focus Stack?

The first thing you need to do is to take your images. I am going to use an example which I have taken in the studio, for the simple reason that this is the place that I have the most control over as much of the process as possible. I’m going to be shooting tethered using capture one, but the process you will go through will be exactly the same, be it in the studio or out in the field. The major difference is that when you/I are working out in the field, instead of being in the warmth of the studio and working on a nice big monitor, we’re often out in poor conditions and working on the ‘tiny’ screen on the back of the camera.

Essentially, what we’re going to do is take at least 3 different exposures. In the first image, we are going to make sure that our foreground, or the front of our object is in focus, in the second image, we are going to focus on the mid ground and then finally, we are going to focus on the back of the image; this will either be the back of your object in the studio, or on infinity if you are out in the field. I have tried to visualise this for you in the image below.

This image shows where your (minimum) 3 focus points will be when you are shooting images for an exposure stack.

How many shots you need is going to be influenced by what you are shooting and what you are shooting on, what f/stop you’re at and if there is any movement in your scene. Three exposures is a good rule of thumb for this type of photography, if you take too many images, this can start to complicate things in post processing and your image can end up looking strange, have weird artefacts in it when your exposures are blended or simply, it just won’t work!

The other thing to remember is that you need to keep your settings locked in. If you start to change the settings on your camera between each exposure, this can cause issues and slow down the process.

Finally, you need to (99.9%) of the time, do this on a tripod. You want your exposures to line up exactly between shots, if they don’t, guess what… more complications!

So you’re set up, you’ve got your shot framed and you’re ready to start shooting. The next phase of this is going to be dependent on the camera you have. A lot of newer Canon camera’s have a focus stacking setting built into them. You will need to consult your camera’s manual for instructions on how to do this, but you can tell it how many images you want in the stack and how much you want the focus to shift between each image. The other way of doing it, and the way I am going to describe in this blog (because my camera doesn’t have the focus stack function!) is manually, using either manual or autofocus.

This is fairly straightforward.

1) Frame up your shot and select your settings.

2) Focus on the foreground by either twisting your focus ring, or tapping the screen to select a focus area and half pressing the shutter button. Check the focus is sharp and capture your image.

3) Repeat step 2 for the midground.

4) Repeat step 2 for infinity/background.

I always find it useful to grab an exposure which has my hand in front of the lens after I have completed each ‘stack’.

You can take as many stacks as you like whilst you’re out and about, but keeping them organised whilst you are working and before you get into post will make your life a lot easier in the edit.

How to Create a Focus Stack in Lightroom and Photoshop.

I have shared a video below which explains this process in full, but the first thing you are going to want to do is import your images into Lightroom.

Once they are in Lightroom, edit your first image and get it looking the way you want it. Once you have done this, you want to copy the settings from you first image to the other two in you stack, so that they all have the same adjustments applied to them. I usually just make some global adjustments at this stage and do anything local on the image I get out of Photoshop. You can see this process in the video below. You can make your adjustments in Camera Raw in Photoshop, but I find the process of copy and pasting the adjustments in Lightroom much easier.

Once you’ve done this, you need to select your three images and then right click and ‘open as layers in Photoshop’. When you’ve done this, you can move on to the next stage.

Now your images are in Photoshop, the process is pretty straightforward; you’re going to shift click to select all three images, the in the edit menu, we’re going to select “auto align layers”. This will make sure that our images are neatly stacked on top of each other. Leave the ‘Auto’ option checked and click OK.

Once this has completed, make sure that the three layers are still selected, go back into the ‘edit’ menu and select “auto blend layers”. Make sure that “stack” is selected and then I always keep “seamless tones and colours” and “Content aware fill transparent areas” are checked. The latter will fill any transparent areas (usually around the edges) that have been created when your images were aligned.

Now that Photoshop has done it’s thing you will see that it has created masks on each of your layers, and if it’s worked well, you should see that the masks are broadly letting the focussed areas of each shot show through. If you need to fine tune these masks, you can do this using either a white or black brush and painting on the respective mask.

The final step is to check that you are happy with what you have, that it’s sharp where you want it to be, and that’s the process done!

All you need to do now is hit save, and if everything is working well, you should see it appear back in Lightroom as a .tiff file that you can now make some local edits on and get it looking exactly how you want it!

I have made a video of this whole process below, so you can see each step and hear some commentary that I hope you’re able to follow along with!

Step By Step Focus Stacking Video Tutorial

Check out my YouTube video on focus stacking - please head over to the channel and subscribe!

Original Images:

I set this up on the studio against a yellow backdrop and one light source (just a video light for this for the sake of speed), this is just three props I found amongst some old props in the studio - a lego mini-figure, a pocket watch and a Funko figure. I set these up in a line extending away from the camera. These images were shot at f/4, just to force the depth of field to clearly illustrate what I am trying to demonstrate. You should be able to see the three focus points by looking at which part of the image in focus, you should be able to see each subject in sharp focus as the focus point moves towards the back of the image.

Whilst I have done this in the studio to illustrate it, the process in the field is exactly the same. The only thing you might find is that when you’re not in a controlled environment, you’re much more likely to have changes in light and the position of your camera to deal with.

After following the process outlined above, all three images are combined to produce the final, stacked and fully focussed image you see below:

I hope that you have found this useful, I am trying to put some more of this type of content together and will eventually get them uploaded to my Chris Kendrick Photography YouTube Channel so you can digest them at your leisure.

If you have found this useful, I’d be grateful if you would like to support the blog and help me keep producing Lake District photography content, honest gear reviews and regular website updates, you can do so via my Buy Me a Coffee page. Keeping everything running smoothly takes time, and your support makes a real difference. Thank you.

Check out some more of my latest blog posts below…

5 Beginner Lake District Landscape Photography Locations You Can Reach Without a Long Hike

Welcome back! I am going to keep this one as short as possible, but at the same time try to give you enough information in a short space of time so that you can get out and shoot.

What follows is a list of 5 places you can take incredible landscape photos in The Lake District, without having a massive hike to get there. These will be great if you’re short on time, or if you’re short on energy but still want to get out. Nothing in here has more than a 20 minute to reach a great spot and get some great photos in the bag.

Gummer’s How

This one is the one with longest and most demanding walk, which is saying something as this one is an easy trek, which should take no longer than 20 minutes from the car, has a bit of climbing but is rewarded with incredible views across Windermere and many of the Lake District fells.

There’s a free car park just off Fell Foot Brow, which is run by Forestry England. You can find it at ///rated.soup.looms on What Three Words.

From here, cross the road and follow the signs which will lead you along a short trail with a slight incline, and then you’ll be met by a short, but much steeper climb up to the top of the hill.

Walk towards Windermere (you will be able to see it) and you will be rewarded with some breath taking views. This is a great place for sunset and you’ll get some incredible shots if the weather is in your favour. I prefer a long lens here as it lets you pick some of the detail in the scene.

Don’t forget your head torch for the way back if you’re planning on staying late.

If you’re planning for sunset, then check out my sunrise and sunset photography in the Lake District blog.

Queen Adelaide’s Hill

This is another one which is a short walk from the car and rewards you with great views across Windermere, without the walk up Gummer’s How. There’s even a bench at the top if you’re feeling a little out of breath. This is another good one for sunset. You can park at at Rayrigg Meadow Car Park (What Three Words: ///magpie.permanent.agent).

The path to Queen Adelaides Hill is largely paved, but there is a small section which is through a bit of woodland that can be uneven underfoot and isn’t paved so make sure you have the right footwear on.

Arrive in plenty time if you’re going for sunset, as this car park allows motorhomes overnight and it fills up quickly. It’s also not cheap and is run by the council so there’s no discount/free parking with your National Trust Card.

Head towards ///waiters.risky.loudness and you will be in position for some great views.

Surprise View

We’re heading out of the Southern Lake District and up to Borrowdale for this one. You’ll find Surpise View at What3Words ///copying.shadowed.bounding , with parking really close by. I would estimate the walk from the car to the viewpoint to be around 30 seconds… This is the shortest ‘walk’ on the list! You have incredible views of Derwent Water and down into Keswick from up here, and it’s great for sunset shoots, and also looks great at Blue Hour.

Whilst you are here, you can also bag a Lake District classic and bag yourself a shot of the packhorse bridge at Ashnesss, What3Words ///pills.index.remarried. This is a great place to go and do some long exposure work! Check out my long exposure blog by clicking here.

Wastwater

Moving out into the Western Lake District now, and we’re headed to Wast Water. I am not going to include a what3words location for this one, because there are so many great places to shoot from here. You’ll end up on the north eastern shore of the lake (the opposite shore is inaccessible unless you fancy a swim across England’s deepest lake) when you arrived and there is lots of parking at the side of the road (stay out of the passing places and park respectfully, please!). Once you’re parked, you can walk along the side of the lake and scope out some of the compositions that are spread out in front of you. Explore and have fun. This is another one that is great at sunset.

Blea Tarn

This one takes a little more central and comes with a weather warning. If the weather is poor, don’t go - check before your travel. In the winter, the roads leading up here become treacherous and are impassable in bad weather. You have been warned!

That said, in the summer, whilst you need to be careful on the roads, many of which are single track, your patience (and careful driving) will be rewarded with an easy walk up shot at Blea Tarn.

You can park at the National Trust Car Park (free for members!) which you will find at What3Words ///destroyer.marked.groomed . Leave the car park via the entrance you got in through, cross the road and follow the path. From here, the tarn is on your right and you can walk down to it. Make sure you watch where you put your feet and take good shoes - it can be very boggy. There are great shots across towards the Langdale Pikes and you will see some interesting wildlife here if that’s your bag as well.

This one is a good sunrise spot, get here early to secure the best spots.

Bonus Hidden Gem

This one is often overlooked and is little known. It is called Kelly Hall Tarn, which is in a village called Torver on the way into Consiston. There is parking at What3Words ///backdrop.shelters.quitter. Once parked, take a walk towards the back of the car park and follow the path which will lead you to the Tarn. It’s about a five minute walk, which can be boggy after rain and also boggy when it hasn’t rained for days. Be prepared. This is a great sunset spot, and is super dark at night for you astro fans!

And that concludes the blog! If you try any of these locations, let me know how you get on. I’m always interested to hear where people head first, and what conditions they find when they get there. Keep an eye on the blog for more beginner-friendly Lake District photography guides.

These guides are all written from time spent out in the Lakes with a camera in hand. If you’ve found it useful, buying me a coffee is a great way to support the site. You can also join my newsletter for future guides, photography tips, and new content as it’s published.

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Gear Review: Canon EF 2x Teleconverter MKII

This is a review I hadn’t planned on writing as this wasn’t a piece of kit I was planning on buying! I ended up with one of these teleconverters as at the same time I was buying my 16-35mm lens, I was also looking for a telephoto zoom lens, with the Sigma 150-600mm f/5.6 being at the top of my list.

Some quick maths made me rethink this - I knew I REALLY wanted the 16-35mm f/4L, but getting the 150-600 at the same time, financially, was going to be a bit of a push and after some consideration, I decided to plump for the teleconverter and see how I got on with it. On the front of my Canon 80D which has a crop sensor, paired with my 70-200 f/4L, I can expect to have a focal length around 224-600. (Here’s the maths… (70x2)x1.6 = 224 and (2—x2)x1.6 = 600)).

We can agree this is a whole lot of reach, which is going to be great for a having a go at some wildlife which has previously been out of the range of my 70-200. I will also be able to pick out things in a landscape which have previously been a mere pipe dream and hopefully bag some great shots of the low flying jets as they pass through The Lake District Valleys.

I got mine from MPB.COM, and it’s in “Like new” condition. It set me back £198.55, which is great compared to the in excess of £800 I was going to have shell out for the Sigma. Yes, I have had to sacrifice some reach, (on a crop sensor, 800mm looks like 960mm), but I want to see how this solution works first.

This isn’t the best looking piece of kit; it’s the same off white colour we expect to see long Canon lenses come in and without the lens caps on, it’s a truly odd looking accessory.

Mine has the EF mounting system, (remember, I am still shooting with a DSLR!), and the extender comes with a solid, metal mount which firmly attaches it to the front of the camera.

There is a trade-off to all of this extra reach, namely, attaching your lens to an extender reduces your maximum aperture by 2 stops. So in my case, the max aperture my f/4 lens is going to have is f/8. I don’t mind this for two reasons - 1) I am mainly going to be using this lens in brighter conditions, so will have plenty of light to work with and 2) This lens is really sharp at f/8 so this should translate to better sharpness in the images I produce. I will share some sample images throughout this blog so you can make up your own minds!

How does it work?

Extenders, which are also referred to as teleconverters, work by increasing the magnification of your lens, and then projecting this onto your sensor. A really crude way to think of is it’s like a magnifying glass for your lens.

They come in a limited range of magnifications, usually 1.4x and 2x, though I have seen Nikon ones which have a magnification factor of 1.7x. As you’ve probably worked out, the numbers are the factors your magnification is increased by, so a 100mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter, will have a theoretical reach of 140mm, the same lens with a 2x teleconverter will have a reach of 200mm and so on. If you have a zoom lens then the whole range is magnified by the same factor. You get the idea.

These pieces of kit however, are not selective in what the magnify. They will magnify everything in your image, which includes any grain or ISO ‘noise’ captured in your image.

What should I consider?

You need to consider what the trade-offs are. Essentially, you will be decreasing your maximum aperture and you are going to sacrifice a bit of sharpness in your final images.

Because you are effectively losing light by having the smaller aperture, you are going to have to compensate by increasing your shutter speed or ISO. You’ll need to bear this in mind when setting up your shots and consider the exposure triangle to make sure you end up with an image, which is in exposure terms, balanced. You can read about this in my blog “A Beginner’s Guide to The Exposure Triangle”.

You might lose some auto-focus functionality by attaching the extender. This so far hasn’t been an issue for me, as I have been taking pictures of landscapes in which the subject is often the light hitting the side of a mountain. Mountain’s aren’t known for being fast moving (if one does start moving quickly, then I would suggest you do the same!), but if you’re using it to shoot sport or wildlife then the amount of images you get which are ‘keepers’ will probably see a reduction compared to shots taken without the teleconverter attached.

The image on the right was taken at 400mm (640mm on a crop sensor), has had noise reduction applied alongside exposure adjustments, masking and colour adjustments. Single exposure, not focused stacked —>

Finally, you should think about what the kit is doing - it is magnifying everything your lens sees and does, so if you have a lens which suffers from, for example, chromatic aberration, this is also going to be magnified and on top this, you are going to lose some contrast as well.

First Impressions of the Canon 2x extender II.

I’ve already taken this out and stretched its legs for half an hour, the first impressions are good but I have identified a couple of drawbacks, but at this stage, nothing bad enough for me to want to return it.

I also got lucky when I was out shooting and instead of just landscapes, I was fortunate enough to see an A400 Atlas flying low level through the Leven Estuary at Greenodd, presumably on it’s way to LFA 17 at Windermere.

One of the first things I noticed was just how much more of a challenge it is to find things in the viewfinder. Especially a moving object like the A400 I just mentioned. It took me a moment to locate it and then to lock focus. I eventually succeeded and have a bagged a couple of shots I am happy with, you can see one of them on the left.

Because it was a bright evening, I didn’t need to add lots of ISO to compensate for the lack of light in now my now f/8 lens. The shot I have ended up with is sharp and because it was shot at ISO 100, it isn’t loaded with image-ruining noise.

The second shoot I went on, saw me heading over to Walney Island for sunset on a very grey evening. Ambient light was not as abundant as I might have liked it to be. Plus, it was sunset, so I was losing light by the second. This resulted in me having to bump up the ISO on my camera to 400.

When I got back to the studio, I did notice the images I had shot using the teleconverter were suffering from more noise than the same images shot on their “native” counterparts. I will point out this wasn’t a lot of noise, but was still more than I could see on the non-extender version.

Prior to the advent of effective noise reduction software/algorithms, this would have been much more of a problem than it is in today’s post processing world. I used Lightroom’s noise reduction panel to get rid of some of this and it did a pretty good job. All of the above being said, the loss of saturation, whilst not catastrophic, did (in my opinion) make the raw files harder for me to edit effectively and I felt like I had lost some of the flexibility I would normally have.

Something else I noticed was having this lens on my camera made it much heavier, so much so, the ball-head on my tripod was really struggling - I would get a shot framed up and then tighten up the ball head, all for it to “drop” when I wasn’t supporting the weight of the camera/lens/extender combination. I have to admit, this could also be a limitation of my tripod and an unfair criticism of the extender, but I had no issues when I was using my 16-35mm or my 24-105. I am going to try a different ball-head before I reach the decision about how often I might want to shoot with it on a tripod, but if you’re using a longer lens which comes supplied with a collar, then using this is a must to help you to balance the weight of the camera against the lens/extender combination. I will update this entry if I manage to solve the problem.

Who is the Canon EF 2 extender for?

I would recommend this to anyone who is wanting to try shooting at much longer focal lengths, but who isn’t ready to spend the money on a good quality super-telephoto lens just yet. There is a big saving to be made if you buy second hand and it can be a good way into trying your hand at genres such as sports and wildlife.

Another thing I would say is this lens is for someone who already owns some good quality glass to put in front of it; if you’re shooting with a lens which you know has some serious flaws then the teleconverter isn’t just going to make your lens longer, it is also going to amplify the imperfections in your lens. These are going to be painfully obvious to whoever is looking at your image. I am lucky to have a full set of Canon L Series lenses which are really high quality, but I also know the characteristics of each of them meaning I know what to look out for when using the teleconverter and this can help me to mitigate any issues before they have a chance to become a problem in the edit.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Lightweight

• Small(ish) form factor means it’s likely to fit somewhere in your bag.

• A cost effective option for people who want to try shooting at longer lengths but who don’t want to shell out hundreds of pounds on a huge lens.

• On crop sensors, you end up with “extra” reach owing to your sensor’s crop factor.

Cons:

• Loss of stops of light owing to the max aperture of the lens caused by adding the extender.

• Amplifies everything, including grain and chromatic aberration.

• Some loss of contrast and sharpness in final images.

Summary

If you’re considering making your first foray into genres which require more reach, but don’t have the money to buy the long lens then this could potentially be a safe middle ground. If you’re really into low light photography then you might find the reduction in aperture to (in my case) f/8 to be too constraining. If you’re considering the purchase, then it’s helpful to start by having good lenses which you really understand as any imperfections created by the lens are going to be amplified by the converter.

I think this has been a good purchase for me, it’s opened a world of new compositions, particularly when I want to shoot things I can’t get close enough to in order to create my desired composition. It has given me some more flexibility, perhaps enough to get 2 or 3 extra compositions per location I visit, but I do think this means sacrificing some sharpness and saturation, but not so much to make the ‘project’ a write off.

Will I use this forever instead of buying a dedicated super-telephoto zoom lens (or if I’m feeling flush, a prime - £10,000 for the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 prime anyone?), probably not. But I am happy enough with the results for the time being which means I am going to have a lot of fun creating something different to my normal shots for many months to come!

Lake District Photography Itinerary: The Best 3-Day Trip for Stunning Shots

Visits to The Lake District are often far more fleeting than you might want them to be, especially given that a lot of us are working full time and stays often last just a few days. I’ve been living here and photographing the eternal beauty of this place for over two years now and have used some of this time and the benefit of my experience to create a 3 day photography itinerary for this incredible part of the world, so that you can grab some social media worthy shots whilst exploring the dramatic landscape this place lays out right in front of us at every single turn.

I’ve worked this into a three day itinerary, but it doesn’t need to be done over the course of three consecutive days. You might want to cram all of these into one trip, but could just as easily spread these out over the course of a week, or over several visits, the choice is yours!

What I have tried to do here is to combine some easy what I like to call “walk up shots” where you can park up and walk the shortest of distances to the car, with some longer walks and more interesting terrain.

As with many of these blogs, it’s essential I give you some of the key safety information, especially if you’re travelling alone. Always make sure someone knows where you are, where you are going what time you expect to be back. Mobile phone and battery pack should be charged before you set off, your head torch should be charged and packed even if you think you might not need it - especially if you’re cutting it fine to get back before nightfall and if you’re out in the hills, you must have your map and compass with you. Appropriate footwear, clothing and enough water are also a must. If you’re trying to plan and you’re not sure where to start, my blog about Must Have Apps for Photographers will come in handy!

So what about the photos? What about the locations and what about the subjects? I’ve laid this out in 3 days below, do them in any order you like, do them in one weekend or one week or spread them out over the course of a few weeks or even across the year, the choice is yours.

Day One - Angles and Structure

Sunsrise: Derwentwater.

One of the smaller major lakes in the The Laker District, it’s in the northern part of the National Park and is really close to Keswick. Derwentwater is over looked by Catbnells and Skiddaw, and at just over 3 miles long, it provides homes to kingfishers and otters as well ospreys over the summer before they head south to overwinter.If you head into the surrounding woodlands, there’s a good chance of seeing a red squirrel or two. Sci-fi fans may recognise parts of the landscape from Start Wars - the scenes on Takodana were filmed at Derwentwater.

<— LEFT: The view from Surprise View, Keswick.

There are plenty of photo opportunities dotted around the lake, but head to The Theatre by The Lake for sunrise. From here you can shoot back towards Catbells. This is a popular spot amongst photographers shooting the sunrise, so get here early to secure a good spot! Head to Crow Park for this one, what3words //////driveways.trails.teachers will get you in the rough area, you’ll just need to fine tune a little bit when you arrive.

When you’ve captured your sunrise shot, there will be a bit of time to explore Kewsick, plenty of good places to eat and relax here, as well some great outdoor shops if that’s your thing. If you are looking for a spot for lunch, then The Round is fantastic - amazing burgers and cocktails (if you like them!), but you can’t book and just have to turn up - good luck!

During the Day: Around Keswick and Derwentwater.

Suitably refreshed, the next stop on your itinerary is Ashness Bridge (what3words ///nation.custard.reinvest), a short drive from where you were for sunrise. This is an iconic Lake District Location and is one of the most photographed packhorse bridges in the entire national park. These were built for horses carrying heavy loads to enable them to cross the water.

You might want your ND filters for this location, it looks great with some motion captured in the water, especially if the water levels are good following the rain (we get a lot of that up here)!

Once you’ve visited here, you should head up the road to Surprise View (what3words ///heartened.coconut.cork. - this will get you to the National Trust Car Park, the viewpoint is a 30 second walk from here) This is an incredible location over looking Derwentwater, with Bassenthwaite lake in the distance. The views over the Borrowdale are amazing, and were popular with the Victorians and the Romantic Poets. Take care, there isn’t a safety rail, but there is a huge steep drop.

Sunset: Friar’s Crag.

Once you’re done at Surprise View, you can start to think abuout sunset and I am recommending Friar’s Crag for this. You can find the location at ///itself.surcharge.truck. We’re headed back to The Theatre by The Lake for the start of this one, walk past with the theatre on your left, keep the lake on you right and head towards the end of the tarmacced road, when the tarmac runs out, follow the track until you reach the bench at the end and hopefully you’ll be rewarded with some amazing golden hour light as the sunsets and you look across the lake towards Catbells.

Top tips for day one:

Pack your ND filters to help manipulate your exposure times, especially at Ashness Bridge and make sure you have your polarisers to deal with the reflections coming off the water. You’re probably going to want a tripod and I’d recommend both a wide angle and a zoom lens so that you can experiment with as many compositions as you want.

Day 2 - Mountains and Panoramas.

Sunrise - Buttermere.

We’re heading southwest from day ones adventures and to the Beautiful Buttermere. There’s a bit more walking involved today, as the parking isn’t quite as handy, but the views are well and truly worth it. You’ll also need to cross your fingers for a calm morning. Buttermere on a still morning is renowned for its mirror-like reflections, which are a photographers dream.

Park at the National Trust Car Park (///promises.parsnips.smoker), and then it’s a bit of a walk down to the lakeshore. This should take you about fifteen minutes, some of which is on the road with limited footpaths so dress accordingly and make sure you can be seen.

Once you’re by the lake shore, the walk is very easy and nice and flat, if a little boggy underfoot at times. Head for the lone pine tree for a classic Lake District Composition with Fleetwith Pike in the Background. If you’re there in Spring/Summer then head for the bluebells for an extra pop of colour.

You’re surrounded by mountains at this location, with Haystacks, Fleetwith Pike, and High Stile all beautifully reflected in the water.

Once you’re by the lake shore, the walk is very easy and nice and flat, if a little boggy underfoot at times. Head for the lone pine tree for a classic Lake District Composition with Fleetwith Pike in the Background. If you’re there in Spring/Summer then head for the bluebells for an extra pop of colour.

Buttermere in the depths of Winter —>

You’re surrounded by mountains at this location, with Haystacks, Fleetwith Pike, and High Stile all beautifully reflected in the water.

Once you’re done with your sunrise shoot, circular walk around the lake is a lovely one to get under your belt before heading into the village for a cup of tea, or something stronger if that’s your thing (and you’re not driving!) and something to eat before you move on.

Daytime - Honister Pass.

A word of warning, that if you’re not a confident driver then this might not be for you. Some of the roads are very steep, very narrow and very windy. Pay attention to the weather forecast, if it’s snowy or particularly consider whether or not you actually need to drive along it - opportunities to take photos will be there tomorrow, make sure you are too! Take your time, drive within your limits and make sure you’re looking well ahead of you.

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, this is a great road to take photos on - there are sweeping views across the Lake District Fells and valleys, and you can also spend some time at the Honister Slate Mine, learning about the rich history of slate mining in the area.

Having your long lens in this area is going to help you get some great compression and layers into your shots. There are places to stop and get out to shoot/walk to find compositions, but be considerate of other road users, your own safety and especially considerate of the farmers who work their sheep in these hills - don’t block their gates or the entrances.

You’ll see plenty of small, picturesque waterfalls as you drive along this picturesque mountain pass, if you’re stopping to take pictures then the above rules still apply.

Herdwick sheep roam freely in this area and they make great subjects, but they aren’t renowned for their knowledge of the green cross code, so make sure you’ve got your wits about you!

Sunset - Wastwater

England’s deepest lake, with an average depth of around 80 metres. It’s bordered by Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain )at its northeastern end), but parts of the lake are below sea level - it’s got both extremes all in one beautiful location. The view is so beautiful that it won a public vote in 2007 to be named as Britain’s Best View.

You’re going to want to follow the road along the western shore of the lake, where you can scout for compositions. Favourites look towards the north with Scafell Pike looming large in the background, Great Gable being frame across the lake and the screes on the steep slopes, which have been formed by millions of years of geological activity.

You’ll usually find Wast Water much quieter than spots like Windermere and Derwentwater owing to its much more remote location.

Top tips for day two:

Check the weather to see if you’re in luck with a calm day at Buttermere, if not, pack your ND filters to try and smooth out some of that water and to get some movement in any clouds. Pack some variation in your lenses - wide angles to capture some stunning pano’s and dramatic shots and then something longer to get some compression in layers in the shots along Honister Pass.

I’d rely recommend doing the circular walk around Buttermere. The views are incredible and that walk is a great way to find more compositions and work up and appetite for some cake in the village!

Day Three

Morning - Rydal Water and Rydal Cave

Park in the village and follow the signs! The path to Rydal Cave is well way marked and provides great views over Grasmere, Rydal Water and Grasmere village.

This is not natural cave, but was made by quarrying in during the 19 Century and were part of the Loughrigg Fell Slate Quarry, which provided stone for building.

Inside the cave you’ll find a cathedral like structure which provides a home for bats, the water in the pool makes an idea home for frogs and newts if that’s your kind of thing.

The water inside the cave can be crossed by stepping stones, which create a great leading line, but if you want to shoot this, go off season or when you can see it isn’t busy. This cave is not a hidden gem, and as such it does get very busy, especially during peak tourist season.

Looking out of the cave, lots of the surrounding vistas can be framed in an almost window-like composition, using the cave entrance as a natural frame.

Once you’re done here, I would recommend heading down into Grasmere village and getting in the queue for gingerbread - I can almost guarantee it’s the best gingerbread you have ever tasted, all served by people in traditional costume!

Daytime - Tarn Hows

Once you’ve filled up on Gingerbread, hop in the car for a drive of around 20 minutes to Tarn Hows. The closest car park is at National Trust Tarn Hows. Free parking here if you’re a national trust member. There’s a lovely circular walk here and it looks amazing during the autumn. It’s about 1.5 hour walk around the water with compositions aplenty and some great reflections if you catch it in the right weather.

Once you’re done here, you can head back into Grasmere or can choose something different and head to Ullswater.

Sunset - Choose from Grasmere or Ullswater

Time to catch that final golden hour! Your choice here is between a 30 minute drive back to Grasmere or you can opt for a longer drive (around an hour) up to Ullswater at Pooley Bridge. My preference here is for Pooley Bridge, especially if you’re leaving the area to go home as it’s much close to the M6 and to the Rheghed Centre, where there is a place which sells the most incredible ice cream (the rhubarb and custard is my favourite, or if you’re feeling adventurous, how about brown bread and lemon curd?!).

The sunsets at Ullswater are incredible if the conditions are favourable, and stopping in Pooley Bridge puts you in amongst a lot of amenities, including pubs and restaurants as well as small number of other shops.

The famous composition here is The Duke of Portland’s Boathouse, it looks great in the golden hour light, but the views across the Far Eastern Fells (including Arthur’s Pike, Bonscale Pike, Loadpot Hill, Hallin Fell, and Place Fell) are fantastic and the people using the lake for paddle-boarding, swimming, boating etc. can provide a real sense of scale and drama in your images.

Once you’re finished shooting, I would say that after today, you have definitely earned a spot in one of the local hostelries (you’ll need this if it’s winter as it gets really cold!) and a bite to eat before you head home for the day.

<— Paddle-boarding at last light, Ullswater; this image is available to buy as a print in my shop

Final Words:

So there you have it, a 3 day photography itinerary for the Lake District, which you can complete all in one go, or split across several days or visit to The Lake District. I have listed some of my favourites in here, so I hope you have found this useful and that you enjoy making images in this incredible landscape just as much as I do.

Gear Review: Canon EF 16-35mm F/4L - Still Worth It In 2025?

I am REALLY late to the party with my purchase of this lens, it was released in 2014, way before I had even picked up a camera and started to take it seriously for the first time, but it is a lens I have wanted to get my hands on for a long time, so when I found a “Like New” copy of this lens on MPB.COM, it wasn’t long until it was on its way to me. I did however, order late on Thursday and missed the deadline for next day delivery, but was pleasantly surprised to be told that it was going to be delivered on a Sunday.

This lens has been on the market for well over 10 years now, and what I want to explore and try to answer in this blog is the question of whether or not you should go and spend your money on this lens in 2025?

So, why buy the f/4 version, when the f/2.8 MK III version exists and people rave about it? There were a number of considerations for me here. First of all the weight, I am carrying this lens about with me a lot and every gram/ounce of weight I can save is really important to me, the f/4 comes in at 615g, which is over 150 grams lighter than its wider apertured counterpart.

I also don’t need the extra stops of light/depth of field that the wider aperture will afford me. Like I said in my blog about Landscape Photography in Lake District vs Cityscape Photography in London, I am less focused on shallow depths of field and much more concerned with getting images that are sharp. This lens still gets me the shallow depth of field when I want it, but there are some obvious caveats as to how I am able to go about it.

There’s also the price difference, we all know that faster lenses = more expensive, and the difference between these two lenses is in the order of £420, when you look at lenses in ‘like new’ condition. Brand new, the f/4 version is still being sold by Canon for in excess of £1400 so if you can buy second hand and find a decent condition one, there is a huge saving to be made.

Finally, the f/4 version of this lens boasts up to four stops of image stabilisation, which is something that none of the three iterations of the f/2.8 lens are equipped with. This is a real boost for some of those handheld shots where you just don’t have the time (or the inclination) to get out the tripod!

I’m going to be using this lens on the front on an APSC crop sensor (Canon 80D, with a crop factor of x1.6), so in effect, the lens is going to have a focal length of 25.6-56mm. This still gives me good coverage across the full range of focal lengths when held up to the rest of the lenses in my arsenal. The bonus here is that when I finally get round to upgrading to a mirrorless full frame, I will still have a great set of lenses to use on my new camera, which will work in combination with the camera and an EF to RF mount converter.

One thing I did find difficult when I was researching this lens before buying it was trying to find some sample raw files to have a look at, so I’ve linked some at the end of this blog that you can download and have a play around with before you decide to commit if you so wish.

The files still have the exif information in them so you will be able to see what settings they were taken with.

What’s in the box?

You’ll get the lens itself, a bag to store it in (I like these bags that Canon supply, and they provide another level of protection when it’s getting knocked about in the hills), the EW-83 lens hood, lens caps for the front and rear of the lens and an instruction manual.

As you would expect from Canon, the lens is well packaged and everything arrived in one piece!

Please remember that this lens was purchased in ‘like new’ condition. This means that it came with the original box and all of the original accessories. What you receive is going to be dependent upon the condition of the item you buy - do your research and make sure you’re not disappointed with what you receive.

My experience with the lens.

This is a well made lens which feels great in the hand, has a solid, metal lens mount, as you would expect from Canon ‘L’ series lenses. It’s also (in my opinion!) a really good looking piece of kit! I’m impressed with how light it feels. It’s all well and good having the weight displayed in front of you on a screen, but to hold it and experience how light it is really brings it home.

Some of the quick stuff: it fits well on the mount on your camera, it is really well made and the autofocus system is great, if a little noisy at times, which could be annoying if you are using this to shoot a lot of video, especially if you have a microphone mounted to your camera. Everything feels good in the hand, the focus and zoom rings are easily reachable and have good grips on them to get you to where you need to be. The buttons on the lens to turn on/off the autofocus and I.S. are situated where you would expect and function in the same manner as every other lens with these options. The distance scale is clear and easy to read.

The supplied lens hood has a fairly slim profile when it’s attached to the lens, is easy to fix in place and pops off quickly with a quick-release ‘switch’.

I’ve taken some shots with this, both indoors and outdoors and had a good level of success with some of these images. I’ve shot it wide open, stopped it down as far as it will go to f/22 and at a variety of focal lengths. At f/8 you get the lens at its sharpest across the whole range of focal lengths, there is a good balance of edge sharpness and centre sharpness at this aperture.

As you get down below f/16, you do start to see some diffraction in the finer details. I haven’t noticed a whole lot of chromatic aberration with this lens, which should mean that any that you do encounter (my research tells me you might get some in particularly high contrast images), should be easily fixed in post. The lens profiles for this piece of kit are built into Lightroom, and they’ve had well over 10 years to perfect them!

One thing I haven’t been able to test is the weather sealing, we’ve been having an unusually long dry period here in The Lake District, so I can confirm that I have been out in the dustiness of my local nature reserve and the dust proofing has held up well, but not even I am silly enough to sit and purposefully throw/spray water at my new favourite toy!

Whilst this isn’t a dedicated macro lens, it does a have short minimum focus distance of 0.28metres (just over 0.9 feet). This means that you’re going to be able to get some great close ups. If you’re thinking about this lens just for macro photography then there are better options out there, unless you’re going to invest in extension tubes but this will be at the expense of losing this lens’s great autofocus.

Wide open at f/4, you can still get bokeh, if that’s your thing, but you will need to get much closer to your subject than you would if you had a wider f/stop. The quality of the bokeh however, is great - you’re just not getting the buttery smoothness you would from a wider aperture.

There is some slight vignetting when you use filters on this lens at wider angles. The filter thread is 77mm (if you own a 24-105mm f/4 already then you probably already have this size in your kit) and works well - no cross threading issues so far. The vignetting it easily removed in Lightroom with no adverse affects on your final image.

Who’s it for?

This lens is going to be valuable to anyone who is serious about their landscape photography. The sharpness across the whole focal range is fantastic (I think only my primes are sharper), especially at f/8 which is something which I really appreciate. The I.S. is solid and will allow you to take handheld shots at longer shutter speeds that you may not have been able to achieve previously - I wish my 70-200mm f/4L had it as well!

Interior and architectural shooters will enjoy the lightweight feel of the lens, alongside side the well controlled distortion (barrel at the wide end and pincushion at the narrow end) means that getting solid, straight and even lines is something which is quickly and easily achievable.

The focal length is great for vlogging, giving you a wide enough angle to be able to get context in your shots, with the ability to punch in for that all important close-up! The light weight of this lens is going to mean that it’s easily balance-able on a gimbal and isn’t going to push you too close to its weight limit.

Videographers and vloggers will appreciate this lens, but should be aware of the noise from the autofocus and IS motors, so an off camera mic is likely to be required to completely eliminate it.

Should you buy this lens in 2025?

Yes. It’s quite a straightforward answer for me. I like that to an extent, it is ‘futureproof’ insomuch as if you upgrade to another Canon (mirrorless) system, you will still be able to use it, but will need to by the RF mount adapter. But hey, when you’re switching, it’s nice to have a set of great quality lenses ready to go with only the added expense of the adapter ring to buy.

If you’re looking to add something to your lens setup to replace your kit lens, then this is a great option, but it won’t give you the reach you’re used to with the 18-55mm. If you’re looking for tighter compositions, you might want to keep hold of this for the time being or have plans to invest in something which will give you that extra reach at the long end.

This is a sharp lens, especially in that f/8 sweet spot. You’re not going to be disappointed with the sharpness of the images you’re going to be able to capture. You’ll love the feel of it, the build quality and the autofocus. Oh, and it looks insanely cool on the front of your camera!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Light weight

• Fully weather sealed with Fluorine coated front element.

• Lower Price than the f/2.8, especially when buying second hand.

• Super sharp across the whole focal range.

• Image stablisation (4 stops) supports hand-held shooting at longer shutter speeds.

Cons

• Some users, especially those who shoot in low light conditions often may find the f/4 aperture frustrating/constraining.

• Less light gathering for astrophotography work.

• The autofocus and IS motors, despite being engineered to be silent, are often audible and this could impact work, especially if you are shooting video using autofocus modes.

• Some minor vignetting when using filters at wider angles.

The Nerdy Stuff

• Focal Length: 16–35 mm (full-frame compatible)

• Maximum Aperture: f/4 (constant across the zoom range)

• Minimum Aperture: f/22

• Lens Construction: 16 elements in 12 groups

• Angle of View (Diagonal): 108°10′ – 63°

• Focus System: Inner focusing with ring-type USM for fast, silent, and precise AF

• Closest Focusing Distance: 0.28 m (0.92 ft)

• Filter Thread Size: 77 mm

• Image Stabilisation: Yes – up to 4 stops of correction

• Weight: Approx. 615 g (21.7 oz)

• Dimensions: 83 mm max diameter × 114 mm length (4.4 in)

• Coatings: Anti-ghosting coatings plus fluorine on front and rear elements for dust and water resistance

• Weather Sealing: Yes – dust and moisture resistant for outdoor shooting

Example Raw Files

You’ll need to right click each link and select “download linked file”, to save this file to your computer.

Raw Files 1-6 are images of a toy car taken in my studio against a blue backdrop and ISO 2000

Raw Files 7-12 are landscape shots.

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Street vs. Landscape Photography: A Personal Perspective

Moving from London’s bustling streets to the peaceful landscapes of the Lake District transformed my approach to photography. In this guide, I share practical tips for making the shift from street photography to landscape photography, including composition techniques, gear recommendations, and how to work with natural light.

It’s been almost 2 years since I made the move from London to The Lake District, and in that time I’ve had to learn (and will continue to learn) a lot about landscape photography, what it is, what it means and how to capture successful images. In this blog, I am going to break down some of the things that I have learned, some of the stuff that I have changed and what has had to stay the same as I continue on this landscape photography path in The Lake District

One of the things that I have learned, is that I need(ed) to adapt what I was already doing. As with so many things, there are a lot techniques, “rules” and conventions that apply to the landscape photography I do now in Cumrbia, that were also important things to remember in street and cityscape photography.

I am aiming to break down some of these below; I hope you find it interesting and maybe learn something as you read!

This blog contains Amazon affiliate links and I may receive a small kickback if you decide to make a purchase using one of them. 

Light is Key - Lessons from The Lake District.

Yes, light is key to both styles of photography, but (in my opinion, and certainly in the way I work) you see it and use it differently. Perhaps, for me, a big part of this is that I shoot far less in low light now. There’s not a whole lot to photograph in the hills at night time unless you’re an astrophotographer (something I am yet to have a ‘proper’ go at), or you love super long exposures!

For me, the biggest difference in how I use light, is that when I am doing landscape photography in the Lake District, the light becomes the photograph, it is the subject and it is what generates a lot of the interest, especially when it’s dappled sunlight across the Fells. In my days shooting in the city, I used it in a different way, often finding interesting coloured lights and then using really wide apertures to force these out of focus to create wild bokeh style backgrounds, usually with interesting foreground texture (more on foreground later), often by the way of drain covers, or leading lines.

Golden hour, and blue hour, are important to both styles. Golden hour, the period before sunset and the period after sunrise, and blue hour, the period after sunset and before sunrise, often provide some of the ‘best’ light for both styles of imagery. In the city, I used it to photograph buildings, in the landscape, I use it to photograph entire scenes, or parts of them.

Many photographers see this as the ‘best’ light, but it does mean, especially as a landscape photographer that you are subjecting yourself to super early starts or late nights, waiting for it to arrive.

Harsh light, i.e. when the sun is high in a clear sky can make landscapes much more of challenge, whilst street photographers will likely see more opportunities with this kind of light, which creates strong, harsh shadows can make for some really interesting compositions, but because of the way that the landscape photography environment is made up, these opportunities are often fewer and further between.

Ultimately, and this feels like a bit of a cop-out, you have to be outside to experience any kind of light, you make your own opportunities, and you can’t shoot any images in good or bad light, if you’re sat in the house!

Composition in Landscape Photography vs Street Photography.

This could, and probably should be a blog all of its own, but I will ‘quickly’ touch on some of the similarities and differences that I have found whilst making the switch, this isn’t a ‘how to’ guide, but will look at some of the similarities and differences which have affected me as someone making the switch into predominantly landscape photography vs street photography.

There’s a lot of differences and a lot I have had to learn, change and adapt. I think that perhaps the biggest shift I have had to make is how to decide what to do with what’s in front of me. In the city, the environment is very much on top of you. In a city like London, where I did the majority of my photography, everything is close to you, if you walk through Canary Wharf or around parts of the City of London, then huge skyscrapers ascend above you and horizons can be non-existent. The environment limits how much you see and almost forces you into certain compositions in particular locations.

Contrast that with being out in wide open spaces, often on top of the highest point for miles around. This comes with its own set of challenges and of course, the temptation just to shoot the whole scene, or to photograph the whole of the sunset or sunrise over Derwentwater. This has been one of the hardest things for me to adapt to, especially when photographing in The Lake District, when there is a stunning vista laid out in front of me, with an amazing sunset kicking off in the background.

I have done a number of things to help me with this; I have looked at a lot of work by other photographers, (but have tried to avoid looking at other Lake District Photographers so that I don’t end up just taking everyone else’s photos), watched YouTube videos, practiced, and finally, have gone on shoots with just a longer focal length lens (usually my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L), as this takes the wide shots out of play and makes me pick out what I think are interesting features in the landscape. It makes me look for different compositions, different subjects and more creative ways to work with the light that is in front of me.

I don't always go out with just one lens, I often take something which is a bit wider (like a 24-105mm) or sometimes, something super-wide (like my Canon EF 10-18mm F/4.5-5.6), but I do try to think more carefully about my composition when I am shooting with a wider lens, which leads me neatly onto my next point about foreground interest.

When I was shooting in the city, I would use foreground interest to force background lights out of focus to create bokeh, and this kind of foreground interest is something I am trying to include more of in my landscape photography.

I just have to look a bit harder for it, and I’m also not trying to force my images to have out of focus elements (more on focus stacking later). In the city, there are interesting textures, in convenient places, everywhere. There are tons of interesting textures in the country as well, but getting them in the right places, with the right background and a pleasing composition which leads the eye through it, is much more of a challenge, but foreground interest is often key to a successful image. It could be something as simple as a boulder or a patch of heather, but having it there makes a huge difference to your images.

Weather Conditions in Lake District Landscape Photography

No blog about UK landscape photography would be complete without a mention of the weather, but it is something that I have found impacts what I shoot, where I shoot and when I shoot it way more than it did when I lived in the city. When I lived in London, the weather was any combination of hot, dry, wet and/or humid. Occasionally it snowed. Going out to shoot in good weather was a no brainer, going out to shoot in the rain or just after it, was even more of a no brainer - cities look awesome in the rain and in low light - reflections, bright lights and extra textures. You were also never very far from the warm shelter or a shop or a tube station.

I’ve become a bit obsessed with the state of the weather since landscape photography became my biggest focus - will there be rain, how cold will it be, how bad is the wind when I get further up and into the hills? Is there any lightning forecast? What are the chances of a cloud inversion? Is there going to be mist?

The answers to all of the above will influence where I go and shoot and when I decide to go there. If you’re new to photographing in the Lake District, apps like Clear Outside, Ventusky, the BBC Weather App, and the Met Office Mountain Weather Forecast are essential for planning sunrise or sunset photography trips.

There’s some great apps to help you stay on top of this, don’t just rely on one, have a look at what they are all saying, some of my favourites are Clear Outside, Ventusky and the BBC Weather App. If you’re heading out into the hills, the you should always check the Met Office Mountain Weather Forecast. The last thing you want to be is stranded half way up or at the top of fell when the weather closes in, putting yourself and others who may have to come and fetch you down in danger.

Focus Stacking

This has been a real game changer for me, but it has taken some practice. Focus stacking is essentially a different version of exposure stacking, something which I had done in my city photographs to enhance the dynamic range. If you’re trying to achieve pin-sharp images of the fells from foreground to horizon, especially during golden hour, focus stacking is an essential technique for Lake District photography.

Focus stacking, on my camera at least, is a far more manual process. What focus stacking does is to combat some of the physical limitations of your lens and allows you to have all parts of your image either acceptably sharp or pin sharp. Essentially, you take several exposures of the same scene, with your camera mounted on a tripod (this is important, as if you move the camera, your attempts are over before the have even begun!), with each exposure focused on a different point. So, for example, you may focus on the foreground, take an image, then the mid ground and take another image, and then the horizon line and take another exposure. Three generally works well, you could do more, but this can make things more complicated in post production.

When you get back to your computer, you can do all of your light room edits etc. and then export the images to layers in Photoshop. Once in photoshop, you can ask it to automate this process for you, or you can use masks to have full control. It’s slightly more involved than that, and I will do a tutorial on this at some point in the future, but in the meantime, there are lots of tutorials on YouTube that will talk you through the process

I did far less focus stacking in the city than I do in the country, I think largely because my style has shifted and I want more of the scene in acceptable focus than I did in the city when the goal was often bokeh balls.

Slowing Down Your Process

This has been a big adjustment for me. In the city, everything moves a lot quicker, no one is taking their time. Opportunities for images can be fleeting, gone in seconds and won’t come back.

Thats’s not to say that things don’t change at all in the country, but there is more time to let a scene develop. You can stay in one spot and see various stages of light, see patterns change and wait for light to move to where you want it, especially if you’ve got some great dappled light illuminating the hills above Ullswater.

<— Not me in the image, I’ve used a stock image here!

When I was doing much more street photography, I always felt like I needed to be moving, whereas with landscape photography, you have time to slow down and take things in and wait for the opportunities to present themselves, photographing the scene in front of of you as it changes. The big difference is that sometimes, it can take a long time (and a lot of effort) to get to where you want to be. In the city, hop off the train or get out of the car, and generally you’re in amongst it. The country is often a lot more uphill and not as easy to access, but that’s all part of the fun!

You don’t limit yourself by staying in one place, you have time to explore what is in front of you and enjoy the way it changes - as the light moves, so will your eyes and you’ll notice things that you hadn’t thought about capturing only moments earlier.

Gear

This isn’t going to be a ‘does gear matter’ section, but a comment on the type of gear I’m using.

I used to rely heavily on fast lenses - I was using wide apertures for shallow depth of field and often needed the extra light for shooting in low light conditions. I have come to realise that I don’t need a plethora of fast lenses for what I am doing now. I am more concerned about image quality and sharpness, which helps with the cost of things as well - fast lenses are much more expensive. Take the Canon 16-35mm L series lens, there is a difference of almost £300 in the price of the F/4 version when compared to the latest version of the same lens with a maximum attitude of F/2.8. The F/4 versions are also a lot lighter, which is great in terms of carting it around with you all day.

I do still have a couple of fast lenses, namely an F/1.8 nifty fifty and an F/1.2L 85mm Prime. The 85 is a unit of a lens, weighs almost 2kg and is incredibly sharp. These two lenses also hardly ever come out with me unless its for a portrait session or I have a genuine use case for them in the field - 2KG is a lot to carry around all day and then not use! The 85mm was a staple of my bag in London, because of that shallow depth of field, and it was great in low light as the front element is like a bucket.

The lenses that tend to come out with me now are a 10-18mm EF, 16-35mm f/4L, 24-105mm F4/L and my 70-200mm F4/L. These save weight, cover the whole range of focal lengths and give me all the flexibility I could ever need.

Some things are a given for both styles - a sturdy tripod is a must, if it’s light weight, then even better, but expect to pay good money for the privilege. The other item that has been really useful is my Peak Design Camera Clip, which whilst a little pricey for its size, is a must have for when you are out walking, but you might want to get it back in your bag when the terrain starts to get a bit trickier. Better to break a tumble with your hands and not your camera and expensive lens!

What bag you put it all in is very much a personal choice, but for short walks, I like the LowePro Fast Pack , (you can read my review of the Lowepro Fastback here), and for longer walks I take the LowePro Protactic 450 AWII. The latter is a much bigger bag and it comes with hip straps, which make longer days much more comfortable, but it does lack space for your non-camera gear like a jacket or something to eat!

In Summary

I think it’s clear that there are a lot of similarities between the two different styles I have shot, but in short, we’re still taking photos, we’re still telling stories and we are still doing it using similar equipment. We are, to an extent very reliant on the weather but for different reasons.

For me, the biggest difference is the tempo that things move at in the landscape photography world, it’s slower and at times more methodical, with a greater need for focus stacking if you want that front to back sharpness in your images.

Which one would I choose? Well both of them. I still do some street photography and still really enjoy it; I enjoy the dynamism and the change of pace it offers from the much more pedestrian pace of landscape photography, but regardless of what I prefer, I just love being out with camera, taking images, sharing images and telling stories!

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10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Photography.

Beginner Photography Tips from Someone Who’s Been There

This blog contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This is a great way for you to support me! Thanks!

I have been working on a lot of things for beginner photographers in the last few weeks and a few people have had a read of my blog from last week, Essential Photography Gear for Beginners: What You Really Need to Get Started. https://chriskendrickphoto.co.uk/blog/what-gear-do-you-need-as-a-beginner-photographer

To this end, I thought I would go one further and think more about beginner photography and this led me to think about the things I wish I knew when I started taking photos. 

This turned into quite a long list (with some repetition!), which I have tried to distil into ten points below. I will try and keep it short and simple, but I do have habit of trying to share as much as possible - it’s all about helping each other. I’m not a gate keeper! 

So let’s jump into 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Photography…

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1. You Don’t Need an Expensive Camera to Take Great Photos

This one kind of touches on the “Does Gear Matter Question”. The answer to that, as we know, is yes. But also a resounding no. But, it does a bit and “categorically no”. 

Ultimately, what matters is that you have some gear AND you know how to use it. Some of the best time you can spend as a photographer  is time getting to know your camera (or the camera app on your phone!), what the buttons do, and more importantly, where they are. You will miss shots if you’re spending ages trying to remember what the buttons do and where they are. Its also well worth learning your menus, where to find things and what they all do.

But this doesn’t answer the question. The main point in the previous paragraph is “that you have some gear”. It doesn’t matter what that gear is, as long as it works and you know what you’re doing with it.

You can take a great photo on any camera. It doesn’t matter whether its a Hasselblad X2D or an Canon R5 MKII. Breson didn’t have either of these. Gilden doesn’t use one. What they do know how to do is to frame a shot, when to take the shot and how to edit the shot to make it exactly what they want. 

If you have camera that uses older tech, or you have a camera that is more basic, or you’re using your phone, you can take a great photo. 

Good photos mean something. Good photos say something. Good photos tell a story. You achieve a photo that does all of these things with any camera, be that the latest offering from one of the big companies, or a 20 year old DSLR. What matters is what or who you are taking photos of. 

This is one of the most important things I have learned. When I started out, I bought the best camera I could afford and paired it with a kit lens. I still have that camera now. I have added more lenses, but I still have that camera and use it most days. 

Another way to think about this. In “real life” I am a teacher and I have taught photography at A-Level. The best photography student I ever had, the one who took the best images was the student who had the cheapest camera (not just in their class, but across all 4 classes I taught) and they created some images that were genuinely first rate images. I always remind myself of this when I am looking longingly through the window of my local camera shop. 

2. Manual Mode Isn’t as Complicated as It Seems

It really isn’t. It might seem it, but it’s not. I promise. The thing you need to master is the exposure triangle. Conveniently, I have made a blog about the exposure triangle, which you can read here. https://chriskendrickphoto.co.uk/blog/a-beginner-photographers-guide-to-the-exposure-triangle

If you can master the basics of shutter speed, ISO and aperture. Get the hang of this, then you can start to think about white balance and picture profiles (if your camera supports them) and maybe go one step further and start to explore things like long exposure photography and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement). 

You should also look into aperture and shutter priority on your camera and learn to use these too.

3. Light Is the Most Important Part of Any Photo

It’s the name of what we do… The word “Photography” is taken from two Ancient Greek words “Photos” meaning light and “graphé” meaning to draw or write. Photography literally means “writing or drawing with light”. 

So yeah, light is kind of important! Without it, we can’t take images. 

But then we have low light, good light, bad light, soft light, hard light, specular light… and many more. 

A good space for us to start is Golden Hour. This is the light we have after sunrise and before sunset. The term  Golden is a bit of a misnomer, it can be about an hour, it can be 15 minutes and it’s also really dependent on the weather and atmospheric conditions where you are taking photos. If you’re covered in thick grey cloud, you aren’t going to get amazing golden light, but you will have some lovely soft light to work with.

It doesn’t have to be soft light though. Hard shadows can work really well and add drama to your photos, just look at the work of someone like Fan Ho, for example. He used harsh shadows to great effect in a lot of his work (he also shot on a dual lens reflex camera, not a mirrorless or a DSLR, because they hadn’t even been thought of at this point!) 

As you get more confident with your camera, you will find new ways to manipulate the light with long exposure and exposure stacking and this will produce you some awesome results!

Use your weather apps and maybe look at experimenting with apps like PhotoPills. They will help you to decide what the weather might be like at the location you are visiting and will tell you where the sun is going to be in the sky and this will enable you to pick the right place to make the most of the light. 

I’m going to include reflections in here as well, because they’re made of light too, right? Reflections are some of my favourite things to include in my shots; I used to live for a good reflection when I lived in the city, and the same is true now I live out in the sticks, they just tend to be a bit bigger in the countryside that in the city. But you don’t need a tarn in the Lake District with the reflection of a mountain, a puddle and tree can work just as well!

4. Composition Can Instantly Improve Your Photos

This is one of the most important things and one of the easiest ways to improve your images, quickly and cheaply. 

Composition as both a topic and a concept is HUGE. As a beginner, I didn’t know much about it, let alone the different types of composition. When I started out, I was just taking pictures of things I liked and sticking them in the middle of my frame. 

Then I learned about the rule of thirds, leading lines and the golden ratio. There’s more than this, but these are the three that you will hear the most about. You should go and find out about them and start using them - the difference you will see is huge. 

5. Editing Helps — But Subtlety Is Key

Editing is one of my favourite things to do. You need to know that it takes practice and you are constantly learning. You can never know everything about editing. 

When you first start out, one thing you are likely to do (I know I certainly did!) is to find the saturation, virbance and clarity sliders in Lightroom and drag them all or most of the way towards the right hand send. This will make your colours unnatural and it’s not a desirable look for your photos. 

Take your time, practice, look at other photorgapher’s work, watch YouTube videos to learn, but keep it subtle and let it look natural. 

When it comes to editing, less is more. Just like this section of the blog!

6. You’ll Take a Lot of Bad Photos — and That’s Fine

Time for clichés. 

We learn by making mistakes, so go out and make them. The only stupid mistakes you make are the ones that you don’t learn from (2 clichés already!).

But joking  (and clichés ) aside, embrace your mistakes, establish why it’s a mistake and then go out and try again. Rinse and repeat.  

(I’ve used stock images in this blog, but this one is mine, it was handheld and the exposure was too long for this method of taking the image, so it’s blurry and there’s camera movement!)

7. Stop Comparing Yourself to Everyone Else

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” Oscar Wilde. 

This was on the wall in a school I used to work in and it’s stuck with me. It works for so many things in life, but in this instance, it works really well. 

Don’t sit and compare your landscape shots to Ansell Adams’ work. Don’t compare your portraits to Annie Leibowitz and don’t compare your still like/commercial photos to Scott Choucino. These are well established professional photographers, have years of experience and have forgotten more about photography than most of us will ever know!

But aside from those I have mentioned above, don’t compare yourself to other photographers on social media. You’re not them and they are not you. Work on your own images and discover your own style!

8. Consistent Practice Beats Occasional Perfection

Use it or lose it. If you’ve ever played and instrument, you will know that you need to practise to get better. Stop practicing and it takes longer to learn the piece. If you’re a sports player and don’t train, you lose the skills you are developing and your fitness decreases and you don’t perform as well.

The same is true with photography. If I go out to shoot and haven’t done so for a couple of weeks, I really notice it and I find that it takes a while to get my eye in and I don’t always know where the camera controls are - this leads to missed shots and missed shot can’t be a good shot or a bad shot!

9. You’ll Start Noticing the World Differently

This sounds like a bit of a cop-out, but it’s true. You’ll notice leading lines, you will notice good light and you will notice that you don’t always have your camera with you when you wish you had - but we all have a camera in our pocket these days anyway, don’t we?

I have lost count of the number of times I have been driving home and have seen amazing light on the fells. The number of times I wish I had my camera with me or the the numbers of times I wished I wasn’t driving at 70mph watching the world zip by the car window is huge. 

If you look hard enough, everything can be a photo and as you practice more, you will begin to see that you can find images where you might not have thought there could be one. Even in harsh sunlight (which isn’t always the photographer’s friend), you will see that you start to see shadows that will make a great image!

10. Enjoy the Process

What is the point in doing it if you don’t enjoy it? It’s probably going to be difficult at times, but what you experience in difficulty, you will more than make up for in sense of achievement. 

Go out there and take lots of bad photos! Learn from the mistakes and use them to improve. Enjoy getting frustrated at the edits but having something beautiful at the end of it. 

I’d also recommend getting your photos printed. I print my own images but if I’m not printing them to hang on the wall or want smaller images, I use services such as Free Prints and get a stack of 6x4s delivered direct to the door for about three quid! It completes the process and brings everything full circle from scouting to shooting to editing, to having those prints in your hand - it’s nice to have a tangible reward at the end!

Photography is great fun, if at times it can be challenging and occasionally frustrating. It can be your best friend and your sanctuary, and it can also, at times, be your worst enemy and some subjects will become your nemesis, but it wouldn’t be fun if it were easy, right?

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Thanks for sticking with me through this post — I hope it’s helped you feel a little more confident on your photography journey. If it has, why not stay connected? You can follow me on Instagram and Facebook for regular tips, behind-the-scenes content, and new work. And if you’d like more beginner-friendly photography advice, early access to blog posts, and exclusive updates, make sure to sign up for my newsletter here. Let’s keep learning and creating together!

5 Quick (and free) Tips to Boost Your Photography

Nothing techy, nothing expensive, just 5 things that you can do today!

1: Shoot what you love and what you enjoy.

Don’t be a slave to social media and shoot what you think everyone else wants you to photograph. Photography should be something that you do because YOU enjoy it; i really believe that if you’re shooting what you enjoy, somewhere you enjoy doing it, then you will take better images because you will have more of a connection with your subject matter. It might be wildlife, it might be landscapes, it might be street, it might be commercial but it should be what you enjoy! I manage to combine my love of being outside with my photography, so I get the best of both worlds!

2: Look at the work of other photographers. 

Read photobooks, look on the internet, soak it all up! You don’t have to copy everyone else’s work but it's useful to have inspiration and to see how other people compose images.

If you can avoid all of the other distractions, then using the internet to do this is a great idea, but know what you want to find and then go find it!

Some of my favourites are Nigel Danson, James Popsys, Scott Choucino (these three have really active social media and YouTube channels and I have learned a TON from them!), Galen Rowell and of course, the master: Ansell Adams.

These aren’t the only photographers out there, so find ones that you like and learn about their photography!

3: Talk to other photographers!

This is where I have learned more than via any other medium, other than actually going out and shooting. And let’s be honest, if you’re talking with other photographers, you’re probably out shooting anyway! Talking to other photographers and shooting with them is one of the best ways to learn, to get better and to develop your skills.

4. Be Present. 

By this, I don’t just mean be there and be ready to get the shot. I mean be present in the moment, be aware of what is going on. Put your phone away, take the AirPods out, look and listen. Doing this meant that one a recent trip to a local viewpoint, I got to see things in the night sky that I haven’t seen before and it was really special. Allow of your senses to play a part in what you’re doing. Nothing beats being out early morning listening to the birds and watching the world come to life in front of you and capturing it with your camera.

5. Get out and shoot!

Make a plan and stick to it. Go out without a plan. But go out! 

Some of my best shoots have been spontaneous, some have been the planned shoots, but they all involved getting off my behind and going out and doing the thing that I love. New years day last year was a really special one - I was up early and took advantage of the empty streets (I was still living in London) and saw one of the best sunrises I saw in all of my time in London. It was a great start to the year!

Bonus Tip!

Take lots of photos - I see so many people who have gone out and taken 10 photos on the same photo walks where people have taken 300. It pays to have shots in the bank, because the more you take, the more chance you have having something different or something interesting. Taking fewer photos because you “know how to get the shot” doesn’t make you a better photographer, it means that you get shots that other people miss. 

Bonus Tip 2!

Know your camera. It should be like an extension of your body. READ THE MANUAL! Watch YouTube videos about your camera and find out everything it can do and then learn how to do it. There is nothing worse than seeing something amazing happening in front of and then having to faff about with your camera to dial in the settings meaning that you miss the shot. Even during the longest of golden hours, the good light can be there and gone in a minute (or even seconds!) and you don’t want to spend that time staring at your camera wondering why you can’t make it do what you want it to. Oh, and make sure that you’re shooting in raw so that you have the flexibility when you’re doing your post processing!

Keep Creating!

Chris

Does Photography Gear Matter ?

Welcome to my first blog! It’s a cold, sunny, Sunday morning here in Cumbria so I’ve made a brew and sat down to try and answer the question “Does photography gear matter?”. This a question that will have ten’s of thousands of answers out there on the wider internet, and I’m going to share my thoughts here.

Where to start?

There are thousands of camera options available to you, just as many lens options, there’s all of the different filter and tripod options and don’t even get me started on bags (this is a separate blog all on its own!).

I get asked a lot “what’s the best camera?” or “what’s the best lens for portrait/landscape/street?”. The best answer I have heard to these questions and the one I like the best is “the one you already have”. Even if that’s the one that you have on your phone. Phone cameras are getting better by the day, and some of them even shoot raw images, which give you more flexibility when you’re editing.

But what if you don’t already own any camera gear and want to move away from your phone, where should you start, what should you get and where should you buy it from?

In truth, if you have a budget of, for example, £1000 (about $1200US), then you should (in my opinion) look to spend about half of this on your camera and lens combination. Why? Because if it breaks or you break it, it gets full of water or some other unthinkable thing happens to it then you have enough in the bank to be able to replace it. So the best camera is the one that you have and the one that you can afford to replace. I’ll talk about your first lens later.

Buying you first camera and lens is only the beginning. Once you have made this purchase, you’ll need to think about what sort of photography you’re going to do and the conditions that you’re going to be shooting in. If it’s anything that’s likely to be in low light situations, then you’ll need a tripod if you’re going to get sharp images, free of camera movement, which you can be proud of.

Then you’re going to need to be able to move it all so a decent, comfortable camera bag will be essential. So out of our remaining £500, we’ve probably just spent another £50-75!

But what about your lens? This is an important decision. The quality of your glass is important and is probably one of the things that will have the biggest impact of the quality and feel of your images (vintage lenses create some great looks, when you’re ready to dive down that rabbit hole). Most consumer DSLR/mirroless cameras can be supplied with a “kit” lens. These are usually cheaper than premium lenses, but won’t be weatherproof, so be careful if you’re using it in the rain. Kit lenses are generally zoom lenses, which is great when you are just starting out as it means you’ve got a range of focal lengths covered so you can experiment, be flexible and have fun with your images. The Canon 18-55mm f/4.5-5.6 is a common kit lens that you can buy with their cameras. Just be sure the check that the lens is included in the price that you pay, as a general rule, DSLR/Mirrorless cameras don’t come supplied with a lens and you’ll have to buy this separately.

New or Secondhand?

This is a question that is likely to be dictated by your budget, but you also get a lot more bang for your buck if you are willing to make a second hand purchase. The secondhand camera market is huge and there are some bargains to be had if you know where to look. The best places to start this search are websites like MPB and Wex.

Both of these sellers are reputable UK brands who supply the kit with a warranty and everything is thoroughly checked before it goes on their websites, so you can be sure you’re not throwing money away and buying a dud.

3 of the lenses in my current set-up were bought secondhand and haven’t caused me a single problem and have proven to be great value for money.

You can also consider places such as Facebook marketplace and eBay, but make sure that you do your research and don’t get either ripped off or scammed!

There is also a large “grey market” for cameras. I won’t post any links here, but I am sure you will be able to do a quick Google search and make up your own mind. With regard to the grey market for cameras, you’ll get an authorised product but outside of the manufacturers authorised distribution channels. So you might buy a lens from a UK based seller, but the product wasn’t intended for the UK or European markets, meaning you don’t get any of the manufacturers warranty protection if something goes wrong.

Will people take me seriously?

Don’t worry about what other people think. Use what works for you; the most important thing is that you ‘get on’ with your setup. That being said, if you get booked to photograph a wedding and turn up with an iPhone and nothing else, you’re going to get some funny looks!

“Is this a professional camera?”, another question that gets asked repeatedly and one that doesn’t have a really well defined answer. Any camera can be a professional camera if you’re using it to make money. What portion of your income you need to be making to be considered professional is another discussion for another time! Also worth noting at this juncture, if you’re out shooting and you end up on private land (such as Canary Wharf in London or the area around Tower Bridge), you’ll probably told by a security guard that any camera that has an interchangeable lens is a professional camera so that they can make you stop and move you on (always be polite and do what they ask, it makes it easier for everyone else who has to encounter them in the future); luckily, you’ll probably have another camera in your pocket anyway.

So, does gear matter?

Yes.

And no.

And also maybe. To some extent.

If you’re reading this and you have made it this far, chances are you’ve read a few articles on this topic and heard a number of different opinions.

If you have a camera on your phone and you’re happy with it then great! If you want some more flexibility in what you do then you may want to consider your first DLSR/mirrorless purchase.

Gear matters if you let it matter. Going out and buying a Canon R5 with an L series lens is going to set you back in excess of £6500 and isn’t going to make you a better photographer, no matter what your experience level. It will create lovely files with lots of data that will be great to edit, but they won’t necessarily be “good photos”. If you’re spending this kind of money on your first camera because “it will encourage me to go out and shoot” then the chances are that in 6 months time you’re going to have a very expensive ornament sat on your shelf! Remember the old adage that photography happens in the space between the photographer’s ears.

The resolution/megapixel count on newer cameras is huge, which is great if you’re drastically cropping images and want to retain the image quality. But bear in mind, that if you’re after the resolution, then consider the Canon 5DS or 5DSR. Both of these have more megapixels (50.3MP) than the R5 and are now about 8 years old so can be found for about £5000 less than the newer cameras.

What matters most is that you’ve got a setup that works for you and that you can use easily, confidently and that allows you to be out there making photos. You can’t make images if you don’t get out to take them!