Bhutan mountain landscape.
Phase One XF, 100MP Trichromatic back, 240mm Schneider-Kreuznach lens.

After three trips to Bhutan, I thought it was time to try something different. In the past, I’ve taken a DSLR or CSC as being a sensible camera for travel photography – and they are. This time, I thought let’s give it a go on medium format (and there is a complete article on my thought process coming up in the September issue of Better Photography).

There are challenges with medium format, especially if you’re going to shoot hand-held as is so often demanded in a travel photography context. So I pushed the ISO to keep my shutter speeds high and it all worked remarkably well.

Then it came to post production and on this particular day, I thought a desaturated look with lots of grain could be appropriate. Interestingly, the day was so grey that I have actually saturated the colours to get the desaturated look, but I am digressing.

I love the way mountains stack themselves one on top of the other, especially if you view them with a telephoto lens because it adds to the compression and isolates the shapes and patterns that are so easily seen with the eye.

So, from 100-megapixel, tripod mounted perfection to a hand-held, high grain rendition. I’m certainly not the only photographer to have used this technique, but it’s always good to try something that is new for you.