I am a mountaineer, photographer and writer on the mountains of Britain and The Himalaya; born and educated in Liverpool, I now live in the village of Invermoriston in the Scottish Highlands. My interest in mountains and photography was awakened during a visit to Snowdonia in 1972 and inspired further by images published from the British Everest and American K2 Expeditions in 1975. This would subsequently encourage me to research, organise and then lead trekking, climbing and photographic expeditions to Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, India and Pakistan.
A once casual interest in photography became a passion to capture on film the remarkable places that I visited in a way that conveyed the simplicity of their natural beauty. However, I remain a mountaineer at heart so my images are always taken from that perspective; over the years this has developed into a distinctive and instantly recogniseable style that focuses predominantly on the mountains and their immediate environs.
I was out one evening last month looking for a familiar viewpoint to test out my new 85mm standard lens against the same result from the 70-200mm zoom. The Five Sisters of Kintail from the recently reconstructed and resurfaced Mam Ratagan brae seemed to be a good choice given the lovely early evening light on the snow capped mountains.
I was delighted with the results which vindicated my decision to move from zoom to fixed focal length lenses. The sharpness and resolution achieved with this lens on the Nikon D850 is amazing and I swear I could almost see the maker's name on the jacket of the guy standing on the mountain opposite !! As always, great dynamic range on this camera with all the subtle tones of the scene perfectly replicated.
The attached file is a stitched panorama of five images taken in vertical format. Minimal processing through Lightroom to adjust for highlights with the lightest of sharpening required to finish.
The mountains of the Five Sisters of Kintail across Loch Duich from the Mam Ratagan Pass.
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