Call of the Mountains E-Book

In this 143-page e-book, you will learn everything I teach in the field about mountain landscape photography. From moody telephoto images to getting tack-sharp, sprawling foregrounds to accompany those vast peaks. Come with me on a journey across the Alps, Norwegian mountains, Icelandic Highlands, the Cuillin and the Dolomites as I explain my process in great detail.

Previews of this E-book

Call of the Mountains

Mountains are among my favorite subjects to photograph and offer fine locations to explore. No matter where in the world they jut out from the Earth. In this book, I will offer insight into what floats my proverbial boat when I work with considerable elevation in front of my lens. The idea here is that gear follows technique and technique follows inspiration. As such, I cannot emphasize enough how important creative vision is. And with mountain photography perhaps even more so than with any other subject within the realm of landscape photography. As you will come to understand in this first part, understanding what goes on in my mind is the first step into getting results that look like my photos, should that be your goal. Eventually though, as we move through this book, it becomes apparent that it is both more important and rewarding to discover your own fascination with mountains by capturing and processing them in a way that is meaningful to you.

  • 143 page interactive PDF

  • Widescreen format and high-res images and screenshots

  • Comprised of five parts.

Chapters in this E-book

Foreword

Part One: Creative Vision

  • Whispers of the Mountains 6

  • Greener Pastures 7

  • Catharsis 12

  • What I See when Looking at Mountains 13

  • Copying Me 14

  • Finding Inspiration in the Puzzle 15

  • MTG Basic Lands 17

  • The Puzzle 18

Part Four: Composition

  • Analysis: “Crags and Glory” 59

  • Analysis: “Last Beauty Before Mordor” 60

  • Analysis: “For my Demons” & “Fimbulwinter” 62

  • Analysis: “Paradise Warfare” 63

  • Analysis: “The Tattered Spire” 64

  • Analysis: “Touching the Void” 66

  • Luminosity: The Importance of Receding Contrast 70

  • Modes of Contrast in Lightroom and Camera Raw 72

  • The Basis for Luminosity: Exposure 73

  • Color and the Mood of your Mountains 74

  • Monochrome 74

  • Analogous color harmony 75

  • Complementary color harmony 76

  • Split complementary color harmony 77

  • Double complementary or quad color harmony 78

  • Conclusion 79

Part Two: Coveted Mountain Light

  • Scouting Mountains 20

  • Finding Compositions in the Digital Age 21

  • The Concept 21

  • Finding Foregrounds 23

  • Composition Commitment 24

  • Subjects 25

  • Ghostly Mountains 25

  • What Makes a Ghostly Mountain? 25

  • Techniques for Peaks 26

  • Flowers 27

  • Inside the Mountains: Canyons and Caves 28

  • Waterfalls, Rivers and Glaciers 29

  • Finding Foregrounds 30

  • Conditions 32

  • Mist, Pouring Rain and Darkness 32

  • Twilight 33

  • Sunrise 34

  • Snow 35

  • Above the Clouds 36

  • Nightscapes in the Mountains: The Milky Way 37

  • Nightscapes in the Mountains: The Northern Lights 38

Part Five: Post-Production Cases

  • The complete recreation of “Dauntless” 80

  • The complete recreation of “Poltergeist Pass” 118

Part Three: The Technicalities of a Great Image

  • Gear: What to bring up there 40

  • In my bag 40

  • Sensor Sizes 41

  • Camera Settings: The rules and when to break them 42

  • Raw 42

  • Exposure 42

  • Getting sharp images 45

  • Deliberate non-sharp images 47

  • Technical, but Practical - Steps to Technically Perfect Raw Files 47

  • (Ultra) wide lenses and sweeping foregrounds 47

  • For manual focus bracketing 48

  • Note for automatic focus bracketing 48

  • Note for automatic focus stacking 48

  • Telephoto images (Ghostly Mountains) 49

  • Capturing birds 50

  • Big Foregrounds - Minimum Focus Distance 51

  • Focus Stacking 52

  • How many images are required for focus stacking? 53

  • Automating Focus Stacking (Focus Bracketing) 54

  • Working with Distant Objects 55

  • Perspective Blending 55

  • Focal Length Blending 55

  • The Overwhelming Puzzle 55

  • Composite Images 56

Specs, how to download and other fine print

After payment, you will download a zip-file. Unpack it. The e-book is inside and split into parts.

Note that this is a Digital Download product. No physical DVD or USB thumb drive is included.

I do not offer refunds on digital products.

  • 143 pages.

  • Interactive PDF (use the chapter links in the contents to jump to that chapter).

  • High resolution images.

  • No secrets, all my techniques exposed.

  • English.