PEAK PERFORMANCE 388 BEST SHOTS FRPS

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1 388 BEST SHOTS FRPS PEAK PERFORMANCE Celebrated landscape photographer Colin Prior FRPS talks about his love of mountains and the exciting Karakoram project with Geoff Harris LRPS

2 FRPS BEST SHOTS 389 K2 AND THE GODWIN-AUSTEN GLACIER, PAKISTAN 'This image of K2 dates from my trip to the Karakoram in I was using an Ebony 5 x 4 camera and seven lenses, so I was weighed down, and had two personal porters. I wanted to shoot in a similar way to some of the early photographic explorers of the mountain, such as Vittorio Sella. I still don t know how Sella did it, using a massive camera, heavy lenses and so on. He even shot panoramas. My image was taken from the upper Vigne Glacier, named after botanist and geologist Geoffrey Vigne. This image looks good in black and white because it shows K2 with a pyramidal shape. The Schneider APO 400mm lens gives lots of compression.'

3 390 BEST SHOTS FRPS Colin Prior is on a high at the moment literally. When we speak, in addition to running workshops on the Scottish Highlands, he is busy planning to return to his beloved Karakoram mountains in north Pakistan. The Karakoram range is at the western end of the Himalayan chain, Prior explains. It s a four-year project and I m going to try to document these amazing mountains in a way that s never previously been attempted. Prior first went to the Karakoram range in 1996 and believes the mountains have haunted his dreams ever since. What appeals to me as a landscape photographer is the shape of the mountains they are unique and THE GASHERBRUMS FROM THE GONDOGORO LA 'This is a good example of a panorama from the Karakoram, showing the peaks of the Gasherbrums. For this image I used a Fujifilm GX617 panoramic film camera with a 300mm lens.' 390 / THE RPS JOURNAL / JULY 2014 / VOL 154

4 FRPS BEST SHOTS 391 ULI BIAHO TOWER (LEFT) 'This shows the tower and the Baltoro Glacier, and was shot at dawn with a mm lens. It typifies the drama of the Karakoram. Landscape like that is hard to find. The Karakoram range lends itself to telephoto lenses, which I like as you don t suffer from so much keystoning and other distortion. I hate distortion in mountain photography and will also use a 24mm tilt and shift lens to keep the graphics of the mountain pure.' COLIN S FIVE ESSENTIAL TIPS SIMPLE IS BEST Strive for simplicity when 1 shooting mountains, and don t make things too complex SOLAR POWER Try to work at the best 2 times of year, when the sun is in the best position. You need to work out the optimal angle of the sun, through reconnaissance QUALITY NOT QUANTITY It s best to shoot mountains 3 when the light quality is better. The composition is enhanced by low light, so either shoot early or late USE EFFECTS SPARINGLY Don t pump up the 4 saturation in software. If there is no light, you can t create it. I ve judged two competitions this year and I see lots of these landscapes on steroids AVOID CLICHÉ Aim for originality. 5 There is a lot of cliché in landscape photography and everyone tends to shoot in the same place, so everyone s images look the same. Try to capture intimate images that distil something from the landscape VOL 154 / JULY 2014 / THE RPS JOURNAL / 391

5 392 BEST SHOTS FRPS beautiful. Because they are made from hard granite they are weather resistant, so they have these lovely, elegant shapes. They are more like towers and cathedrals than the bulky mountains you get in Nepal. It s a vertical landscape, so it s quite a different photographic challenge from the long, wide landscapes fo r which I m known.' The project which is supported by Rab, Lee Filters and Lowepro will take Prior up the to end of 2017, with a book and exhibition planned for autumn It sounds fantastic, but is remote Pakistan not a bit of a risky place for a western photographer with lots of expensive gear? Prior is phlegmatic. 'I ll be working with many of the guides and cooks I used last time, and in this part of Pakistan, called Baltistan, the locals are keen for more western photographers and trekkers to visit as it s good for the economy.' Since winning an underwater photography competition, Camera Beneath the Waves, at the age of 23, Prior has built a strong reputation as a commercial photographer and, more recently, as a specialist in landscape and mountains. 'In the 90s I landed a dream commission shooting the British Airways calendar, which took me all over the world first class. Photographing mountains has always been my passion, though. People ask me why I don t photograph wildlife; for me, landscapes give the best opportunity to express how I feel about the natural world. All the building blocks are there.' LICHENS AND WILD FLOWERS, DALSAN (ABOVE) 'A problem of shooting mountains is that you can end up with a lot of blue and white in your images. I like to find images within landscapes landscapes in miniature, if you like. This was taken on the 5x4 Ebony camera in 2004.' TRANGO TOWERS (RIGHT) 'Shot earlier this year, it s taken from the campsite at Urdakas at dawn. I was lucky, as the sun broke through a veil of mist for a brief moment. The light is strong, but there is still an ethereal quality. I used a mm f/2.8 lens on the Canon EOS-1D X.' 392 / THE RPS JOURNAL / JULY 2014 / VOL 154

6 FRPS BEST SHOTS 393 MARSCO AND GARBH BHEINN, RED CUILLIN, FROM BLAVEN, SKYE 'This was taken two years ago on the summer solstice. I slogged to the top with a 55lb rucksack, and waited for the sun to drop in the sky. To my horror, a weather front moved in but after about 20 minutes the rain stopped. The sun put this amazing light on Red Cuillin. I used a Fujifilm GX 167, a 90mm lens and a 0.9 grad filter to hold back the sky. This image will be in my new book, Scotland s Finest Landscapes (pub. Constable).' IN THE BAG } Lowepro bag } Canon EOS-1D X SLR } Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L } Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 Mk II } Canon tilt-and-shift TS-E 24mm f/3.5 } Canon TS 90mm f/2.8 } Canon mm f/2.8 L Mk II } Canon EF-300mm 1:2.8 L IS } Canon RS-80N3 remote release } Lee filters, mainly ND grads and a polariser VOL 154 / JULY 2014 / THE RPS JOURNAL / 393

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