First Landscapes, With Hasselblad
Rocks and Ribbons
September 2016. Highlands Scotland.
I’d just flown in from Sweden. In Sweden i had just acquired my first serious Hasselblad digital camera. The mercurial Hasselblad H6D50c.
In Australian dollars that was $30,000. Add some lenses in there, crank the price up to $34,000aud. I took out a loan.
Its not a long flight from Stockholm to Edinburgh and the rent a car and off you go. Racing roads and visually generous landscapes.
These were the first ever landscape shots I took with the serious camera.
I really had no idea. No foreground, our of focus, shutter speed too low, making things blurry.
No idea of composition.
So I went back over these photos to consider how disoriented I used to be, to learn from my mistakes and clearly see where there is so much room or improvement.
Nonetheless, the scene and the camera does the work for you.
Some of these images might be gallery worthy. Maybe, but I’d love to go back there with a 100mp Hasselblad X2d and do it right.
But for now, these images, and this learning curve are ornate nostalgia
Cradle Plain
Layers of grass, leading to a cradle in the mountains.
Outpost
Sentinel ruins in the sun, background a storm.
I like the elements of grass, storm, tree, mountain, lake… in a decent balance. Sun at the front, gloom at the back.
Peering through the trees, these mossy rocks looked expertly arranged. Bold emerald green in the filtering sunlight.
A bit of a touristy shot. Lessons learned.
Alex James, 2023
