Photography News issue 26

Photography News Issue 26 absolutephoto.com

Interview

Pro focus Travelling Light Landscape pro Steve Gosling is hosting an exhibition and talk in the Lake District this winter. We managed to catch up with Steve for a quick chat during a busy autumn of photography up and down the country

some of my favourite images taken over the last two years.

in real time so it takes all the guesswork out of the process.

Interview by Megan Croft

How did the exhibition come about? I’ve not had an exhibition for a few years and I’ve been busy producing new work so it felt like now was a good time to share that with a wider audience. I particularly wanted to showcase my Olympus images as I’ve been very happy with thequalityI’mgettingfrommyOM-Dcameras. I think it’s an opportunity for those whose are sceptical about the Micro Four Thirds system to come and judge for themselves. Olympus UK, Lee Filters and PermaJet all kindly agreed to sponsor the exhibition so that has helped tremendously with budgeting for the show – putting on something like this is an expensive affair. Can you tell us about the content of the exhibition? How many pictures are on show and are they from one area or a mix? Did you shoot specifically for the show? There are 30 prints in both colour and monochrome taken in various locations in this country (predominantly the Lake District but also Northumberland and Scotland) and overseas, the USA, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, one of my favourite locations. Many of the Lake District shots were taken in the last 12 months specifically for the show but primarily the exhibition is a collection of

Please can you expand on your inspiration for the exhibition’s title, Travelling Light ? It’s a play on words really. I’ve been using Olympus OM-D cameras and lenses for landscapes since their launch in 2012 and one of the reasons for my switch from a DSLR was the reduced size and weight of the Micro Four Thirds system. Hence Travelling Light . My first Micro Four Thirds camera was the Olympus PEN E-PL2 in 2011 – it reminded me very much of my old Olympus Trip 35 so it was a sentimental acquisition originally. I’d always had a soft spot for the Olympus camera design ethos and the quality of its optics and found that the PENs and then the OM-Ds carried on this tradition. Also, the range of available high-quality lenses has always been a strength of the Micro Four Thirds system so that was an attraction. Most importantly though the PENs and the OM-Ds deliver the quality I’m looking for so there’s no need to look elsewhere. I’ll happily print to 30x20in from an Olympus Raw file. What is the most used feature of your Olympus camera? It has to be the Live Bulb feature. As a lover of long-exposure landscape photography this innovative feature, which gives an updated indication of how the exposure is ‘developing’

What lenses do you have in your bag? I have all the Olympus primes, 12mm, 17mm, 25mm, 45mm, 60mm macro and 75mm, and used these regularly until the pro zooms were launched. I have both the 12-40mm f/2.8 and 40-150mm f/2.8 pro zooms. Their constant wide maximum aperture is a boon and their performance is up there with the primes. Are there any lenses that you would like Olympus to introduce? I’m hoping to be an instructor on a workshop to Antarctica next year so I’m looking forward to the launch of the 300mm f/4 pro lens – that’ll be ideal for this trip. Occasionally it’d be good to have a tilt-shift lens but the extensive depth-of-field given by the Micro Four Thirds format means it’s not usually an issue. What other kit do you generally take on a landscape shoot? A Gitzo tripod – I have a Traveller tripod and Series 2 and 3 tripods from the Mountaineer range fitted with an Arca Swiss geared head. For filters I use the fantastic quality Lee Filters – the 100mmsystem for the pro zooms and the Seven5 filters for the primes – with everything in a MindShift backpack. The rotation 180° Pro is probably the best photo backpack I’ve ever used.

Most importantly though the PENs and OM-Ds deliver the quality I’m looking for so there’s no need to look elsewhere

Above left Steve uses a tripod for most of his pictures and graduate filters make a frequent appearance too. Above right “I have a saying, ‘if I haven’t got wet then I probably haven’t got a good shot,” says Steve. This picture is called Heavy rain.