Altiplano, Bolivia.
Phase One A-series, IQ4 150mp, 180mm Rodenstock lens, f11 @ 1/60 second, ISO 50, 2 minutes exposure averaging.

I love photographing mountains, so as a travel photographer, that’s reason enough to fill my photo books with a range of different ranges! But should you take photos of mountains in different locations because, surely, one mountain is much the same as another? How does it really tell the story of your journey?

I can already hear the geologists recoiling in alarm from such a misguided thought. And Australian readers will immediately know the differences in mountains with our highest ‘hill’ barely exceeding 2000 metres, compared to the 8000+ metre peaks of the Himalayas.

While mountains might be similar from one place to another here and there, I can usually find many differences, from the European alps punctuated with little mountain huts to the treeless, rounded giants of Bolivia’s altiplano. And if our role as a travel photographer is to record what we see and find, then surely mountains are a worthy subject. I mean, if you were to discount mountains because you find them everywhere, can’t the same argument be mounted for people, buildings, trees and waterfalls?

And this is the point: there are differences even in places that appear much the same and in many ways, this is what travel photographers are recording – what makes a location distinctive. So, if you like photographing mountains, there’s no reason they can’t become an integral part of your travel diet.

On this occasion, high on Bolivia’s Altiplano, we’d arrived at our destination just before sunrise to photograph reflections on a high alpine lake – and it was spectacular with the mountains and clouds mirrored on the glassy smooth waters. However, with the sun rising, a whole new light show began as its light wrapped around the huge peaks behind us. Perhaps these were the better photographs…

I photograph mountains with a wide-angle lens technique like everyone else, trying to fit it all in, but invariably I also pull out a telephoto so I can explore the mountains in closer detail. What I’m trying to find is a grouping of shapes that creates a pleasing, balanced composition.

It can be difficult to look at a scene in three dimensions and imagine what it will look like in two, so I’m not afraid to bang off a couple of frames and then look at them critically on the camera’s LCD screen. While I’m a lot better at knowing what will work these days, I still find this process useful to confirm that I’m seeing the shapes properly.

Of course, it’s not just the shapes of the mountain, but the lines that join and separate the shapes, and the areas of sky and cloud above as well. Each element needs to fit correctly within the frame, but you don’t need to stick to your viewfinder ratio. The only frame that matters is the final edge that surrounds your photograph. For this image, I was going through a ‘square’ phase – I still am to some extent!

Subscribers to my Landscape Photography MasterClass can review a number of my mountain photographs – or if you’re not yet a subscriber, you can find out more here.