Recently we revealed the winners of this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year. We’ve now got more insight from three winners who took particularly inspiring shots, including overall winner, Chris Frost. They also talk more about the equipment they used – as  you can see, they didn’t all use cutting-edge gear. You can now pick up a used Nikon D3200, as used by overall winner Chris Frost, for under £170 from MPB for example.

Nikon D3200, f/11, 0.5 seconds, ISO 400

Chris Frost: Landscape Photographer of the Year 2020
“Living near the coast, seascapes were my initial photographic passion, but over the last three years woodland photography has captured my imagination – their tranquility a stark contrast to shooting storms and crashing waves. When I captured this image, I’d planned on shooting a misty bluebell scene, but arrived to harsh lighting devoid of mist, so went exploring for something new.

Smelling wild garlic long before I stumbled upon this little meandering path, I knew I’d found something special. Knowing that with the right light and morning mists it would look amazing, I returned the next two days until the conditions were perfect – that perseverance paying huge dividends. Photography has really opened my eyes to the natural beauty around us and allowed me to experience scenes others do not get to see; a lot of that joy coming from the exploration and experimentation required to find something that’s new and original.”

To see more of Chris’ work, see his website.

Nikon D810, f/6.3, 1/500 sec, ISO 500

Graham Eaton: Landscapes Special Award Winner
“It’s important to me to come up with my own ideas, so I’m always looking for alternative viewpoints and perspectives. This was a classic example of being in the right place at the right time. It was early one winter morning, and I was driving to another location to shoot something else, but I couldn’t get the view I wanted because the fog was really low across the estuary.

I went to another location, and as I arrived there was a part in the fog that revealed the wind farm, and then the flock of birds flew across at exactly the right time – it made the shot. I like to get it right in the camera, rather than use Photoshop. I shot this on a Nikon D810, with a 70-200mm lens and a LEE graduated filter. I wanted to capture the detail as I was planning to make a big print of it, so I knew I needed a lot of pixels and the D810 was perfect.”

To see more of Graham’s work, see his website.

Canon EOS 250D, f/1.8, 1/320 sec, ISO 400

Josh Elphick: Young Landscape Photographer of the Year
“This shot wasn’t too much about the lighting or conditions – there was no waiting for the mist to roll in or for the wave to be right. I’ve always wanted to have a sheep as the subject of a photo, rather than in the background, so when I saw them by the fence while I was walking my dog I jumped on the opportunity. sI shot this on my Canon 250D with a 50mm f1.8 lens to get a really shallow depth of field, but I also love shooting skate photography with my 8mm fisheye lens to get that classic look.

I’ve just started using a Pentax film camera too – I’ve just come back from holiday and everything I shot was on black and white film. I love composing images and lining everything up like I do with my DSLR, but shooting it on film is a new challenge, and I love how it looks.” To see more of Josh’s work, visit: IG@_joshelphick_

Further reading
Going it on foot: how to get great landscapes locally