You are one of the few landscape photographers that consistently takes time to walk us through your thoughts on composition with supplemental B-roll, examples, text overlays, and angles. You don't post fluff just because you have a YT release schedule. You post when there's something interesting to show/say.
I second that! I love watching your videos, Andy. I learn more from you than 10 others combined. I seek out on YT to see if you’ve posted anything new. Says a lot.
Thanks Andy for for a brilliant film. Even by your high standards, this was exceptional documentary making. The landscape is jaw-droppingly beautiful, your images are stunning and the most basic slide show would be worth watching. However, it’s your story telling, explaining not just what you’ve captured but the thought processes behind it that make this so inspiring. Just brilliant!
These are absolutely stunning! I love the way you articulate the scene with a delicate taste. I mean, nothing is too crispy or too contrasty. Love your works. Please keep them coming. You are a big inspiration to me. Greetigs from Turkiye. 🙋🏻
Living in the Pacific Northwest (Olympic Peninsula), I am thoroughly engaged with this series. So excited to see the upcoming locations of the southwest and when you travel to the PNW. Being a Fuji shooter myself, I have learned so much from your videos that are specific to the gear I shoot with. Seeing your images with your X-T5, 10-24, and 70-300 gives me so many specific ideas for my same equipment. Love your style of videos that walk the viewer through your thought process and why the shots you love work and why the poorer shots lack that special something. I'm a relatively new subscriber as I stumbled onto your channel when searching for reviews for the 10-24, but am thoroughly excited to have found your channel for a variety of reasons and specifically for those I mentioned here.
Thanks so much for the comment, really glad you enjoy the videos. The PNW is lovely, and we spent a few days in Olympic National Park, which is stunning, but we had really really bad weather, which made shooting pretty challenging
@@AndyMumford those conditions you speak of are pretty much the norm here for half to 3/4 of the year. But, summers are consistently epic. 2 out of the last 3 summers we have traveled to the Maritime Provinces, but each of those summers we’ve encountered heat, rain, and bugs. None of which we see here on the Olympic Peninsula from June-August. Lesson learned as we’re committing to staying here at least for this summer. Again, thanks for your channel! The hard work you put into each video is greatly appreciated! All the best!
Thanks for sharing Andy! I’ve flown over and spent time in cities in the Southwest, but have never really had the chance to explore. Loved seeing it and your images (always). Looking forward to the upcoming Pacific NW videos. My neighborhood. Cheers!
Some great photos of that spire. I particularly liked 6:23 It can be tough photographing in the desert SW (I'm in AZ during the winter) when so much of the day is lit by harsh bright sun.
Thanks so much for the comment. Yeah, we actually didn't get ideal photography weather for most of the trip with clear skies on most of the sessions, which meant often dealing with hard contrasts. It's an incredible place though
Fantastic stuff as always! The drone really paid off on this one. I did a trip through Southwest including Utah many years ago - Canyon Lands, Arches, etc, and shot on film on my old Canon T90, still some of my favorites!
Absolutely wonderful video and images. Its so great to hear your thought process behind each of the frames. The images with the trees at 7:35 are outstanding!!! Cheers 😊
Thanks Neil, hope you're well. Those tree images are among my favourites and I was super happy to have spotted that comp from the road...but they're the kind of images that don't stand out well on social media unfortunately.
My thoughts too re. the image of the trees. Interesting that it was a more intimate long lens shot that stood out despite the endless opportunities for wide panoramas.
Beautiful content Andy. Had I known you were here in the States I could have taken you to White Sands Nat’l Monument which is simply stunning! Not too terribly far from Utah😊
Cheers Jim, hope you're well. it would have been great to catch up, but we were on a tight schedule and new in reality we were going to miss so much more than we could ever see. We didn't get to Zion or Arches in Utah alone, so for sure there's lots of reasons to go back, and White Sands is on the list
Stunning Photography ❤.If you ever done any workshop in Indian, I will attend.. PS I have observed you are not using 10-24 anymore.. Any specific reason in terms of image quality??
I still use the 10-24mm, but it really depends on the trip. Sometimes I take the GFX, and on this trip I wanted to try out the 8mm prime, which is excellent
I made the drive from Calgary, Alberta, in November 2023, and, for the first time, toured Utah, Nevada, and a sliver of Colorado as the main destinations. I, too, was disappointed by the ATV access to so much accessible space within the State and National Parks that there were some beautiful areas that I just won't return to 😢
It's true, it's pretty sad that large parts of the landscape in that area are ruined now. it will take years and years for those tyre tracks to go away, even if they banned ATVs right now. Coming for Europe where we have almost no wilderness left, I was amazed at the incredible amounts of wilderness they have in the US, but at the same time, it's disappointing to see it taken for granted like this. That's a hell of a drive from Calgary. After the South west we drove up the west coast to Seattle and it's a very very long way
@@AndyMumford It's because the area around Factory Butte is a dedicated OHV area so it's one of the very few places in Utah you can legally go off trail. I do agree they should not allow OHV travel around Factory Butte and just let the OHV stuff happen at Swing Arm City a tiny bit south.
Hi Andy- I noticed you used the XF16-80mm and XF70-300mm lens combination versus your usual XF10-24mm and XF55-200mm... any specific reason for this? Thanks for all! And beautiful shots!
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed the video. I tend to use different lenses for different trips, and the 70-300mm goes well with the 16-80 as it gives incredible flexibility. I always have an ultra wide lens with me though, so this trip the 8mm prime replaced the 10-24mm.
I've been watching your videos from years past to the more recent ones and I learned a lot.Very very high quality videos, many thanks Andy! I'm wondering if you could give some advice on how to make a career that would allow you to travel around the world and explore so many wonderful places.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoy the videos. There's not an easy answer to your question, and there's not a particular recipe for making a career. In my own case it took A LOT of time and large slices of luck. I spent 11 years improving my photography and building my portfolio with one trip a year while I worked in another job as an English teacher, writing blogs and articles for magazines, making a few hundred dollars here and there, then taught myself how to make videos to turn my blogs into videos until after 9 years I could go part time teaching and do photography part time, and then another 2 years before I switched to photography full time. Then 5 more years building to where I am now. I might put a video about it together one day.
Dear Andy, many thanks for your reply! Your work is just so impressive that I got the impression that you've been working with photography for a very long time, obviously you're even more talented than i imagined😆! Thank you very much for sharing your story with me, obviously there're always a lot more behind the scenes. I'll keep following and looking forward to see more photography expeditions from you!@@AndyMumford
Impressive! Would be interesting to know how you planned for this trip and getting the gear (and guide?) to make it all happen. Like, how did you know where to go for starters?
Thanks for the comment. This trip was years in the planning and a huge amount of research went into finding locations. Often it's seeing images of places and then tracking them down on GoogleEarth, which can take hours, but it's quite satisfying when you solve it. Others are spots that are known, which just take a bit of googling, and often we'd go in the middle of the day to find shooting locations for the rolling sunrise. I didn't use a guide, I was travelling with a couple of friends, and we all spent lots of time suggesting spots to go and shoot. As for the gear, there's nothing specific that I needed for this trip that isn't typical of any photography trip really.
@@AndyMumford Thanks Andy, for the gear, sorry, i was referring (in my mind) to the vehicle, tire pumps, off road knowledge, etc. I know in some of those places it can cost upward to $1000 to get towed out if you can find someone to do it. Thanks again, really enjoying your work on this.
Great landscape -- not sure , if the shots do it justice though. Somehow I miss clear language and perhaps either more drama, be it with shapes or color or structure -- whatever. But even more I would love to go there and do great B&W`s -- just quite big format -- Ansel-Adams-like black and white photographs ! That would be my passion !
@@AndyMumford I am sure that your photographs are really good -- I just wanted to say that perhaps when encountering these astonishingly unique landscapes one can be overwhelmed and it is for sure very difficult to abide to ones own style or vision for the art of pictures which one wants to find and come home with. I feel at least the same way when being at a place in nature which is just breathtakingly impressive . How can we make a good decision ? Which lenses and perspective to choose -- of course the light is the most crucial factor and then we often do not have much time at all. So perhaps it is just the matter of timing and patience and a very subjective and personal style in the end that leads to a completely convincing result ! I did not want to criticize too harsh really -- rather thought of my own way if I would be encountered to this amazing and also challenging situation ! IT would be difficult for me to stay concentrated on my work and to not be taken away by the surrounding elements !!
Love those abstracts Andy! Just wondering I noticed you still use the Air 2s, rather than an updated drone. Is that due to the 1 inch sensor for photos?
Thanks so much. I have both the Air 2S and Mavic 3 Classic, and the photo quality is very similar on both (both 20mp, but the Mavic has better dynamic range and low light qualities). I took the Air 2S because I really didn't expect to be using the drone as much as we did, and it's much smaller.
Thanks so much for watching. I use KASE ND filters, always with a fixed graduation. Vari-NDs tend to vignette a lot (a consequence of having two circular filters revolve against each other) and personally I think they're only useful for video, not still photography
I still have the 55-200mm, I just borrowed the 70-300 for this trip. It works really well with the 16-80, but if you don't have that lens, I'd really miss the gap between 55 and 70mm
The butte you visited that was defaced with so many ATV tracks-I won't use its name-had, for decades, remained pristine. This changed only recently under the Trump administration. Despite the fact that there is a similar area just miles away dedicated to ATV use, the BLM opened the area surrounding the butte to ATV use as well. All of the damage to the landscape you witnessed has occurred in less than a decade as a result. This (as well as the condition of the area around the spire) really demonstrates the fragility of these formations. They need to be protected. To be clear, I'm not against ATVs, but opening up landscapes that are particularly unique to their use seem like bad stewardship.
I was travelling with a couple of local photographers who told me this. It is a real shame, very similar to the situation in the Iceland Highlands where people drive off trail and their tyre tracks are going to remain for decades blighting the landscape.
It seems like an obsession of yours to always put a person in front of landscape. I find that utterly weird and photographically not beneficial. But then again, we’re all different. Thank God.
Thanks for the comment. This video contains 40 images, of which 3 have a figure in them. Those three are all from the same location, and on each occasion I explained why I put the figure there, and included a version of the image without a figure. There were five other locations shown in the video, and none of them (zero) have a figure in any of the images taken there. So we clearly have very different definitions of the words "obsessive" and "always" 😀 Figures in the landscape are hardly "utterly weird" and have been a feature in landscape art going back to the German romantic painter Casper David Friedrich's "Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog" from the early 19th Century. It's one of the most famous paintings of all time, and rather than me explaining it here, you can Google it yourself to read all about how he attempts to show awe and sublimity though his use of figures in the landscape. It may not be to your taste, but as you correctly stated, we're all different.
@@AndyMumford Thanks for the explanation but my comment was obviously related to more of your videos. And you do it a lot. No problem when it works for you.
You are one of the few landscape photographers that consistently takes time to walk us through your thoughts on composition with supplemental B-roll, examples, text overlays, and angles. You don't post fluff just because you have a YT release schedule. You post when there's something interesting to show/say.
Thank you so much, that's a really nice comment. Much appreciated 🙏
I second that! I love watching your videos, Andy. I learn more from you than 10 others combined. I seek out on YT to see if you’ve posted anything new. Says a lot.
There’s a lot of mediocrity out there, but Andy’s films stand out as always worth watching.
Thanks Andy for for a brilliant film. Even by your high standards, this was exceptional documentary making. The landscape is jaw-droppingly beautiful, your images are stunning and the most basic slide show would be worth watching. However, it’s your story telling, explaining not just what you’ve captured but the thought processes behind it that make this so inspiring. Just brilliant!
Thanks so much for the really nice comment. Really nice to know you enjoyed the video so much
These are absolutely stunning! I love the way you articulate the scene with a delicate taste. I mean, nothing is too crispy or too contrasty. Love your works. Please keep them coming. You are a big inspiration to me.
Greetigs from Turkiye. 🙋🏻
Thanks so much for the comment, really glad you enjoy the videos
It would take a lifetime, to photograph all of the compositions in Utah. I've been there, and it's mesmerizing! Excellent photos!
Absolutely, I feel like a barely scratched the surface of the place and can't wait to go back. As you said, you could spend a lifetime there
Excellent video, as usual. Thanks Andy. Best wishes for hitting that 100k subscribers landmark very soon, it is thoroughly deserved!
Thanks s much
I am learning so much from you, Andy. Thank you for producing quality content!
Thanks so much for the comment, glad you find the videos useful
Spectacular as always, Andy! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. 👍
Thanks so much for the comment, glad you enjoyed it
Living in the Pacific Northwest (Olympic Peninsula), I am thoroughly engaged with this series. So excited to see the upcoming locations of the southwest and when you travel to the PNW. Being a Fuji shooter myself, I have learned so much from your videos that are specific to the gear I shoot with. Seeing your images with your X-T5, 10-24, and 70-300 gives me so many specific ideas for my same equipment. Love your style of videos that walk the viewer through your thought process and why the shots you love work and why the poorer shots lack that special something. I'm a relatively new subscriber as I stumbled onto your channel when searching for reviews for the 10-24, but am thoroughly excited to have found your channel for a variety of reasons and specifically for those I mentioned here.
Thanks so much for the comment, really glad you enjoy the videos. The PNW is lovely, and we spent a few days in Olympic National Park, which is stunning, but we had really really bad weather, which made shooting pretty challenging
@@AndyMumford those conditions you speak of are pretty much the norm here for half to 3/4 of the year. But, summers are consistently epic. 2 out of the last 3 summers we have traveled to the Maritime Provinces, but each of those summers we’ve encountered heat, rain, and bugs. None of which we see here on the Olympic Peninsula from June-August. Lesson learned as we’re committing to staying here at least for this summer.
Again, thanks for your channel! The hard work you put into each video is greatly appreciated! All the best!
Thanks for sharing Andy! I’ve flown over and spent time in cities in the Southwest, but have never really had the chance to explore. Loved seeing it and your images (always). Looking forward to the upcoming Pacific NW videos. My neighborhood. Cheers!
Thanks so much for the comment. The southwest is absolutely stunning
stunning. always wanted to swing through here to do something similar
Thanks, it’s a beautiful parrot the world
Some great photos of that spire. I particularly liked 6:23 It can be tough photographing in the desert SW (I'm in AZ during the winter) when so much of the day is lit by harsh bright sun.
Thanks so much for the comment. Yeah, we actually didn't get ideal photography weather for most of the trip with clear skies on most of the sessions, which meant often dealing with hard contrasts. It's an incredible place though
Fascinating, with the visuals and detailed, instructive descriptions you provided.
Thanks Dennis, glad you enjoyed it
YOU KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE BOX ANDY!!--JG
Thanks so much 🙏
Alien planet!
Thanks for sharing 🙌
Thanks so much for the comment
Thanks for sharing your experience
Thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed it
Fantastic stuff as always! The drone really paid off on this one.
I did a trip through Southwest including Utah many years ago - Canyon Lands, Arches, etc, and shot on film on my old Canon T90, still some of my favorites!
Thanks for watching. It's an incredible part of the world
Absolutely wonderful video and images. Its so great to hear your thought process behind each of the frames.
The images with the trees at 7:35 are outstanding!!!
Cheers 😊
Thanks Neil, hope you're well. Those tree images are among my favourites and I was super happy to have spotted that comp from the road...but they're the kind of images that don't stand out well on social media unfortunately.
My thoughts too re. the image of the trees. Interesting that it was a more intimate long lens shot that stood out despite the endless opportunities for wide panoramas.
Excellent content, thank you very much for sharing.
Thanks so much for watching, glad you enjoyed it
Gracias Maestro…👏👏👏🤘😘
🙏
Beautiful
Thanks so much 🙏
Beautiful content Andy. Had I known you were here in the States I could have taken you to White Sands Nat’l Monument which is simply stunning! Not too terribly far from Utah😊
white sand is beautiful, but darn hot hahah, visited along with Carlsbad Cavern and Guadalupe. Must say, Carlsbad Cavern is on a different level.
Cheers Jim, hope you're well. it would have been great to catch up, but we were on a tight schedule and new in reality we were going to miss so much more than we could ever see. We didn't get to Zion or Arches in Utah alone, so for sure there's lots of reasons to go back, and White Sands is on the list
Great video and thanks for sharing the good and the bad. Keen to join you on a workshop
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed the video and hope to see you on a tour at some point
Factory butte didn’t used to have all those tire marks. Shame what had happened there. Loved the video
It's a shame
amazing landscape !!
Thanks so much 🙏
Stunning Photography ❤.If you ever done any workshop in Indian, I will attend..
PS I have observed you are not using 10-24 anymore.. Any specific reason in terms of image quality??
I still use the 10-24mm, but it really depends on the trip. Sometimes I take the GFX, and on this trip I wanted to try out the 8mm prime, which is excellent
I made the drive from Calgary, Alberta, in November 2023, and, for the first time, toured Utah, Nevada, and a sliver of Colorado as the main destinations. I, too, was disappointed by the ATV access to so much accessible space within the State and National Parks that there were some beautiful areas that I just won't return to 😢
It's true, it's pretty sad that large parts of the landscape in that area are ruined now. it will take years and years for those tyre tracks to go away, even if they banned ATVs right now. Coming for Europe where we have almost no wilderness left, I was amazed at the incredible amounts of wilderness they have in the US, but at the same time, it's disappointing to see it taken for granted like this.
That's a hell of a drive from Calgary. After the South west we drove up the west coast to Seattle and it's a very very long way
@@AndyMumford It's because the area around Factory Butte is a dedicated OHV area so it's one of the very few places in Utah you can legally go off trail. I do agree they should not allow OHV travel around Factory Butte and just let the OHV stuff happen at Swing Arm City a tiny bit south.
Wonderful images Andy
Thanks for watching 🙏
Hi Andy- I noticed you used the XF16-80mm and XF70-300mm lens combination versus your usual XF10-24mm and XF55-200mm... any specific reason for this? Thanks for all! And beautiful shots!
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed the video. I tend to use different lenses for different trips, and the 70-300mm goes well with the 16-80 as it gives incredible flexibility. I always have an ultra wide lens with me though, so this trip the 8mm prime replaced the 10-24mm.
Thanks for your quick reply… much appreciated.
I've been watching your videos from years past to the more recent ones and I learned a lot.Very very high quality videos, many thanks Andy! I'm wondering if you could give some advice on how to make a career that would allow you to travel around the world and explore so many wonderful places.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoy the videos.
There's not an easy answer to your question, and there's not a particular recipe for making a career. In my own case it took A LOT of time and large slices of luck. I spent 11 years improving my photography and building my portfolio with one trip a year while I worked in another job as an English teacher, writing blogs and articles for magazines, making a few hundred dollars here and there, then taught myself how to make videos to turn my blogs into videos until after 9 years I could go part time teaching and do photography part time, and then another 2 years before I switched to photography full time. Then 5 more years building to where I am now. I might put a video about it together one day.
Dear Andy, many thanks for your reply! Your work is just so impressive that I got the impression that you've been working with photography for a very long time, obviously you're even more talented than i imagined😆! Thank you very much for sharing your story with me, obviously there're always a lot more behind the scenes. I'll keep following and looking forward to see more photography expeditions from you!@@AndyMumford
Awsome
Thanks for the comment
That's a part of the US I'd love to visit and photograph: you're not helping the case for being frugal!
It's a beautiful part of the world
Close to 100k Andy!
Haha, I don't really count, but my mum informs me that it's almost at 100000
Impressive! Would be interesting to know how you planned for this trip and getting the gear (and guide?) to make it all happen. Like, how did you know where to go for starters?
Thanks for the comment. This trip was years in the planning and a huge amount of research went into finding locations. Often it's seeing images of places and then tracking them down on GoogleEarth, which can take hours, but it's quite satisfying when you solve it. Others are spots that are known, which just take a bit of googling, and often we'd go in the middle of the day to find shooting locations for the rolling sunrise. I didn't use a guide, I was travelling with a couple of friends, and we all spent lots of time suggesting spots to go and shoot.
As for the gear, there's nothing specific that I needed for this trip that isn't typical of any photography trip really.
@@AndyMumford Thanks Andy, for the gear, sorry, i was referring (in my mind) to the vehicle, tire pumps, off road knowledge, etc. I know in some of those places it can cost upward to $1000 to get towed out if you can find someone to do it. Thanks again, really enjoying your work on this.
Good stuff.
Thanks so much 🙏
Great landscape -- not sure , if the shots do it justice though.
Somehow I miss clear language and perhaps either more drama, be it with shapes or color or structure -- whatever.
But even more I would love to go there and do great B&W`s -- just quite big format -- Ansel-Adams-like black and white photographs !
That would be my passion !
Well I tried, in my limited way, but to be honest, no photograph can do these landscapes justice.
@@AndyMumford I am sure that your photographs are really good -- I just wanted to say that perhaps when encountering these astonishingly unique landscapes one can be overwhelmed and it is for sure very difficult to abide to ones own style or vision for the art of pictures which one wants to find and come home with.
I feel at least the same way when being at a place in nature which is just breathtakingly impressive .
How can we make a good decision ? Which lenses and perspective to choose -- of course the light is the most crucial factor and then we often do not have much time at all.
So perhaps it is just the matter of timing and patience and a very subjective and personal style in the end that leads to a completely convincing result !
I did not want to criticize too harsh really -- rather thought of my own way if I would be encountered to this amazing and also challenging situation ! IT would be difficult for me to stay concentrated on my work and to not be taken away by the surrounding elements !!
@@AndyMumfordYour images are great? I’m not sure what this guy is talking about.
Love those abstracts Andy! Just wondering I noticed you still use the Air 2s, rather than an updated drone. Is that due to the 1 inch sensor for photos?
Thanks so much. I have both the Air 2S and Mavic 3 Classic, and the photo quality is very similar on both (both 20mp, but the Mavic has better dynamic range and low light qualities). I took the Air 2S because I really didn't expect to be using the drone as much as we did, and it's much smaller.
Stunning work as always, Andy. May I ask what types of ND filters you’re using for long exposures? Variable or fixed NDs?
Thanks so much for watching. I use KASE ND filters, always with a fixed graduation. Vari-NDs tend to vignette a lot (a consequence of having two circular filters revolve against each other) and personally I think they're only useful for video, not still photography
Hi Andy, so you finally swapped 55-200 for 70-300. Any regrets?
I still have the 55-200mm, I just borrowed the 70-300 for this trip. It works really well with the 16-80, but if you don't have that lens, I'd really miss the gap between 55 and 70mm
@@AndyMumford thanks. Yes, I have 55-200 and that was indeed my doubt for swapping
The butte you visited that was defaced with so many ATV tracks-I won't use its name-had, for decades, remained pristine. This changed only recently under the Trump administration. Despite the fact that there is a similar area just miles away dedicated to ATV use, the BLM opened the area surrounding the butte to ATV use as well. All of the damage to the landscape you witnessed has occurred in less than a decade as a result. This (as well as the condition of the area around the spire) really demonstrates the fragility of these formations. They need to be protected. To be clear, I'm not against ATVs, but opening up landscapes that are particularly unique to their use seem like bad stewardship.
I was travelling with a couple of local photographers who told me this. It is a real shame, very similar to the situation in the Iceland Highlands where people drive off trail and their tyre tracks are going to remain for decades blighting the landscape.
It seems like an obsession of yours to always put a person in front of landscape. I find that utterly weird and photographically not beneficial. But then again, we’re all different. Thank God.
Thanks for the comment. This video contains 40 images, of which 3 have a figure in them. Those three are all from the same location, and on each occasion I explained why I put the figure there, and included a version of the image without a figure. There were five other locations shown in the video, and none of them (zero) have a figure in any of the images taken there.
So we clearly have very different definitions of the words "obsessive" and "always" 😀
Figures in the landscape are hardly "utterly weird" and have been a feature in landscape art going back to the German romantic painter Casper David Friedrich's "Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog" from the early 19th Century. It's one of the most famous paintings of all time, and rather than me explaining it here, you can Google it yourself to read all about how he attempts to show awe and sublimity though his use of figures in the landscape. It may not be to your taste, but as you correctly stated, we're all different.
@@AndyMumford Thanks for the explanation but my comment was obviously related to more of your videos. And you do it a lot. No problem when it works for you.