SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 125, F1.4, 1/100s

It was the first December morning of the year. I had left the warmth of my bed quite early to embrace the new month by having a wander through the moorlands close to our home. There is no better way to clear your head if you ask me. Away from screens, from schedules, from deadlines, I find an impenetrable silence out there to help me feel more at ease.

When I set out a draft of bitterly cold air made me shudder as it reached for my skin and clung to every surface it could reach. But it didn't bother me. It was invigorating and as I breathe in, I feel my weariness slowly fading into nothingness, much like the wooden path I now found myself on.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/100s

There was complete silence. The world was still in a deep, deep slumber and the birds that would breed and nest here in the Spring and Summer time had already migrated South to find warmer shores, leaving us wingless creatures to deal with the biting cold of Winter.

Slender birch trees adorned the wayside and behind them you could only just make out the bushes and trees growing in the moorlands, half-hidden in the white mist. I love the way nature creates these almost fairy tale-like scenes and being able to freeze moments like that in time with my camera is so precious. My inspiration for my landscape photography probably comes from reading and watching magical stories. Tales about mysterious creatures and sweeping lands that hold deep, sometimes dark secrets. If I'd never read The Lord of the Rings, my way of taking photos would be quite different, indeed.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/100s

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/400s

* The images without photograph data have been created with lenses other than SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/200s

As I pass one of the ponds that are dotted around the marshes here and there, I hear the soft dripping of water and I stop. Little droplets were falling from the now naked branches of trees that were reaching above the otherwise still surface of the water. The sound was soothing and for a while I just stood there, as silent as the landscape around me, watching and listening.
The early morning was waning, although you couldn't tell. Fog and cloud blocked out any sunshine and the scenery remained moody and sombre, albeit in a magical, beautiful way. It was as if the world didn't want to be woken up just yet.
Winter was truly getting a hold of the world - a palette of grey and blue dominated the scene as I followed the path. But there was still some colour to be found, even on a seemingly dreary December morning. Between the birch trees a pale purple haze graced the ground: patches of heather were growing there, making it look like the trees were standing on a lavender carpet.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/80s

The last autumnal leaves, were still clinging to their branches with determination, not yet ready to bid the year farewell. Leaves are among my favourite objects to play with when I take photos out in nature. I use them to create colourful bokehs by partially hiding the lens behind them and thus adding a brushstroke of yellow or orange to my photos.

Every step took me closer to the edge of the forest where the fog was densest. The trees were mere silhouettes, wafting in and out of view as the fog was travelling through the woods. Silently they were watching the comings and goings on this December morning.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 125, F1.4, 1/100s

The silence that hung in the air was so heavy, that I became very quiet myself, as though not to disturb tree and thicket. I sat down on a lonely stump and warmed my now painfully cold hands on a hot cup of tea. No one was around, I was blissfully alone and for a while the problems of the world couldn't touch me. I could just be.

There was a magic that I couldn't quite grasp. Something wondrous resided in the forest that morning. The kind of magic only nature can conjure up and that makes you realise over and over again, that our existence would be quite bleak if we didn't have the forest, the hills, the mountains or the sea to escape to. I'd like to think that my photos make a wee bit of a difference out there. I want people to stop in their tracks, mull over their way of life and find out in which way they contribute to a healthy environment and how they can do better to protect these precious and fragile eco-systems.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/400s

As I look around my eyes get caught by the little things. If there is one thing photography has taught me it is to appreciate the beauty of droplets of morning dew on a blade of grass, the intricate way ferns grow, the details of a mossy forest floor. Sometimes we get so caught up in all the grandeur that's out there, that we forget that without those tiny, often overlooked parts of nature, the grandeur wouldn't even exist. From moss and mushroom trees grow.

The little details in natures artwork fascinate me just as much as a tall mountain or a towering cliff side. Maybe even a wee bit more. Something I find most intriguing is the forest floor, because it always seems like a little world of its own. A world where gnomes would feel right at home. A world that I'd love to shrink myself into, just to walk underneath petals of clover or to find shelter from the rain underneath the cap of a minuscule mushroom. My photos let me escape into that world and a good lens makes it even more realistic, because it detects so much more than the human eye can see: the SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art is a lens, that captures that world so vividly.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/100s

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/200s

When you're out and about, enjoying nature, the light can change quickly. One minute the sun is illuminating everything around you and the next dark clouds come rolling in, challenging the way you take photos. The 50mm handles low-light situations really well, thanks to its bright, wide-open aperture of F1.4 that lets more light in.

But a prime lens might not be your first choice when you think of landscape photography, right? And a lot of people would suggest that F1.4 isn't the way to go either. But I love playing around with the soft bokeh of the 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art. It creates dreamy backgrounds and foregrounds so that the object you want the viewer to pay attention to is beautifully put into focus and any distractions are softly blurred out.

So I encourage you to rethink landscape photography. Challenge yourself by using a 50mm prime lens and by using an aperture you'd usually save for portraits. It will open up a whole new, magical world for you.

SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, SONY α7R IV, ISO 100, F1.4, 1/200s

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