Permanent Tourist

The personal website of Mark Howells-Mead

Posts about landscape photography

  • Low water levels in Gwatt

    Exceptionally low water levels at Lake Thun, as part of a four-year routine.

  • Editing multiple shots of the same scene together to get a massively-improved level of sharpness throughout the image.

  • Getting the best shot possible is all about chance, timing and consideration of the correct angle.

  • Ballenberg, Switzerland

    For my first blog post in review of 2019, I decided to pick out a few of my favourite wintry photographs from last year in Switzerland, which show the kind of classical landscape photography I love.

  • Panoramic aerial photograph of the Tschingellochtighorn in Switzerland

    Obstinacy got me past a viewpoint I had aimed for and gave me the opportunity to capture a wonderfully dramatic alternative image.

  • Photograph of a print of the lake shore at Gunten in Switzerland

    What I get out of taking the time and effort to take landscape images with a proper camera, and printing them to make proper photographs you can hold in your hand.

  • One man, one camera, 6,000 miles

    The Perimeter is a photography project by Quintin Lake, based on walking 10,000km around the coast of Britain in sections. The journey started on 17th April 2015 at St Paul’s cathedral.

  • Faulensee, Switzerland

    Low water levels in Lake Thun in winter reveal large expanses of foreshore.

  • The wider angle

    First shots with two new acquisitions: a super-wide lens and an RR90 shutter release cable.

  • Before the proper snow arrived at the start of this year’s winter season, we visited Zermatt and visited the famous, much-photographed view of the Matterhorn from Riffelsee.

  • Hiking in Edale

    Hiking on Kinder Scout; the highest hill in the Peak District, which we ascended from the picturesque village of Edale.

  • Dense, grey fog on the lakes in the Bernese Oberland means that it’s best to head for the surrounding hills and mountains to get above the cloud and into the sunshine. We took a drive up a road we’d never used before – an unrestricted, toll-free one for a change – and ended up high…

  • Evening light on the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau

    We are ever grateful for the opportunity to live in such a beautiful country. For the luck which means that we are of sufficient means to decide, based on a weather forecast, to drive for fifteen minutes and ascend in a rattling funicular cabin to a place which feels like the top of the world. All to…

  • Breithorn, Zermatt

    The valley at Zermatt is surrounded by nearly three dozen peaks with summits higher than 4,000 metres above sea level. The Breithorn is well-known as the “easiest” to ascend: although easiness is, of course, a matter of reference. The number of tiny, ant-like climbers on the slopes leading from the Breithorn Plateau was quite amazing, when…

  • One of the more spectacular mountain lakes in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland is at Oeschinensee, in a hanging valley easily reached by cable car from the town of Kandersteg. If you’re feeling lazy, then the walk to the lakeside restaurant is a fairly easy one. If you’re more adventurous, then there are a network of paths leading…

  • The mountain restaurant and top cable car station at First, above Grindelwald, affords amazing views down to the valley and to the huge wall of rock opposite: including the famous Eiger North Wall.

  • In search of a bench with a view, we find a meadow with a view instead.

  • The Bire is a rock promontory amongst the cliffs above Waldegg, at the eastern end of Beatenberg. The name – local dialect for Birne, meaning “pear” – will give you an idea of its shape. I saw some photos from the hike to the viewpoint on the Instagram stream of a local holiday chalet owner last…

  • Welcome to London

    A wonderful, high-resolution hyperlapse video of London by Italian photographer Mattia Bicchi.

  • Where my love for the square image format comes from, and how it is achieved in the Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera.