While the endless months of cloud and rain that have enveloped us here in the UK have left many of us eagerly awaiting the first real signs of Spring, for internationally renowned Landscape photographer Joe Cornish, the weather has been a joyous backdrop for his work.

Click on any of the images in the article to see a larger version.

‘The beauty of living and working here IS the weather – that and the amazing diversity of our landscape. For landscape photography you need variety and that is the beauty of Britain – we have such a rich diversity in such a small space.

‘Changing weather, changing light and endless beautiful and dramatic natural environments. The geology in the UK is amazing; wonderful for a landscape photographer. And what’s more you can get from one side of the country to the other in a matter of a few hours.

‘Whenever I see unbroken blue sky I put my camera away. Luckily we don’t get much of that here,’ says Joe who was born in Exeter in 1958.

Joe fell under the spell of photography while studying at Reading University and in a career spanning 30 years has become renowned as one of the world’s leading landscape photographers - a man inspired by wild places and the wilderness, which he has captured to stunning effect.

It was as an expedition photographer with Raleigh International on a visit to Alaska in 1991, that Joe’s commitment to the great outdoors was really fired. Since then, he has travelled the world but says the need to travel is minimised by the quality on his doorstep.

‘Scotland is a world class destination for landscape photography so when you have so much to work with right on your doorstep, you really don’t need to go too far afield.’

Whether leading photographic groups – an increasing part of his life – or working on his own, Joe is often to be found clambering over rocks by the North Yorkshire coast near his home, or climbing mountains in the Lakes, Snowdonia and Scotland.

So for a man who loves the great outdoors and spends the majority of his time capturing it – what equipment does he use?

While by his own admission, Joe is ‘not great with technology’, he has fully embraced it where his choice of camera is concerned. Recognised as a lifetime devotee of traditional large format film cameras, these days Joe’s ‘go to’ camera is the Sony A7rII and he has nothing but high praise for the lightweight compact system. Its predecessor, the original A7r - Joe’s first Sony camera – still holds a place in his heart too, and remains a trusted back-up.

By placing a 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor into a mirrorless compact system camera, Sony created not one but two world firsts with the A7 and the A7r.

‘I recall the day I heard the fateful declaration, ‘from today, film is dead’ – uttered by a wedding photographer at a meeting for professional photographers in the mid-1990s – as if it were yesterday.

‘The initial response to this news was to totally refute it and concentrate on 5x4inch film. It was clear digital was coming, but I was reluctant to follow the mainstream and felt that adopting large format film was a way to be different, even if I was ‘going back to the future’. Besides, most of my heroes in landscape photography both past and present, had mostly used large format equipment. But in the late 2000s I gradually let go of my beloved analogue film cameras and started to use digital,’ says Joe.

The once reluctant man has however fully embraced the digital format.

Joe firmly believes the best camera is the one you have with you. And yes, that may well be a mobile phone.

‘One highlight has been the arrival of the Sony A7R and subsequently, the A7R II. Both are light and small, with superb resolution (42megapixels in the A7rII) and work with both terrific Zeiss-for-Sony lenses as well as my older legacy optics via adapters.

‘The A7R II has excellent and easy to use colour characteristics ‘straight out of the box’. In many ways it has put a lot of the fun back into photography for me. I have written an article on the original A7R, describing it as the smallest, lightest technical view camera in the world (even if that was not Sony’s intention) thanks to the availability of tilt and shift adapters.’

‘I can now climb a mountain without a mountainous load and still produce technically high quality pictures, so it works brilliantly in my world.’

Such is his commitment to the mirrorless system, Joe has now become a Sony Global Image Ambassador.

‘Sony approached me just as I was looking at the A7R so I guess it was meant to be! However there is no way I would have adopted the camera itself unless it really worked for, and excited me. I really like the way they work – light, easy to carry, great colour and resolution, and most importantly, it all works easily and reliably.

‘The ability to use legacy lenses was absolutely crucial. I do use several Sony and Zeiss lenses and they are great, but the ability to use other optics is a huge part of the appeal and gives it an edge over conventional DSLR systems.

‘Although I do still use other cameras for specialist applications, the A7R II is my Go-To camera, the great all-rounder ’ says Joe. High praise indeed for a man who loves film!

So what does the future hold for Joe?

‘While still busy doing my own work, leading workshops is increasingly part of my life. For many years I didn’t feel qualified to lead groups. But experience has brought confidence, and I love doing them now, and have learned a great deal in the process, about photography and people. It’s a privilege and pleasure to be involved in guiding, teaching and sharing knowledge and experiences: I consider photography from more than just a selfish point of view.

‘Leading workshops has encouraged me to think about the act of picture-making differently and I am looking forward to doing more of that.’

‘It’s exciting to see how Sony are developing the system into the future, especially the new G Master lens range, because the lens is still the most important link in the imaging chain. But the traditionalist in me also says film is not dead. There is no film/digital divide, only the joy of photography.’

www.joecornishgallery.com