A Spring in Your Step

It’s early morning in Germany’s western Eifel region and the Spring sun lifts a light mist over the mountains and grassy plains. A car threads its way through the quiet dawn, but suddenly and deliberately slams on its brakes. Something has caught the eye of landscape photographer Michael Schaake.

Leaving his car in the middle of the road, he leaps out and heads towards a quarry, with his Sony camera and lens in hand. And just a minute later, the image of a silhouetted lone tree is done, and he’s back on the road. “When I see a shot, I don’t like to hang around,” he explains. “It’s just the way I like to work on my landscapes. I want to be agile and respond to the light or the weather where I find it.”

With his picture taking built on a love of the outdoors and nature, fostered in locations from South Africa to northern Norway, many of his images are made on these drives or long hikes through the wilderness, “where suddenly I see something that connects to me,” he continues. “It’s instinctual really, and at that moment I already have the image in my mind, even down to the editing. But making it means working fast.”

Spring is a time when the weather and light changes by the second, and the face of the landscape with it. “I’m always happy this time of year,” he smiles, “because it’s one of the only times you really feel a shift in the seasons. The warming of the earth brings mists and blossoms, and though the snow is gone in the lowlands, it’s still seen higher ground, bringing beautiful contrast. Dawn and dusk are also at better times than summer, and that’s great because although I’m a landscaper, I hate a 3am start as much as anyone!”

And while many of Michael’s images are made in this bracketed and blended way, it’s difficult to tell. There’s no gaudy, unnatural HDR look to be found here. “It’s really just a way of dealing with contrast light,” he explains, “but not something I want to be visible in the image. I always want it to look real, not over processed.”

In his mission to capture the perfect landscape shot, a lot of which requires hiking, has made Michael acutely aware of the equipment he takes with him. “The Alpha 7R IV offers medium format resolution, dynamic range and noise performance in a body that’s a fraction of the size,” he says, “so it’s perfect for situations where you need top quality but low weight. And the camera’s speed and in-body image stabilisation are vital for the handheld shooting I do, working with any lens I put on it.”

It seems combining hiking and travelling with photography has had a hugely positive effect on Michael, and his lightweight Sony is a big part of the picture. “It’s really changing the way I see my surroundings,” he concludes, “and made my travels richer. Today, I follow my own eyes, rather than wanting to copy others’ images. I know that if I find joy in the light on a hillside or the twist of a shoreline, it will bring my love of the landscape to someone else, too.”