A new light on landscapes

Liam Man's dramatic, drone-lit landscapes have won him international acclaim. He tells Geoff Harris about his approach, and why still images still appeal more than video

- Geoff Harris

However good your technique and camera equipment, it can be hard to find new angles and approaches with landscape photography. A lot of the most picturesque places in the world have been photographed to death, and even if you rise at silly o’clock for amazing light, or are lucky enough to get highly photogenic weather, chances are that another photographer somewhere has bagged a similar shot.

So it’s not surprising that a lot of conventional landscape photographers have branched out, exploring more novel techniques such as shooting stills and video with drones, or light painting. Liam Man, who won the ultra-competitive Open Landscape Category in the most recent Sony World Photography Awards, combines both approaches, so we caught up to find out more.

A keen experimenter

As Liam, who is still only in his 20s, explains, he was always drawn to the natural world. ‘Growing up watching every David Attenborough wildlife documentary, I spent my days imagining myself as an intrepid explorer, always on the lookout for cool wildlife and interesting viewpoints,’ he recalls. ‘Luckily for me, my secondary school’s art department had a small point-and-shoot camera and after some gentle persuading, I was allowed to borrow it. I immediately caught the photography bug and the camera probably spent more time at my house than at school. I could finally show people the sights that fascinated me versus telling people.’

While experimenting with the school’s now seldom-seen compact, Liam became fascinated by the macro mode. ‘It felt like black magic, capturing detail that I couldn’t make out with my naked eye. To me, cameras went from a tool that simply duplicated what I saw, to a means of seeing past my perception and capturing the essence of a moment. I became obsessed with long exposures, macro, water drop flash photography and light painting. Since then I’ve dabbled in every genre.’