About Luke:

Luke is a professional lifestyle and adventure photographer with a passion for emotive storytelling through his photography and is also an imaging ambassador for Tamron EU. He tends to focus his work on the Nordic and mountainous regions because of the everchanging weather, dramatic scenery and sense of awe that inspire him there. Born in the UK he used to work in the City of London in finance but transitioned to photography in 2017 as this was his passion and now commands an audience of over 300,000 people online.

The Italian Dolomites, October 2020

My recent project to me to a part of the world that is renowned for it’s beauty all year round, but especially so in the Autumn and that is the Dolomites UNESCO national park in Italy. My second time visiting here and I could tell from the moment we arrived it was going to be good trip! We arrived early October so the tips of the larches were just turning Golden in the evening sunlight.

Our first sunrise we headed to the famous Alpe Di Siusi – one of the highest pastures in Europe. Walking through the dark of dawn we had no idea whether it was visible as it is usually covered in fog in the early hours. However we arrived just as the sun was rising and saw the beauty in front of us! This was an exceptional viewpoint and we even bumped into this awesome dog who posed for some images!

As you can see, the rolling sea of grass and the minimalist cabins on the hillsides gave this place a true fairytale feeling! Shot with a 100-400mm at 400mm!

Next up we headed over to the even more famous Church of St Johann in the North of the Dolomites. By this point the cloud had arrived in full force and there was a mix of rain as we were taking photos. However it turned out to create a really dramatic atmosphere which really helped to accentuate the drama of the location. The sharp peaks in the background gave the place an eerie yet beautiful scene. I used the grass in the foreground to create a leading line into the church, by placing my camera into the ground.

The next day, we headed over to Lago Di Braies which is one of the most iconic ”Instagram” locations in Italy. We got creative with the reflections on the water and caught this beautiful church with a hint of autumn peeking through. I think the boats in the foreground really made the image!

After a hearty lunch of spaghetti we took a long drive through the mountains and ended the day on the route up to Passo Giau. There is a beautiful stretch of road here so of course, we had to get some automotive shots with our BMW. The clouds drifting off the peaks in the distance were incredible to witness.

That evening we parked at the top of the pass and waited for the moonrise over the distant peaks. We couldn’t have asked for better colours as the moon breached the horizon, check out how orange it looked!

The last day of our trip was a little slower as it was raining for most of the day. However we ended up finding this really atmospheric lane in the middle of nowhere that was perfect to create some dynamic moody photos. I had my brother running down the road to create a sense of drama. I think it fits well into the Halloween vibes of October…!

By the end of the trip I was itching to get back home to my editing workstation in the UK, as I much prefer to do my post-processing on a powerful setup with a large screen so that I get a better sense of the full picture. A significant reason for wanting to edit back home is that my ViewSonic 32 inch 4k editing monitor is specifically designed for photographers and creatives like me who need a large, high resolution monitor with factory calibrated SRGB colours. For me, this is on another level to editing on a laptop in a hotel room, I can really feel immersed in my process and feel the quality through the screen.

So why is accurate colour so important? There are a few key reasons for this. First of all, you’ll just be getting a better viewing experience from the outset – I’m sure with the expensive camera guy one buys, they want to be viewing the images the way they were meant to be viewed, in detailed rich and vibrant colours that are true to the scene you witnessed in person. For me this is important as it allows me to return to the moment and create something emotional from the scene. If your monitor can’t display the full spectrum of SRGB then you won’t be seeing all the fine details in your photos.

Accurate colour reproduction is also incredibly important to keep your colours consistent across devices. One example is for posting to social media – if you want the photo to look the same online on peoples phones as on your editing software, you need to have colour accuracy to the same level as industry standard. Therefore when people view your work online they will be seeing the images just the way you want at the same colour and detail that you envisioned them to see. This goes the same for clients who commission your artwork – when they print billboards, magazines, digital media – you want them to have the images produced in a colour accurate environment so that they are being displayed the way you produced them.

Last of all, accurate colour is important for any photographer who wishes to print their artwork. Print labs recommend this so that the print will look the same on paper as it does on your screen. Any discrepancies here can cause mis-representation of colours!

So the solution to all of this, certainly in my case is to invest in a factory calibrated monitor that can display these colours straight out of the box, in this case the VP3268-4k.

All of the images in this article have been edited using the ViewSonic VP3268-4k monitor, providing accurate colour reproduction, vibrant viewing and a sharp detailed picture quality.