I have always loved to photographed pastoral, cultural landscapes. Old barns, winding roads and fields of flowers have a strong visual appeal to me, and bring feelings of times long gone. No wonder then, that Tuscany is one of my favorite areas to photograph. I have been fortunate to visit several times for photography and have always left with a sense of calm satisfaction. Previously, I have visited during the summer months only. This time, I wanted to catch spring and hopefully nice greens, flowering fields, and even maybe some dramatic skies. Late April to early May is a good time for that.

I spent a week, mostly around the area between Montepulciano and Montalcino, with detours down in the valley below and north to Crete Senesi. In my opinion, this is really the tenderloin of Tuscany. In addition to the rolling hills, beautiful fields and farms, you will find several small, picturesque towns here, that beg for some blue-hour photography. I had varying conditions, a few days with clear skies, lots of warm sunshine and even some thunderstorms with lightning. Perfect! This turned out to be one of my most rewarding photography trips in years.

As for gear, I brought my Hasselblad X2D and the XCD 21, 30, 35-75 and 90 as well as the Mamiya 105-210 ULD and 300mm ULD. I had the X1D as a backup, but it spent all the time in the bag. This area of Tuscany is mostly a telephoto-location, and the Mamiya 105-210 was definitely my most used lens, with the XCD zoom and the 90mm coming in on second place. I am still utterly impressed with the Mamiya telezoom, although it is a bit prone for vibrations when used without any support. I will look into a support-solution in the months to come. I don’t think the 21 and 30mm ever was out of my backpack and could might as well have stayed home. But you know…. Ah, and I brought my Nikkor 28mm shift for use in the towns at night. That one actually saw some use! I also brought the H&Y CPL-VND Revoring as it is all the filters I need in a very compact solution, (see my review here) as well as an umbrella and a the Think Tank emergency raincover. My gear fitted nicely in my new Think Tank Retrospective 15 backpack, which also accommodated my 16-inch Macbook pro, chargers and cables as carry-on during the flights. As for support, I went with my good old Gitzo mountaineer GT3543L with centre-column, as I knew I would need the hight from time to time. The Arca-Swiss P0 ballhead is my all-time favorite, both for travel, hikes and other photography.

When it comes to clothing, be prepared for everything this time of year! I had all temperatures from 2 to 25 deg. C, sunshine and rain. Bring gloves, hat, a (thin) down-jacket, shorts and your swimsuit! No mountaineering shoes necessary, but it can be quite muddy in the fields after rain, so low rubber-boots or some good shoes that can take a beating is recommended.

I am not quite done processing all my images, but so far I have selected a few of my favorites for display here. I hope you like them. Some will probably end up on the walls of my home in the months to come. Nothing like a warm, welcoming landscape-photograph to meet the eye first thing in the morning when I get out of bed during the dark and cold autumn- and winter months!

If you have any questions about photographing Tuscany etc. feel free to reach out!

Dag Ole