Sebastien Coell

I am a Devon-based landscape photographer who loves to travel and capture vibrant scenes of the UK, Europe, and Scandinavia, emphasising strong fore-to-midground interests set against dramatic skies.

My journey into landscape photography began with a deep-seated desire to explore and connect with more of the world around me.

Having worked all across the Dartmoor National Park for most of my early life, I fell in love with the rural landscape.

Photography quickly became the perfect excuse to discover new places and experience the outdoors on a deeper level.

While my curiosity drove me to explore, I loved the technical part of operating a camera. When I started, I spent much time getting guidance and inspiration from places like YouTube.

My photography gear is relatively tiny compared to some photographers, emphasising lightweight, high-quality equipment while trying to keep it within a budget.

I also have the habit of keeping the same equipment for a long time, and I still shoot with my first camera, a Canon 6D Mark I bought back in 2016. I am still using the lens it came with, the Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS.

If you buy good quality equipment, it will last you a long time. After borrowing a family member’s Sony Alpha 200 for a few years to learn how to use a DSLR, I purchased the Canon EOS 6D and lens combo.

After this, all of my lenses have been purchased second-hand. I have always opted for the Canon L series due to their high-quality optics and incredible reliability.

Strangely, my decision to choose Canon was influenced not just by their legacy and great range of cameras but also because, at the time, I had a Canon Pixma Printer.

The printer was about fourteen years old but had never put a foot wrong. It just shows how brand loyalty can work.

Canon EOS 6D Mark I – This purchase was a tough decision at the time. It was between the Canon 6D and the Canon 5D Mark3. The 5D has a superior focusing system, card redundancy and better weather sealing.

However, the Canon EOS 6D was lighter, more compact, and had a more sensitive centre point AF sensor, which allowed better focusing in the bluehour.

I have always found the Canon EOS 6D to focus very well, and I rarely use manual focus, even in very dark situations.

I also own a Canon 7D Mark II, which I use for wildlife. It has all the bells and whistles of an advanced focusing system, but hands down, a full-frame sensor like the Canon EOS 6D does help with landscape images, ensuring crisper, less noisy images and allowing me to sell prints up to A1.

That’s why the Canon EOS 6D is always in my bag.

Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS – This lens came with my camera and is an excellent all-rounder. I use it when I need extra zoom or as a general-purpose lens to take out for the day. It covers a very good focal range.

However, it struggles with sharpness when shooting at higher apertures and is slightly soft in the corners and vignettes.

Canon 16-35mm f/4 L IS – I love this lens. I would say it’s my most used, and I also get my best images when shooting with it. It is super sharp, has excellent contrast, is well-built and doesn’t vignette much.

I use this lens to get close foreground interest in my scenes, often shooting very close to points of interest, such as wildflowers. However, I sometimes find it frustrating, often struggling to get the whole shot in focus.

This requires using a higher aperture or focus stacking, which often introduces problems such as movement from wind, focus breathing or high ISO noise. If you can pull the process off, the images will be sensational!

Canon 70-200mm L f/4 – One of the sharpest telephoto lenses you will ever find, this is a general workhorse, and I use it with my Canon 7D Mark II for wildlife. I will also use it to capture isolated details, such as mountain peaks, for panoramic photos.

This lens often replaces my Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS when shooting above 70mm focal length.

I use it with a Canon 1.4 Extender Mark I on my Canon 7D Mark II, which gives me 448mm of focal length. Great for long-reach shots. The only real downside is that it’s a telephoto, so you lose a little bit of contrast.

As a landscape photographer, I generally work with the sun, although if I’m doing astrophotography, a good torch is all you need. Painting the light on a scene nearly always works better than using flashes.

Abonnyc Camera Rucksack – My camera bag is a no-frills bag. The same design is used under a few different brand names, so they must all be mass-produced somewhere.

What I can say is that I have had it for about five years. It’s been to Norway, Iceland, the UK, and many parts of Europe, and it is now just starting to look shabby around the straps.

I often carry my laptop in it, so it gets very loaded up.

My tripod is a Neewer Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod and, again, no frills. It’s also sold under a few different brand names, so it’s probably mass-produced somewhere.

It’s now on its third ball head, one broke by me dropping it in minus five degrees Celsius in Iceland, and the other, I lost the thumb screw.

The tripod itself is very stable and great to use, and now, around eight years old, it functions the same way it did when it was new.

It’s spent many hours in the sea and sand and been banged against many rocks but has never let me down, and it’s a great size for travelling, folding down to around fifty centimetres tall.

I use Lee filters, mainly the 0.9 Soft Graduated ND and the 0.6 Hard Graduated ND. I have a Lee 10-stop ND, but it’s too dark for ninety-nine per cent of my shooting. I also use a Gobe Circular Polarising Filter.

For the most part, I use Photoshop RAW to edit. I don’t use any presets in my editing; however, I use Photomatix for some HDR stuff, which uses presets.

A head torch is necessary, so I always have one in the camera bag. I also permanently have a small handheld torch to vlog my trips. At one stage, I did have a gimbal, microphones, tripod stands, etc, but today, apart from my camera equipment and a bottle of water, that’s about it.

Landscape photography is about my love of the outdoors and trying to capture what is out there.

I love the technical side of photography, but I especially love the process, as it encourages me to travel more.

I love the equipment I have, and I have spent many years in many beautiful places using it, but it’s often what you don’t have in your camera bag that matters the most.

I shoot with relatively old equipment, but it would always be the flight if I had to choose between replacing equipment or booking a flight somewhere for a photography journey.

If you were to ask me what my best piece of photography equipment is, strangely, I would tell you my self-converted campervan because nothing else has allowed me to see more photographic locations.

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