We asked professional landscape photographer Charlie Waite to name the most beautiful places on Earth – here’s what he said.
Whether following in Ansel Adams’ footsteps in the USA’s Yosemite National Park, or hiking amid India’s massive peaks, Charlie Waite always returns from his travels with a camera full of incredible shots. Here, he points his lens towards his pick of the world’s most beautiful destinations.
1. The Lot, France
My affection for France’s landscapes began back in the 1960s when my older sister bought a farmhouse in the department of The Lot. Decades later, I’ve had a series of enormously enriching ‘full immersion’ experiences. I was then, and I am still, entranced by France and its landscapes.
The contemplative and sedate nature that lies behind my approach to photography seems grounded within rural France. The landscapes there appear to be gifted to me. I take enormous pleasure from the criss-cross network of roads and tracks. The best of the world's sheds can be found in France and the many great rivers are irresistible to me.
The department of The Lot is wonderful, and the people who live there have no fear of my camera, so their full-blown characters radiate out towards it. I’m convinced I get smiled at in France more than in any other country.
2. Sikkim, India
I find more photography surprises in Asia than anywhere else in the world. India, in particular, is such a fascinating country.
Many landscape photographers love water, so it’s no surprise that Kerala, with its labyrinth of rivers and canals, draws me to it as often as possible. But I also absolutely love Sikkim, the ‘top of the world’, tucked in between Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan.
I was speechless as I stood in black pre-dawn beneath the third highest mountain in the world – the mighty Kangchenjunga – before the peak was set on fire by razor-sharp first sunlight. This was photographic ecstasy at its very best.
I also couldn’t resist the broad sweeps of tea plantations near Darjeeling to photograph the female tea pickers dressed in lime green.
3. Glen Coe, Scotland
Scotland has been a mecca for landscape photographers quite possibly from the dawn of photography. The great Buachaille Etive Mòr at the head of Glen Etive acts as the conical focal point for so many. I’ve seen the great Buachaille in all its moods.
I have to say Glen Coe is a pretty butch landscape. With its sense of menace and drama, it seems to have been designed for landscape photographers to stand in wonder. This is a classic, dramatic, grand Scottish landscape. If you want foreboding and a sense of threat, you should stand under a mountain in Glen Coe.
But the landscape changes all the time. The area looks lovely during the winter months, when there’s plenty of snow and ice. And it actually looks particularly good in bad weather. It doesn’t suit puffy, white clouds with a backdrop of blue sky. That’s too picturesque, too pretty.
4. Yosemite, USA
I’m an Ansel Adams groupie. I know it’s a bit passé to be fond of him, but he was such an amazing technician and interpreter.
He had an amazing ability to produce an image that matched human vision in terms of contrast and his approach to dark-room work was second to none, as was his artistic sense of judgment. He could pre-visualize an image before he got the camera out, so he defined landscape photography in a way that still resonates through a lot of landscape photographers’ minds.
Even though it is well-visited, Yosemite National Park is still jaw-dropping stuff. Ansel Adams was there 50 years ago doing his thing, and it’s one of the most visited national park in the world. But if you get there, it becomes yours.
I love to photograph Yosemite. It’s a relatively small national park, but there’s so much to see. It has the softness down below and the relative harshness above, and plenty of places where those two ‘moods’ meet.
5. Inle Lake, Myanmar
Spending time in Lake Inle in Myanmar is amazing. If you’re lucky enough not to have any of those boats with strange tractor engines on the back whizzing by and forming a wake, you feel as though you’ve stepped into a dream world. The water is absolutely flat and very, very shallow.
I’ve been to Myanmar several times over the years. The people are incredibly friendly, and there is a wealth of different landscapes to photograph. For images of the imagination where everything floats and melds into the sky, Inle Lake – famous for the leg-rowing fishermen – can’t be beaten, though.
A dawn rise is key for full-on emotional and photographic experience. Low visibility is crucial to ensure a feeling of total, happy disorientation. On my last visit, I was blessed with these conditions as two javelin-shaped boats emerged across the lake or from the clouds.
6. Tuscany, Italy
Tuscany is one of my favourite places to guide workshops. The best places have a wonderful variation of landscape – water, low-lying hills or mountains – and at the same time, keep photographers stimulated with urban situations and strong architectural challenges, so they keep visually agile.
In Tuscany, one day, you might go to an urban setting, and then the next day a beautiful pastoral spot where not a single building can be seen. That keeps people on their toes. It’s very important to not be repetitive.
7. NamibRand, Namibia
The NamibRand is a wild nature reserve in a huge desert. It looks as if nothing happens there – but everything does. You just have to have your ‘antennae’ really alert and switched on. The moment you’re receptive, you find out that an enormous amount is actually happening. It’s just happening over a million years.
I stayed at Wolwedans Dune Camp. It’s utterly remote. There was a woman there from Yorkshire who’d been in Namibia for 20 years. I said: “Could you take me to your favourite view in Namibia?’ She said: “I’ll take you to my favourite view in all of Africa.”
She took me to a spot in darkness. As dawn came up, it was absolutely extraordinary. Namibia does make you think about your own existence. It’s a visual experience with a massive emotional tug. I’ve taken some photos in Namibia that I’m very proud of.
8. Andalucía, Spain
I love Andalucía in Spain, probably for the way the farmers have unwittingly become ‘agricultural artists’.
The farmers produce beautiful geometrical patterns across the countryside, where the soil changes in different ways and colours. Where they plough in one direction, they plough in another in a different field. Then they interlock incredibly well, just like a flag.
The geometric shape that the farmers make, from a landscape photographer’s perspective, is very satisfying. The lighting isn’t so important there. It could be the middle of the day sometimes and it will still look absolutely great.
The coast is pretty well photographed. But there are loads of back roads where there’s pretty much nobody around, behind the coast and up in the hills. I think these are incredibly rich for photography.
9. Yorkshire, England
Talking of geometry, I especially like the Yorkshire Dales – the hills and the shapes.
A dry-stone wall in the middle of the day can yield a shadow of about a foot. But at the end of the day, you’ve got a 40-foot rock shadow that delineates the landscape very beautifully. A place like Swaledale is pretty hard to beat.
Yorkshire gives me an enormous amount of pleasure. You get a great sense of history with the dry-stone walls and the rough, tough Yorkshire people who have to withstand some pretty tough weather.
10. Bhutan
When I mentioned to friends that I was heading for Bhutan, I was told on no account should I miss Tiger’s Nest Monastery. They were right. It’s unimaginable that it was built in 1692. It’s a ‘no words can describe’ location – so long live photography.
Photographing in Bhutan feels like a privilege, with few cars, no satellite aerials and with fortress-style Dzongs amidst Jacaranda trees and jaw-dropping mountain passes. This is a country that I would wish to return to on an annual basis.
Despite the weight, I am glad I took every lens I owned. This is a country with endless photographic possibilities.
Charlie Waite is the founder of Light & Land who run photography holidays and workshops in the UK and across the world, including France, Kenya, Italy, Norway, Albania and the USA. The company is marking their 25th anniversary in 2018, with an exhibition celebrating ‘Evolving Landscapes’ at the OXO Gallery on London’s Southbank from July 18–22. It features photos by Charlie Waite and other Light & Land photographers including Joe Cornish, Doug Chinnery and more.
This interview was conducted by photographer and journalist Graeme Green.