I wanted to gain some knowledge about landscape photography and discover photogenic spots in southern Moravia.

That was my motivation for signing up for the Moravská krajina workshop led by Igor Adler. Everything took place within a triangle of Bučovice – Bohdalice-Pavlovice – Nesovice. The landscape here, nicknamed the Moravian Tuscany, is made for landscape photography. The character of this countryside is something completely different from what you're used to in the Beskydy, Jeseníky, or Šumava mountains. For starters we got a few tips: why to shoot in RAW, why to turn off "beautifiers" like Active D-Lighting, why to use M mode, and how to achieve a great shot at the moment of capture.

The cherry on top was a viewfinder loupe, which is handy when shooting outdoors in sunlight and you can't see anything on the display. And last but not least, which lens to use. Everyone naturally reaches for a wide focal length first — but thanks to the terrain's character and the properties of the lens, a telephoto creates much better results. Its perspective emphasises the individual rolling ridges. Across several locations we also experienced being dragged out of mud by a tractor (it rained and the "city SUV" couldn't handle that kind of mud).

I didn't learn how to do panoramas correctly — but that's fine, it wasn't why I was there. I discovered plenty of new things, not just about my DSLR.

I have to say that controlling the camera purely via countless dials is pretty useful when you have the camera to your eye — everything can be done blind, so to speak.