With a Sony Alpha 6700 in hand, Finnish photographer Hugo Korhonen set himself the task of capturing spring near his home city - Kuopio.

“I find it very funny that I get to travel to all of these places around the world, but I tend to get my best photos very near home,” says Hugo. “There is always a ‘moment’ that just happens; it could be down to my eyes. I know the area so well and I know how to navigate and understand it.”

Photographing spring is a tough challenge for Hugo. “Spring is such a beautiful time of year, but I have always avoided going out and taking photographs as I suffer badly from allergies. However, with the images that I have taken this year, I am now glad that I was able to push myself and photograph some cool stuff.”

For his springtime series of images, Hugo used the Alpha 6700 and its powerful 26-megapixel APS-C size sensor.  “I started out shooting with an Alpha 6500, so it was a nice feeling going back to that series. I really like the size, especially the grip, which is very large given the camera's size. The latest focusing system is fantastic, it’s crazy how well it can track subjects like flying birds.”

Hugo finds beautiful scenes for his images but then looks for small elements within them, such as people, planes, birds or animals, that add a sense of scale and represent how big the world is and how small we are within it.

The smaller Alpha 6700 camera, combined with the Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G and E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS lenses, made it easy for Hugo to go shooting.

“Don't rule out the crop factor with the smaller sensor!” says Hugo. “I previously thought that it wasn't good to have a smaller sensor, but now, using the 10-20mm lens, I can get the wide-angle shots I couldn't before, with 16mm being the widest.”

Although Hugo loves shooting with the 10-20mm lens, he has just as much reason to shoot landscape images with a telephoto lens, such as the 70-350mm.

“I believe that photography is about making the right selections of what you can fit in. With a wide angle, you can show a lot of a scene, but with a telephoto lens, you can highlight the specific part of the landscape you want to show; things that the viewer wouldn't normally see. A telephoto lens allows a photographer to really focus on storytelling. This is also why I don't tend to shoot at around 50mm, which seems normal to human vision.”

Interestingly, most of Hugo's landscape images are shot vertically. The Finnish photographer feels that this orientation works for his images and looks for scenes where he can shoot vertically. But there is another reason, and it is down to how we nearly all now consume images.

“As I post my images on social media, the vertical orientation is optimised for the screens. Of course, my goal is to capture the scene and make art for myself, but also for others to see. I know that if I shoot horizontally, it will most likely not be seen by as many people and won't be shown to its full potential.”

The series of vertical images reveals the rich colour that the spring season provides. With cool blues and striking warm sunrises, the colour palette is due to the dramatic light of blue hour, sunrise, sunset and golden hour.

“Most people see the world during daylight, especially during the Spring and Summer. When the sunrise is at 3:30 am most people aren't going to see the amazing light around this time. I also feel different when I am up shooting at this time - the world seems more magical to me. That is something that I always want to show people - the beauty of our world. And it also helps me. If I am feeling down, then going and creating some art can help me overcome those difficult emotions and bring some calm and relief.”