Wide angled lens for mountains?

Thin_Ice wrote:

Pics of just mountains are boring most of the time ( i am a mountaineer with 30 years experience).

ha ha, my wife would remove the "most of the time" thing... but you know it is just jealousy

the pictures get interesting because of the other elements in the picture. The mountains are just an interesting background.

Yep, but I would still argue that moutain pictures can still be great, but they are hard to take, on mountain trips : they should be taken in photo trips in the mountains, when the goal is too find the right composition with the right light at the right moment of the year.

The 12 mm makes subjects in foreground larger and mountains in background very small. A simple mountain landscape is dissapointing most of the time.

I Agree 100% (see my post above on panoramas) : I have a 9-18, but rarely use it in mountains for that reason.

People shots: oly 45 mm

Having people really helps in my experience : they make a proper scale to immediatly render the large distances involved, the steepness of a ridge, the massiveness of the mountains, or even give vertigo.

They also add that storytelling element missing in "boring" mountain shots.

So my opinion, is slightly different than yours : you say mountain background can help make the subject look better. I say foreground/element can help make the mountain look better.

Ok, so I guess now might be the time to open a Mountain shots C&C thread...