How do you retain the vibrant colours? My compact digicam photos always look washed out. Is a DSLR really that much of a difference?

It’s a combination of things, really. Shooting with a DSLR does provide the advantage of using higher quality lenses which are capable of better contrast than your typical compact digicam lens. It also allows the use of filters (for example, I used a polarizer for this shoot; hence the deep blue skies and general lack of atmospheric haze).

A lot of it is in the processing, though. I shoot in RAW format with no in-camera processing whatsoever. Therefore, while the shot straight out of the camera intentionally lacking in contrast and saturation, I’m able to easily recover that saturation and contrast to the extent desired in post processing in a non-destructive fashion. Used to be, this was a capability primarily restricted to DSLR users, but many of today’s compact digicams now have the capability to shoot in RAW format.

One final note… the light was pretty good when I took this shot, and I was at 12,000+ feet above sea level, where the air was nice and clean, so timing and location had a lot to do with the shot coming out the way it did. That, and knowing how to properly meter and expose it.