Luminescence

Luminescence Day #1

The Mirror

This first piece shows the famous “Rakotzbrücke” in Germany.
I have visited this place several times before the restoration.
But I was never perfectly satisfied with the result.
That day we just decided to make a short road trip to eastern Germany.
Short means 8h of driving to reach the destination and 8h back. So just a normal two day trip for a landscape photographer.
Unfortunately the sunset was cloudy and it was raining, so we drove to the hotel without a usable picture.
During this visit, we decided to stay in a motel in Poland, near the border.
Worst decision ever. It was really cheap, yes. But for a reason. Our room was just an old office room where they built a bathroom really quick and dirty. The floor looked like out of a horror movie, full of stains which easily could have come from blood.. And the smell…
I can not describe how awful it smelt, the only thing I remember is that I smelt like that for the rest of our trip.
But we just needed a place to sleep.
Early in the morning, we woke up because of the loud noise that came from one of the other rooms, but anyway, it was time to go.
So we jumped into our car and after 20 min of driving we arrived at the spot.
And it was all worth it!
Exactly at the moment the sun rose, there was this soft kind of fog behind the bridge.
It was just unbelievable. I took this beautiful shot and was more than happy about it.
It was the best result I’ve ever achieved at this spot and I drove back home with a smile on my face.

Luminescence Day #2

Storm

The second piece of the Luminescence collection is taken in Oregon, USA.
It was during my second west coast trip a couple of years ago.
I went on a road trip with a friend from the Bay Area. All the way from Big Sur up to Oregon.
We often slept in the back of his car, on the floor of some friends living rooms or in a cheap motel.

That day we were exhausted because of the lack of sleep we had. It was raining for almost two complete days, and we were really not in the mood to go shooting. We had a long discussion about that, but at the end we decided to give it a chance. The forecast said that there could be a small chance to see the sun, and that’s all a photographer needs.
During our way down to the cliffs the rain stopped, but there was still no sun. 
My friend was a little depressed about that and walked back to our car. But I stayed there.
Then, from one moment to another, the whole sky just began to glow.
I started to take pictures as fast as possible because I saw there was a huge rain front coming.
At the end I took this picture, checked it on the screen of the cam and I knew this was the picture I wanted.
And right at that moment it started raining again. I just ran back to the car, completely wet, but happy about the result.

Now available as NFT

Luminescence Day #3

The Shark

This piece was made in February 21 in Tenerife.
It was my first real trip after the covid19 lockdown.
The whole trip was really special to me because it was the trip where I made the marriage proposal to my girl and we are engaged now.
It was not my first time on Tenerife, but for some reason I never took a picture of this amazing place before. It was always on my list, but I never made it.
That day we arrived early enough to have plenty of time for scouting. And my girl had the amazing idea to search for cactus fruits, and she also found some. Our only problem was that they had plenty of thorns, so we were really busy removing them from her fingers.
At the end we almost forgot to take the picture. But fortunately the sun was bright enough to take our attention away. 
At the moment when the sun was directly at the edge of the rocks, everything just began to glow like someone set everything on fire. 
It was breathtaking. But to be honest, it was not so easy to take the shot. At the end I used around 6 or 7 different pictures to eliminate all the lens flares and handle the really huge dynamic range.
But it was worth it. Not only because I really like the picture itself, but also because of the really funny memories I have now.
Sometimes a picture means more to the photographer who took it than to the viewer, but now you also know the story.

Now available as NFT on Opensea

Luminescence Day #4

Flowing

I love Iceland. I have travelled to Iceland for 6 or 7 years now, several times a year. In total around 15 times.
And I love every single visit.
For 5 years I run workshops there and have the honor to show the beauty of this island to other photographers.
This picture was made during a workshop in 2021.
One of the things I love about Iceland is, you can pull the car over almost anywhere you want, and there is something to shoot. And this is how this picture was made.

Ok, to be honest it’s not just beside a random street. We were on the way to show our group a really special place on top of a glacier, with my go-guide’s super jeep. Means we were somewhere in the highlands.
On the way up I saw this amazing valley, but we just carried on driving, to reach our destination.
I told my co-guide that we should keep this place in mind to shoot it on our way back when the sun is lower.
And this is how we did it.

After our photo stop on top, we decided to drive back down to our sunset spot and if the light would be right we make a stopover there.
There was a band of clouds between the top and this place, which looked, from our perspective, like a lot of fog that didn’t let us see more than 3 meters away.
But as soon as we left it behind us we saw this amazing valley and the sunlight which found a hole in the clouds to illuminate the whole back of the area.
We just pulled over and after a short 5min walk we found this amazing fluffy foreground and this in combination with the leading lines of the glacier rivers was just perfect!

Moments like this are why I love it to guide workshops.
When you see all the joy in the faces of your clients and you know they will not forget this magical moment for the rest of their life.. this feeling is just priceless.

Now you can make this feeling your own.
Available as an NFT now.

Luminescence Day #5

Toon Town

I took this shot on my recent trip to Dubai together with my fiancée.
I just love Dubai. It is like Disneyland for photographers.
Of course I am a landscape photographer but cityscapes are almost the same. They are like landscapes but the opposite. 😜
Anyway. If you have ever visited Dubai you know how impressive this city is. There are all these tall buildings and so much colorful light.
As a photographer the main goal is to find a place to shoot from the top of a skyscraper. As a foreigner it is not so easy. Fortunately I know many local photographers and they helped me so much to get access!

But this place is different. My goal was to find a perspective which I had never seen before.
So we took a walk around the marina and randomly tried to ask the guys at the lobby of some skyscrapers if there is a possibility to get access.
We did that a whole evening but everywhere was the same. Nobody wanted to let us go up. We found one place where they said, „sure, just go up“ . But at the end we found out there is no possibility to get access to the rooftop to shoot. At the end, it was night already and we found this place.

The guy in the lobby said he can ask his supervisor. And it turned out that he was a really kind guy.
After I showed him my works and explained to him what I wanna do, he directly called the owner of the building.
Unfortunately the owner was busy but he said I should come back the next day to talk directly with him.

So we came back the next morning to talk. The owner was still busy but he had a meeting with the nice supervisor and he made us the offer, if we could shoot some interior areas for him to use on his website, he would give me access. Of course I said yes, especially because he said there was nobody shooting (legally) from his rooftop until now.
So we made an appointment for the next morning to shoot the sunrise.

The next morning we came really early. And everything took place like we discussed it. The supervisor was already waiting for us, he took us to the top floor and then we got access to the rooftop. 
It was so cool! 360 degrees view from a really special spot on floor 40. Sometimes I had to use a ladder to be high enough to shoot above the high wall. But it was just breathtaking. 
Much effort for just one photo, but that’s part of the game if you want something special.

Make this special view your own

Now available as NFT

Luminescence Day #6

Behind the Bridge

This picture is taken in one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to. Java.
I travelled 3 weeks in Indonesia, mostly with some local photographers, which all became really good friends.
They took me to some of their favorite spots and I saw Java from a perspective apart from the tourist view.
Java is full of hidden treasures, like a dream like waterfalls, volcanos and seascapes.
And also the food. I love the spicy Indonesian food.
Guess I was never in a Country I was so in love with everything!

This waterfall was one of my last days in Java before I had to leave my friends there to travel to Bali.
And it was a perfect end for a perfect trip.

I normally don’t like it really, if a landscape picture has man made things in it.
But this bridge just gives the composition a special note. 
And the way the water splits does the rest.
But it is like always. You can take a shot just in a lazy way or you do it right.

To have the perfect composition I had to stand in the middle of the river. I was totally wet after shooting, so I had to change my clothes in a nearby toilet before my friends brought me to the train station to leave this area.

In the train I checked my pictures, and after I played a lil bit with some controllers in Lightroom I realized that there is this really cool light beam which makes the picture perfect.

Make a part of my journey to Java your own

Now available as NFT on opensea

Luminescence Day #7

Brothers

The coast of Ireland was something I had in mind for a long time. I love those ruff cliffs and the stormy weather.
So I decided to go on a road trip with a rental camper van directly from Switzerland.
There was just one thing I forgot. The ruff sea is not so cool if you are on a ferry. The ferry crossing from the UK to Ireland was one of my worst experiences ever. There was a huge storm and the ride took us 4.5h instead of 3h.I was really really sea sick the whole time because of the high waves. It was by far not my first time on a ship, and I never had a problem with sea sickness before. But this trip was just horrible.
But it was all worth it!
Ireland is great! I met a good friend there and he showed me some amazing places.

This is one of those.
To reach it I had to climb down a pretty steep wett cliff. Do you know how it feels when you just climb down something and when you look back you realize how high and steep it really was. And then you just think: „oh my gosh, I have to climb that all the way up back later“.
But right at that moment I reached the place where I wanted to shoot, the light turned crazy. So I just started shooting.

Sometimes it is hard to decide if I should go for a long exposure or if I wanna catch the strong waves like they are. In that case I first tried some shorter exposures and ended up with some long exposure shots which worked better for me to showcase what I had in mind.

During the shooting I almost forgot the time and I ended up in the dark.
Fortunately I had my headlights in my backpack otherwise I would have had a huge problem.
The cool thing is, if you hike or climb at night with a headlight is everything is easy. You only see the small area around you, so you are never afraid of falling down or something like that.
After a short climb back up, I reached my camper van and had a really good sleep.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #8

Brunos House

The house you see in this picture is the private house of Bruno.
I’m sure you ask yourself now; “Who is Bruno?”.
Bruno was the mountain lodge keeper of the Refugio Saoseo. The Refugio Saoseo is a mountain hut in the Swiss alps.
I run workshops there for 5 years now, and visited him every year 4 to 6 times with a group of clients. He is a really kind old guy and was definitely one of the reasons why this Refugio is so famous.
He is around 75 years old now and for the past 5 years he said to me almost every visit: “This is now my last season here”. But he never stopped working.
Now one year ago he really decided to stop. And I think this Refugio will never be the same without him.
Fortunately he lives not so far away, and I still see him on most of my visits, at least to say hi.

I had this composition in my mind for a long time, but was never able to shoot it, because I’m always with clients, and they want to shoot the Lago di Saoseo, the famous lake which is close to that.
Fortunately, on that day we were a little too early, and my clients asked me if I know something which is right beside the Refugio to just use the spare time for long exposure practices.

I made this picture during my explanations about how they decide the right shutter speed and how they can “stack” the foreground to have a perfectly sharp image.
Only when I was at home and saw this piece on my SD card did I realize, it is a pretty amazing picture with great light. And after editing it, it turned out that I took the shot I had in mind for such a long time, without really realizing it, because I was focused on my clients and the technical aspects.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #9

The Line

The first time I saw a picture of this place was many years ago. A good friend of mine did it, and he recommended that I visit the northern part of Spain and especially this area.
Then maybe 1 year later I did it for the first time. I was really impressed. This whole area is full of ruff cliffs and is just like a huge playground for photographers. Almost every place you can enter the sea, you find something amazing to shoot.
On my first visit I took some pretty cool pictures, from this specific place. But maybe you know the feeling if you look at a picture which is “nice”, but not yet exactly how you want to have it. The flowers in the foreground were not as beautiful as they are now. And also the light was not perfect.
So I had to come back later again. I took this one on my second visit. It was just a perfect morning. I woke up really early in the morning, because my hotel was in Bilbao which is around 45min by car. During the drive, I asked myself if it would really be worth it. I looked at the sky and saw not a single cloud. But I continued driving.

As soon as I arrived, I checked the sky again and saw some tiny clouds on the horizon, and realized there is also a bit of haze in the air, which will add some extra glow after the sun rises.
And the coolest thing was, I found these pretty amazing purple flowers to use as my foreground.
I set up my cam and now I just had to wait.
And boom. As expected the whole air started to glow with the first rays of light.
It was just amazing.

I visited this place a couple of more times after that, because I started to guide workshops in this area.
But this is still the best morning I ever experienced there.

Now available as NFT

Luminescence Day #10

Hallerbos

It took me a really long time to take this picture .
I heard about this magical place in Belgium a long time ago.
One day, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I went on a road trip with a couple of friends to this area. It was around that time of the year when we heard they should be in bloom, so we decided to give it a try and have a look.
Unfortunately, we were too early, and they were not yet ready. So we had to leave the place with no photo. Two years later, I tried it again. But this time I was too late, and the flowers were already dead. And again, I had to leave the place without a picture.

I decided for myself to just forget about it, because it is a hell of a ride to drive from Switzerland to Belgium to just come back with nothing. 
But then one day, a good friend of mine came to me and said I should check some Instagram posts. He saw several actual pictures from this place, and it looked like the flowers were just perfect.
So we decided to give it another try and drive the 700 km up to Belgium immediately.
We arrived early in the morning. It was still dark, and we jumped out of the car with a flashlight to illuminate the ground in the woods and.. it was all purple!
Finally, we got there at the right time!
Also the forecast for the weather was pretty good. No clouds, which is really important to have direct sunlight in the woods for the light and shadows.
We just took our gear, and started to walk deeper into the forest to find a cool place for sunrise.
And the sunrise was amazing. Beautiful light with a tiny bit of haze in the air.
For the first time, I left this place with some pictures.

I was really happy about it. Unfortunately, a little too happy, on the way back I drove too fast and a speed camera caught me.
But that’s ok. I think the picture is worth it.

Now available as NFT

Luminescence Day #11

A Boat

Bali was the second stop during my Indonesia trip 3 years ago. My goal was to shoot some of the typical Balinese motives. Like rice fields, and especially those boats.
My friends from Java told me it’s pretty easy to find them.
They showed me on google maps where exactly I can find some of them. So I just booked a hotel in that area, and after I arrived I went on a walk around the beach to find some.
At first I was a bit frustrated, because I realized the whole area was really touristic and the whole beach was just a common place to take a bath in the sea.
It was all covered with towels and way too many people.
To be honest, I don’t really like crowded places. I prefer the more remote areas.
But I gave it a try, so I came back the next morning before sunrise.
And I was really relieved to see that at this time, almost nobody was around.
I went to the place I discovered the boats, the day before and the only other human I saw was a fisherman.
The sky was just like a photographer needs it. Covered with clouds, but still some spots that the sun will shine through.

The cool thing about this place is, it is behind a sandbank, so the water is pretty calm and it has a perfect reflection.
And then, the moment the sun started to rise it was all covered in this amazing soft light. I just took a couple of pictures and went back to my hotel before all the tourists came to the beach.
It was in all a perfect morning, and once again I was happy to have done it, even if I thought at first that it would not work

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #12

Fairytales

I have only been to Scotland once, and it turns out I saw it like the cliche tells it.

On my trip to the Isle of Sky it was raining. It was raining 7 out of 7 days. And not only raining. The rain was horizontal all the time. But.. every day it stopped for a couple of minutes. And during this time the mood was just out of this world.

This picture was taken during one of these moments. And to make it look more special I also used a really long exposure.
The cool thing is if you use an exposure time of several minutes in landscapes, everything looks much softer. The only light is the light which shines through the clouds. And the clouds are always moving.
That means that also the light and shadows are moving.
I always use this when I want to achieve this dream-like mood. And I guess a place like that needs to look like something out of a fairytale.

Fun fact: On my way back to Switzerland my luggage had around 3kg more weight, because everything was totally wet.

Now available as NFT

Luminescence Day #13

Dragon Egg

Some years ago I was on a road trip in Portugal.
It was the cheap kind of way of a road trip. So we decided to always sleep in a tent. And it turned out, it is pretty cool to sleep on camping spots in a country like Portugal.
Most of our camping spots were at the beach or at least close to them. Perfect place to be. We only had one small problem. It was milkyway season, and we were often shooting late at night and the plan was to sleep a little after sunrise. No way. There were mostly no trees or other places with shadow,  so it was not possible to sleep after 9 am because it was just too hot.
But no problem. We already know how  lack of sleep is from northern light trips so we also survived this. 😜

This place was on top of my bucket list so we checked it out on our first day. We knew the name of the beach but nothing more. So we tried to find it. We didn’t find it at first, because it was high tides, and during high tides these pools are under water.
Then we asked a fisherman and he told us that we have to come back with low tides.
So we checked a tides planner app and found out that the perfect tides at this spot are at sunset and at the very end of our trip. So we changed our whole plan and came back a couple of days later.
And as you can see, it was definitely worth it.
The sunset was a blast. Perfect colors, perfect reflection and a perfect spot.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #14

Above the Beach

I don’t know how many times I have been to this place in Iceland without taking a picture.
It is a spot which I mostly show my groups on my workshops during the day.
And to be honest, I‘m not a big fan of shooting during day time. But my goal is always to show my clients as much of this beautiful country as possible. So I have to make a decision which spots I take for the perfect light and which are, I call that, postcard shots.
That day we just drove from one place to another, and it was not on my plan to shoot there.
But then the light started to look pretty cool because it was heavy raining and after it stopped, there was this crazy surreal light.
So me and my co-guide decided to have a short stopover for a shooting.
Fortunately, we had not only a bus but also a jeep. 
The street to the top of this spot is pretty steep, and after rain, it is definitely not possible to reach it with a bus.
So we just parked the bus beside the street in a parking spot and I used the jeep to drive several times up and down until all the clients made it.

It was a really independent group, so I also had a little time to shoot for myself.
And I was really happy about that.
I’m normally more a fan of color bomb shots. But this light was truly special. 

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #15

The Secret Beach

Oh man, this was definitely a day to remember.
It was August a couple of years ago.

I was on a road trip with a friend all the way from Finland up to Lofoten.
And if you have ever been up north during this part of the year, you know what that means. It’s never really dark, and you have around 5h of sunset and sunrise, because the sun only touches the horizon and starts to rise again.

This beach is not reachable by car or foot. You can reach it only if you pass a fjord. So we just rented a boat and after a 1h ride through the beautiful fjords of Lofoten, we reached the start of our hike.
It took us another hour to walk until we reached this unbelievably beautiful beach.
As soon as we passed the hill which covers the beach from behind, we saw this crazy light.
But the cool thing is, you have no rush. In the southern part of Europe, you really need to hurry up if you want to take the good light when it has already started. Here we just had hours and hours.
And this is something that really changes the whole process.

So I just walked around the beach and climbed up some rocks until I found the perfect composition with this amazing small river.
After the shooting we had a picnic, a short rest to just celebrate the beautiful nature, and then we started slowly to hike back. All that with absolutely no rush, during nice sunlight.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #16

Behind the Dragon

This shot was made during one of my Spain workshops.
And this morning helped me a lot to raise the mood of my whole group.
Sometimes, if the weather is not perfect, and maybe also some other issues take place during a workshop, it just needs a small thing to have an unhappy group.
That morning the vibe was already a little „special“. Then as we reached the spot we realized there was a storm some days ago and our main foreground was covered with sand and stones. Things like that happen often at the beach, but it is not easy to explain it to a group which is already a bit grumpy.

So we started with the shooting and I tried my best to raise the mood of my clients.
Unfortunately also the sky was totally clear and as you know, photographers always want a bit of clouds in the sky to have great colors.
Some of them also started to complain about that.
But as a seascape photographer you know, sometimes there is a bit of fog or mist in the air which could let it glow really strong.
I tried to tell that to my clients but most did not really listen to me.

And then..

The sun started to rise, and it was just all covered in that crazy orange light. 
Mother nature gifted us with her true beauty!
My clients were really euphoric and just took one shot after the next, not to miss a single second of this firework.
At the end they all had a huge smile on their face and the day was saved. 
In moments like this, I just love my job.
Happy clients, happy guide.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #17

The Valley

I had Mexico on my bucket list for a long time.
In January 2020 I finally made it.

This country is so amazing! And it is huge. When I travel to a country, I mostly do it on a road trip. I can easily drive 3000 or even 6000 Miles in two or three weeks. But Mexico is different. I don’t remember exactly how many miles I drove. Guess around 3000 or 3500. But I saw nothing. I had so many plans, but after the first couple of days, I had to realize that I could never reach all my goals in just 3 weeks. The streets are often not really good, there are many army or police stops, and some areas are just not safe enough to travel as a foreigner.
Even the police are dangerous. 
There was this situation where the police pulled me over, just for nothing. Watched all my pockets and took away all the money I had. I could do nothing against this. The only other option I had, was to go to jail until Monday (it was Friday) to talk about that with a judge, they said.

However, I realized I have not enough time to fulfill all my plans.
So I had to decide what I wanted to do.
This was one of my most important spots, and we just did it.
This waterfall is a really well known place. But only to look at it from a platform from above.
But if you know me, you know I always want to be close to something to shoot it.
So we tried to figure out how to make it.
Fortunately, we found a local guy around 50 years old.
We asked him about the way down to the waterfall.
He just offered to bring me down if we pay him a meal.
So I agreed.

The way to that waterfall was definitely not easy. It was not a long hike. Just maybe 1 h. But it was steep, and through the Jungle, all on wet, slippery ground.
And at the end we realized there was a place in the valley where we had to pass the river, which had deep water up to our hips.
So I just carried my gear backpack in my hands to pass this area.
I was completely wet, but it was totally worth it!
This place is just surreal, and with the light shining through the valley, it has a mood I have never seen before.
The old guy just waited on a rock until we finished. And when I came back to him, I realized he was shaking because he was also wet, and it was not really warm in the valley.
After we were back on top, we took him to a place to eat together, and I also dipped him some more money because he was such a nice, friendly guy. I asked him where he lives and about his plans. It turned out, he needed to take the bus to the next village to reach his home and change the wet clothes.

So I decided to bring him back home by car before we left this area to drive to another place.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #18

Old Volcano

I took this piece a couple of years ago on a trip in Lanzarote with a friend.
Lanzarote is a pretty amazing place and has beside the known tourist attractions, and beaches also some really beautiful landscapes.
But I have to say, for me it was really hard to take good pictures on that trip.
The area where I mainly focused on, is in a national park and it is not possible to enter there after 5pm without a permit.
We tried to get that permit for several days, they sent us from one place to another, and everywhere they told us the same: „We are not allowed to give you that. You need to talk with another person.“ Then we talked with that other person“ and they told us the same thing again. 

So we decided to shoot outside this area and found this old volcano.
Right beside it was another old volcano which was taller and after we climbed up, we almost got blown away because of the amazing view!
I took this shot on our first visit at sunset. 
The Sunset was almost unreal. The whole sky was glowing like the sun set it on fire. So it was definitely worth it to climb up this place.

After sunset we also took some milky way shots, but they were not perfect because of the same thing that made the sunset shot so amazing.
The air was full of dust and haze. This is amazing to shoot with strong light, because it adds this kind of extra glow. But at night it is not really cool. It doesn’t give you enough contrasts to have a perfect milky way.
So we hiked back down and drove back to our hotel.

We came back later to shoot the night sky again. But it took us more than just one try. At night the police confiscated our car, because of a stu*** hotel employee who forgot to tell them that we are hotel clients.
So as we woke up early in the morning, we had no car.

But that’s another story which belongs to the night version of this spot. 

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #19

Segla

This place is one of the most unique spots in northern Norway. It is on an island called Senja.
I saw many pictures of it before I visited it, and it was on top of my Norway bucket list.

A friend of mine told me how I can reach it. But at first I took the wrong way up.
From our parking spot we had two options to decide.
Unfortunately we took the wrong one at first.
After around 1h of hiking we realized that we were in front of this rock. But unfortunately on the wrong side. And there was no way to just pass it from the top to reach the other side.

Lucky me, it was August . And if you read the Lofoten story already, you know sunset lasts around this part of the year for several hours.
So we ran, yes we really ran back down, and hiked up the other side for another 2.5h .
And guess what?
The sun was still low enough to catch it in this beautiful way.

Now available as NFT

Luminescence Day #20

In the Water

This spot is a really unique place. I guess there is no other place like Sumba on earth.
I heard about it during my stay in Indonesia.
And after I realized it is only a 2h flight away from Bali, I decided to book a flight and just use two days to visit it instead of staying in Bali only.
From Instagram, I was connected with a local travel agency who helped me to organize everything. They just booked me a hotel and a personal taxi driver.
He picked me up at the airport and I just had to say what I wanted to do. He was always waiting for me, and helped me find everything.
First he showed me some of the hidden waterfalls on that small island, and then we went to this amazing beach for sunrise and sunset. 

And like everywhere in Indonesia, I just made new friends while shooting.
I met some local photographers at the beach, who just took me with them to eat together.
Guess I never visited a place with so many friendly people like on my Indonesia trip.

Unfortunately, the sunset was not perfect. The light was kind of boring. But the locals told me it would be even better in the morning.
So I came back the next morning to shoot the sunrise.
And it was just perfect!
Have you ever seen this kind of tree, growing in saltwater, directly at a beach, which looks like paradise?
This in combination with that soft purple light was just like a dream!
It was definitely one of the most unreal places I ever visited.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #21

Gueirua

This is one of the many amazing spots on the northern coast of Spain.
I am pretty sure you have seen this place already. But maybe just not from this perspective.
I have been there many times, but mostly during high tides.
This place is only reachable at really low tides, because otherwise it is surrounded by water.
If you look at Luminescence #16, you see the more common view of them. But with no water it is possible to climb around on these rocks, And they are a blast of possible compositions.
Ok, it is not easy to climb around, and you really need to climb a little to reach it. But it’s definitely all worth it.  

I wanted to do it since my first visit, but until this trip unfortunately the tides were never low enough at the right time.
When I arrived at the spot it was really surreal to see a place dry, which I know only with water. Moments like these always show me how small we are. And how different something just looks because nature changes things.

The shooting itself was really unspectacular. It is an amazing place and a place like this just needs the right light to shine.
It took me maybe 30 min to find the perfect composition. Then I just had to wait for the right light. and.. click.. done..

That’s all the magic.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #22

Reflection of the Kings

At the beginning of August I had the pleasure to spend a day at the Tre Cime together with a camera team from SIGMA to shoot a short video about how I work with their equipment.
I have been a SIGMA ambassador for over 4 years now, and it was an honour for me to show my workflow to their clients.
This is the result of this shooting.
We met the crew right at the parking spot which was the start of our hike. Unfortunately the camera team had a 1h delay because they were stuck in traffic.
And during the hike which originally just needs 1h, they stopped every couple of minutes because they needed footage of me during the hike.
They did a really great job, but for me it was just a little bit stressful. I always had the time for sunset in the back of my mind and I knew we had to hurry up.

I thought to myself “what if we are too late?  Sure, they need the footage, but if I am too late to shoot the good light, they have all they need to create an amazing video, but that is not worth it if the final picture looks weak”

But we made it.
I decided to do it at this place because I know it is really good. I have been there many many times before.
There are these amazing small spots with water directly in front of the Tre Cime, and it is really good to talk about how to create good compositions.
As we reached the first lake I realized that they all have not much water in it, because of the lack of rain.
But it was enough to have the reflection.

For me it is really challenging to shoot a good picture, and also “act” for the camera, describe what I am doing and answer all the questions to the camera team.
Shooting is more a kind of a feeling rather than talking about it.
But I managed it. And the picture turned out really cool.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #23

Stereo

I took this piece on one of my US road trips some years ago.
The mono lake tufas is one of nature’s true beauties! 
I slept in a hotel close to the lake after I reached this area late at night. In the morning I woke up early to shoot the sunrise.
But it was my first time there, and I normally don’t like to arrive on a spot in the dark where I have never been during daylight. Just because I don’t know exactly where to shoot.

I parked my car somewhere beside the street and started to walk in the direction where I thought it could be great to shoot. After maybe 10 min of walking I was in an area with grass and bushes up to my chest. It was still dark and I was not sure if it was the right way.
Then I heard something howling. The sound was maybe 150m away from me. I was not sure if it came from a wolf or a coyote.  Maybe one minute later I heard another howling from the opposite site. And again from the other side. Then I realized there are some animals all around me. I was still not sure what exactly it was. So I decided to walk slowly back to my car. The animals were always around 80 to 150 m away from me, the whole way back to my car. It was a pretty creepy feeling because I was not able to see something in the grass and bushes. I heard only the sound of them. Sometimes closer to me and sometimes more far away.
As I arrived I was pretty lucky to sit again in the safe car.
Unfortunately, it was already bright and the sunrise started.
I drove another 5 min to the direction of the lake until I reached a parking lot.
I realized that this parking lot is the perfect place to reach the tufas, but it was already too late to shoot the sunrise.

So I just took some time to scout a perfect place for sunset, and I found this cool place.
I went back to my hotel to eat breakfast and also made a short stop at a gas station.
I asked the guy in the gas station about my experience that morning, and he said there are no wolves. 
It was only a bunch of coyotes that were living in this area. But he told me it was still a good decision to walk back to the car.
At sunset I went back to the spot I scouted in the morning. Fortunately I was early enough, because as soon as I placed my cam, some other photographers arrived. It is always good to have your frame before others, if you don’t want to have a discussion with people in your frame.
I had to wait maybe 1.5h for the perfect light. But it was all worth it!
The sunset was a blast and I was really happy about the picture.

Now available as an NFT

Luminescence Day #24

Golden Iceland

I visited the vestrahorn in Iceland a minimum of 15 or 20 times in the past years. I have seen all kinds of colors, northern lights, dark moods and also rain and snow there.
But this morning was totally different.
It was during one of my Iceland workshops a couple of years ago.
Back then my workshops were road trips with two, 4 person camping cars and a jeep, which was my place to sleep. 
We slept directly in front of the Vikings Cafe.
As we woke up, the whole sky was covered with clouds.
Some of my clients told me they would prefer to stay in „bed“ because it doesn’t look like we could have colors.
After a short discussion about it I persuaded all of them to give it a try, because in my opinion it was possible to have a good sunrise.
So we drove 3 min until the end of the beach to reach these small hills.
After another 10 min we all found a great composition and now we just had to wait for the light.
The day before I taught my clients how to use the PhotoPills app to know which time the colors should display.
So everyone was checking the app constantly, and soon the first started “complaining“. It was time for colors, but the sky was still completely covered. They said to me, “we told you there is nothing this morning“ and “why did we come here instead of sleeping longer“. I started to be afraid that maybe my decision was the wrong one. 
Now the time with the colors was already almost over, and some started to pack up their gear.
And then.. 
I saw a small hole in the clouds behind us. I just said to the packing clients, wait …
And before I was able to say everything, the whole beach was covered in crazy golden light.
I have never seen such light before at this place!
It was just unbelievable!
And once again..
Happy clients, happy guide..

Now available as an NFT