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Simon Häberling
@lightsandbits
Landscape photographer based in Switzerland
I had my first experience with photography when I was a child, since my grandfather and father had analog Nikon equipment and used it a lot. In the basement of our house we had a small exposure device on which my father and sister developed negatives. When I was at school, my mother gave my sister and myself each a small analog compact camera, and so I had my first experience with photography. I took the first pictures with a DSLR when traveling in Thailand and Zanzibar in 2008 and 2010, borrowing a Nikon D80 with 18-70mm kit lens from my father.
I learned to love my DSLR while traveling. However, it took a few years to become even more interested and focus more on photography. I am passionate about music and I dedicate a lot of my time to that too. When I met my girlfriend, we quickly rediscovered photography together and I can say it is a true passion now for both of us. One of the most special moments in photography was in 2018 when my girlfriend and I did our first long exposure together – it was a real ‘wow’ moment.
"The learning together and the beautiful experiences has made the connection we already had even stronger."
"This rediscovery led me to buy a new Nikon D5600 which I exclusively used to take my photos, until recently."
Currently I am using them in parallel with a Nikon D750 and I use several lenses, Haida filters and macro rings. Nowadays, photography serves as a balance to my job as a software developer and also to my biggest hobby, music production. Music and photography inspire each other; in both passions I can let my creativity run wild and keep trying and learning new things. To me, both forms of art are equivalent to freedom, there’s a lot of space to create and express according to your own taste.
Due to my job and my passion for music, I am very often inside the recording studio or an office. Being outside with the camera brings a nice balance into my life and taking in the nature makes me feel good in a different way. I mostly practice photography with my girlfriend, Sandra (@miss_g_pictures), we go out as often as possible. At the weekend, but also at the end of the day or plan a holiday to take pictures. I have been traveling quite a lot all over Switzerland; it is special to get to know my country by means of photography because you look at things very differently through the lens.
"So suddenly you notice things that you didn't pay attention to before. With every trip I become more aware of what a beautiful area I live in and learnt to appreciate it."
Outside of Switzerland, the travels I made to Thailand, Zanzibar and other countries were particularly impressive and left me with a deep respect for our planet. The world is so beautiful and diverse, having shapes and structures that are unimaginable and mind blowing. The best compositions are nature’s own. I like to shoot different types of landscape and challenge myself that way, but there are some things that appeal to me specifically.
On the one hand scenes with sunset or sunrise, and on the other hand somewhat darker scenes with a lot of fog and drama. I find this type of pictures visually very captivating and somehow exciting. They stimulate my imagination and make me dream or fantasize. Sunset and sunrise photos always make me feel very positive, the warmth and pleasant atmosphere calms me down.
"The foggy and darker photos are more dramatic and bring up tension and mystery, which I also really enjoy. It’s somehow exciting, as if it was a movie and something is about to happen."
"When I take a picture I often have an idea of how I will edit it. Shoot to edit, so to speak."
But this is by no means always the case, most of the time I simply go by feeling until I am satisfied with the result. I would leave it for a while and see if I’m still satisfied with it after a few days. For my second account, @simoninthemood, I am clearly looking for these moody tones because I really like it. By limiting myself to such photos in this profile I challenge myself to be creative despite the more narrow color pallet. Since I worked as a software developer in an advertising agency for several years, I very often came into contact with professional image material.
"I have always been fascinated by the colors in movies or pictures and I wondered how such colors and styles were achieved."
"When I started to edit my photos with Adobe Lightroom, I recognized the possibilities of editing a RAW file and just started trying it out."
Of course, other artists on Instagram or Youtube also influenced me. There are countless good photographers and videographers, but some have always stood out for me, such as Max Rive, Peter McKinnon, Stephan Wiesner or Sam Kolder. Depending on the artist, either their style or certain techniques inspire me. Max Rive shows the greatness of vast landscapes which keep surprising me again and again, while Peter McKinnon’s unique style certainly influenced me too.
The majority doesn’t have the opportunity to see the whole world in their life, and probably I won’t either. But I can see much of it through photos of others and I hope others can travel the world through my own photos. I find it very nice to be able to show other people a specific beauty of our world on a particular moment and with my personal touch. The world continuously changes, and so do we, so each photo is an expression of a unique moment and emotion experienced.
Part of my goal with photography is to encourage people to discover the world, the nature, our home – and to take care of it. I rediscovered nature for myself and learnt to love it. Plants, animals, rivers – it is always amazing how perfect nature is and how alive it is. But I often see how much nature is damaged by humans, by our behavior and constructions – taking the life away or trying to control it too much.
"I hope to somehow inspire people to rediscover nature as well, learn to love it and treat it that way."
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