Mikkel Heinricy
@mikkel_heinricy
Photographer based in Denmark
During my childhood, I was intrigued by my dad’s big professional camera and lenses. I always looked at him working, how he did things, his photography poses… I observed everything he did. As soon as I got my own little digital camera, having my dad as an example, I started shooting everything I thought was interesting, from a broken bike alongside the bicycle lane, to the oceans.
"Along the years my photography passion grew, and my dad taught me all he knew."
As I gained some experience, I changed my cameras from a little pocket camera, to Gopros, to a DSLR, all the way up to the camera I have now. My dad always told me: “Always bring your camera, no matter where you are going. Because one day you don’t, and then the perfect picture is there.” I’ve always listened to that advice and funnily enough, it’s true – some of my “best” pictures are the spontaneous ones. The ones where you are just driving along the road, and you see the magic happening – where nature brings everything together for the perfect shot.
"That’s one of the things I love about photography. You can be out for a little walk, be surprised by even the most normal thing, and start shooting, no matter the gear."
In my early days of photography, I won a few contests with my pictures. With one of them I won all the gear from Gopro, and that made my drive to shoot bigger. It’s the process of creating that mainly does the trick. But of course, humans always strive to evolve and naturally we get excited by new stuff, and so do I. Thus, when I saw drones for the first time, I was hooked! I started saving up all I could, and one day I bought my first DJI Mavic air with which I flew pretty much all the time (and of course crashed it). So, I started saving again, this time for the DJI Mavic air 2. In the meantime, I read about the drone regulations/laws and figured it might be a good idea to get a drone license. I went back to the school bench and started studying for the test.
When I obtained the license, oh boy did I fly! At the same time, I had started reading about FPV drones as well. I found them way too advanced for my crafting skills and didn’t see myself building the FPV, but when I saw DJI came with an FPV drone, I knew I had to get it. My first real flight was thrilling! One thing is to fly in a simulator, a totally different story is to fly in real life.
I learned how complicated it is to fly in full manual mode the hard way as I got motion sickness using the goggles. It’s like everything is moving, it goes super fast and I felt like I didn’t have control. My heart was pounding, so nervous. The speed and acceleration is crazy! It’s an experience that’s hard to imagine, an experience your brain is not used to. I’m quite new to the sport, and I simply try my best to learn it all and practice as much as I can no matter the times I have to get it down for a short break.
Technically, the drones helped me improve and diversify my craft. On the other hand, the biggest evolution in my approach to photography and my work came when I started focusing on the small moments. The big moments are great when they appear, but it is the small ones that get you going. Everything from executing a photo idea, to seeing a beautiful sunset in the forest. When I “stopped” thinking only about getting the bigger achievements, my passion grew.
A big achievement, though, that got me into my job today was when I won a trip to Lofoten, Norway, together with some others. I had participated in a contest from Barebells, which was my sponsor back then. It was a huge experience…the scale of those tall mountains just alongside the small roads! A while later, a friend in the company said they could use a guy with my skills, and so I started as a content creator/coordinator at Barebells, Nocco and Vitaminwell Denmark. This was right before the Covid pandemic started. It was a tough start, but in that strange period I really started to go out and shoot again. Even now we are all mostly back to work, not a day goes by where I’m not using my camera! The kinds of pictures I’m creating for work or for myself in nature are obviously different, and I learn a lot from both places trying to use the crossover aspect from both worlds.
"No matter what you shoot, you still focus on how the picture is going to be, and you learn from the process of doing so."
When I’m not at work, I try to get out as much as possible. I scout locations on Google Maps endlessly, writing them down in a little notebook as well as other ideas and learnings that I obtain by reading all kinds of information. Regularly I would also just leave home by car without a plan, driving along the countryside for inspiration (something I’d recommend everyone doing!)
Denmark doesn’t have high mountains and deep clefts with blazing waters, but I try to find the beauty in the calm landscape with almost no power lines that you’d want to remove in post-production.
Wherever it may be, the joy of seeing new places has always been a craving of mine. To explore, seek adventures, and live life that way. One of my biggest dreams is to have a nice campervan, and just drive. No end destination, no plan, just drive and take pictures and videos. Hopefully one day, I can experience being a nomad on the road!
The opportunities that photography offers are immense, and the best thing is that they are always embedded in a story, and captured on camera. I’ve always been curious about the story behind a shot. No matter what photo it is, there is always a story. With all my photos, I can remember the day, who was with me, why we were there, what happened before and after the shot… To me, that is the most rewarding part. And this even goes for smartphone selfies!
Wherever it may be, the joy of seeing new places has always been a craving of mine. To explore, seek adventures, and live life that way. One of my biggest dreams is to have a nice campervan, and just drive. No end destination, no plan, just drive and take pictures and videos. Hopefully one day, I can experience being a nomad on the road!
The opportunities that photography offers are immense, and the best thing is that they are always embedded in a story, and captured on camera. I’ve always been curious about the story behind a shot. No matter what photo it is, there is always a story. With all my photos, I can remember the day, who was with me, why we were there, what happened before and after the shot… To me, that is the most rewarding part. And this even goes for smartphone selfies!
I like to think back at the story behind the shot when working on my photos, and also find it interesting to think about the story people can create by looking at a photo as “a stranger” to the actual event of the photo. Once a follower told me how one of my photos reflected a story of herself, how the photo spoke to her, how she got drawn by it, losing herself in the emotions of her memory. That was super fulfilling for me and it is the best compliment you can get as a visual creator!
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