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Alex Leeder
@alex_leeder_
Best of the week 6 at #nomadict 2021
My parents have always loved to travel, and from a young age have taken me to exotic places that are out of the norm considering the typical family holidays. As I have grown up, I have come to appreciate the places that I have been to more and more, which in turn has sparked a passion to visit even more locations, each one fuelling my hunger to explore further.
After leaving school, I initially trained as a commercial pilot, fuelled by my passion to travel to new places. But due to the Covid pandemic, I have had to rethink my career path. This has enabled me to devote myself to my passion for photography and pursue a career as a freelance photographer.
"Learning through a winning shot that my photography is appreciated by a large audience, only reinforces that I am going in the right direction."
My trip to Iceland was with my parents, we had rented a car and were traveling along the south coast. The goal was to get to Stokksnes (the location of the shot) for sunset the previous evening, but unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get there on time that evening. So we replanned to go for sunrise the following morning as we did not have much time left. Due to the season, sunrise was extremely early and required some serious motivation to get out of bed and shoot, but oh was it worth it!
We arrived at the black sand beach just as it was getting light, with only a few other people there. As it got lighter, the morning had a glow and the waves had a golden tint. A slight mist was creating an awe-inspiring atmosphere. As the sun slowly made an appearance, the light became better and better. We were frantically running around with joy trying to find and capture every possible angle of this amazing scene knowing that these kinds of conditions come very rarely. Once the sun had fully risen and the day had begun, this rush of fulfillment came, knowing that this moment – even if everything else on the trip had failed – had made the trip a success.
This shoot wasn’t like other shoots. Normally you have to work with what you’ve got; something may be slightly undesired which you have to overcome or the light isn’t great and you are just trying to do the best you can. This was one of those rare occasions where everything was perfect; the conditions were calm, the light was incredible and the location was stunning. All I tried to do with this shot was capture the incredible scene in its entirety and portray what we saw that day, I wanted to encapsulate the magic of the moment so anyone who sees the picture would think “I wish I was there.”
When editing the shot I really tried to portray the amazing yellow and orange hues that were so dominant that morning, I wanted to create an image that did the day justice. Editing for me is my favorite part of the process, it’s the time my image really comes to life. It really lets you express your own style and twist on the RAW image.
In general, my images tend to be a lot deeper and darker in tones. I love the rich colors that can be created with these darker tones; in my opinion, it creates a nice contrast between the foreground and the sky. This style has been sculpted by my exposure to take photos in conditions that are far from ideal. It’s such a rewarding process being able to create pictures when others wouldn’t normally want to be out taking photos. This doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy incredible sunrises, some of my favorite photos actually are these incredible sunrises, but I like to create these using richer blues and oranges compared to others.
With this particular photo, I did not only learn that the Earth never ceases to amaze, I also learned that those days where it requires the most motivation to get out of bed and see somewhere new, often reward you with the most spectacular of views.
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