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Georgina Vincent
@georginavincent
Best of the week 48 at #nomadict 2022
My first trip to Iceland in September 2021 was my turning point for sure with regard to travel and photography. I’d recently bought a drone and I was eager to start using it so my two photographer friends and I decided to go on a last-minute road trip around Iceland and see some live volcano action at the Fagradalsfjall eruption. At this point, I could barely even call myself an amateur photographer because I didn’t actually take photographs that often but I’d been so inspired by my friends’ photography that I wanted to see if I had it in me too.
Iceland was the perfect place to start but I was new to traveling of this kind; road-tripping for 11 days straight, getting next to no sleep in a freezing cold wet tent, waking up for sunrise every day, living off baked beans & bread (Iceland is expensive), hiking in wind, rain and storms and I was not a fan of the frozen drone fingers. Having said that, it was all so thrilling and strangely I loved it.
Despite all of this, the real highs of this trip were just on another level. I was staring at landscapes I’d never imagined were possible, especially launching our drones into the air and being able to see all the crazy colors and textures from a bird’s eye view. We visited waterfalls, canyons, and glaciers, drank beers in hot springs, hiked up rainbow-colored mountains and through old lava fields, witnessed lava spew from a volcano birthing new land… This trip was genuinely life-changing and opened up a whole new world for me.
Taking a leap of faith
I was so motivated and inspired by our trip to Iceland that it left me wanting to travel more. Since the start of 2022 and in between my work contracts as a TV production coordinator, I visited 8 different countries and revisited Iceland for a second time when the Meradalir volcano erupted. I’d never taken more than two holidays a year in my life! Each country I visited had something new and spectacular to offer. My camera gear followed me everywhere, half of those trips were full-blown road trips taking a car or camper to make it cheap which also meant we got to sleep amongst different landscapes every night, passing through incredible views throughout the day, seeing as much as possible in the time that we had.
I was gaining experience traveling and photographing landscapes but I didn’t want it to stop there so I’ve since become a certified drone pilot and taken up some jobs of my own in both ground and aerial work. I also decided to enter my first photography competition about a year after my first Iceland trip and to my surprise, the British Photography Awards 2022 shortlisted two of my photos in the drone category. Although I didn’t win, being shortlisted alone is a huge achievement for me at this stage of my career, and the fact my work has been noticed by widely recognized professionals within the industry, has encouraged me to make the decision to leave my 9-5 and become a full-time creative freelancer in 2023.
As I mentioned before, I was fairly new to drone photography so it felt like Iceland was going to be a trial and error for me. My pals who were more experienced photographers and travelers led the way to all the photography hot spots and I just went along with it! They already had ideas in mind of how to shoot the crater but I was none the wiser as I hadn’t really seen or paid attention (in a way a photographer would) to compositions of all these incredible landscapes before. I launched the drone and flew further out to see what composition I could get (apart from the obvious massive blue crater lake). I kept flying, not really knowing what I was trying to capture at this point but I came across some interesting textured rivers. It was a pretty wide landscape so I took multiple shots with the idea in mind to stitch them together in post. In all honesty, at the time I didn’t feel that satisfied about the shot and I remember thinking to myself ‘I’ve just flown a few thousand meters and wasted a whole drone battery on a rubbish shot…’
Months went by and I still hadn’t gotten around to editing most of my Iceland shots (mainly because I didn’t think they would be half as good as my friends) but I kept seeing photos of this place on Instagram accounts so I decided to stitch the photo together in lightroom and see what I’d got. I’d forgotten all about the river that ran along the side of the crater so I was pretty stoked when I saw it merge together, realizing that I hadn’t actually seen this perspective before. I edited the shot and there you have it!
"In hindsight, it’s sometimes better not to have seen a composition others have photographed because your eye isn’t drawn to what you’ve already seen or what's been shot a thousand times before, leaving room for a unique angle or perspective."
Editing the winning photo
Iceland is full of intense and striking colors but simultaneously it’s got a really dark mood to it – it genuinely looks and feels like another planet in some places, especially the highlands. The colors and landscape formations are the very reason why the island is so famous for photographers so personally, I don’t think photos of Iceland need a particular editing style to create a spectacular image because its imposing assets are already there.
With this in mind, I wanted to highlight the blues and the yellows on the surface so I subtly desaturated any other colors such as browns in the distance or hints of blue in the clouds that might detract from the focus of the subject. I then darkened those tones even more and lifted the blues and yellows in the river and crater to make them stand out. I boosted the clarity in the clouds and then softened them to enhance the mood making it feel more otherworldly. I always use masks to highlight the subject of an image but this photo really didn’t need much, the landscape speaks for itself! I cleaned up the image removing any little distractions but fortunately, there weren’t many at all.
Lessons learned as a result of creating the winning photo
I’ve actually learned a few lessons from creating this photo.
One is to not be afraid to try something new (yes even if it means using a whole drone battery for one shot and flying in the opposite direction of everyone else). The more unique, the better. People want to see things they haven’t seen before, it’s inspiring!
Another lesson would be to trust the process. I’d almost let this photo slip because I remember not being content enough with it at the time. I’ve learned to start editing a photo even if I’m not keen on the RAW image, quite often I’ve surprised myself after finishing the editing process and ended up loving the shot! This happens every now and again, especially when you’re taking Panos as you can’t just look back at one single image and decide if you like it or not. You have to import the images, stitch them together and then decide if you want to edit them or not. It’s a long process but a necessary one.
Lastly, perseverance is key. I’ve learned that just because I’m not as experienced as others in the industry doesn’t mean I should be put off creating or putting my work out there. At the end of the day, pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone is when we learn the most valuable lessons and boy have I learned a lot this past year.
Four ingredients for a great landscape photograph
(1) Weather & light – Golden and blue hours, sunsets, and sunrises are the best time to shoot. The colors during these times of day completely transform an image’s mood, tone, and style. Everyone loves a sunny bluebird day but I don’t think it’s great for landscape photography in most cases. Personally, I think if you’re going to shoot in the middle of the day (like I did for the shot of the week) then ideally it needs to be overcast so that you at least have the option to play around with the mood in the sky, plus the colors won’t be washed out by the harsh sun and you won’t get such hard contrast created by the shadows.
(2) Composition – In most of my photos, you’ll be able to see either a subject, a leading line, and/or a rule of thirds (with the exception of some abstract top downs). I see many photos which lack one of these (usually a subject), so the viewer’s eye isn’t drawn to anything and therefore loses interest in the image. With composition, it’s also important to think outside the box. Landmarks all over the world have been shot thousands of times so I try to mix things up a little by finding a slightly different perspective. My most interesting or successful photos are compositions of places people haven’t seen before. You want to create photos that stand out from others and raise questions or comments like ‘where is this’ or ‘I’ve never seen this composition before’.
(3) Editing – Oh my, this is an important one. There have been times when I thought a photo wasn’t good enough to even try editing, but I gave them a go anyway, and lo and behold, some of these have turned out to be my favorite images. Editing completely transforms an image, especially when you introduce masking and playing around with different colors and tones. Masking can really help draw attention to subjects in frames that seem far away or small in landscapes. They can direct the viewer’s eye to the subject and illuminate elements of the photo that you want to draw attention to. I also think it’s a great practice to explore different editing styles every now and again, it keeps it fun and interesting and I think you learn a lot that way.
(4) Texture – While textures in photographs are brilliant, I try to bring some negative space into an image so that it doesn’t feel too chaotic. This helps balance the textures out and can bring more focus toward the subject. For example, if you were lucky enough to catch an incredible sunset with pink textures in the clouds but you’re also shooting a heavily textured landscape, from personal experience, either one or the other works but putting the two together can turn out to be a bit of an overkill.
Future plans
I’ve always had plenty of hobbies and interests but none have stuck with me for long enough to pursue them as a career since one of my bad traits is being hugely indecisive. I get bored easily, always wanting to try new things so I’ve never really had a plan as such. But, I finally feel like I’ve found my passion, a hobby, a community that drives me to get out there and explore as much as I can, experiencing different cultures, and making unforgettable memories and friends from all walks of life along the way. It’s everything that comes with photography that gives me the fire in my belly to continue. All while being able to capture these moments via photography or videography and share them with others in the hope that it inspires them too. How could you ever get bored of that? All these factors combined have led me to start thinking of my future with a more narrow sense of direction within this creative field.
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