Photo tour in Azores, Portugal
December 3, 2025 No Comments
Join us in the Azores for a unique photo tour, where you’ll elevate your creative skills with expert guidance from Ronald Soethje, Bruno Ázera, and Nomadict.
Lars
@aloha_lars
Travel and landscape photographer based in Germany
My name is Lars, and I live in Southern Germany, where you can find the mountain range Swabian Jura, to be more precise. I didn’t have the chance to travel the world and to see a lot of different countries when I was younger, so when I started earning my own money I wanted to catch up as much as possible. Our planet has so many beautiful places to offer and I want to explore as much as I can. Though my brother was into photography already, I started with photography myself primarily to share these travels and experiences with my friends and my family. I guess Ibn Battuta was right:
“Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
To elaborate on this, I believe that traveling and experiencing the world, is the only way to really realize in what a wonderful and diverse place we live. And this in turn, made me much more conscious about the fact that our world is in danger and we have to take care about this much more than we are trying so far. I did a guided tour in Norway, to the Nigardsbreen glacier, and I have seen with my own eyes how the glacier has retreated. Same at Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon on Iceland or at Aletsch glacier in Switzerland.
"I've seen our negative influence on our planet and it's so sad to see it dying."
Besides learning about our world, traveling also contributed to my personal development. I have been confronted with things I’d never have been confronted with if I hadn’t traveled, which means that I got to know myself so much better. I learned that I am a much stronger person than in the past. Until 2016 I had never traveled by plane because I was too afraid of flying.
"Then I saw pictures of Alison Teal surfing in front of the Lava eruption on Hawaii’s Big Island. Until now, in my opinion, those are the best pictures that someone has ever taken."
After seeing this I made up my mind: My fear would no longer hold me back. That’s why I decided to hop on a plane and fly around the globe. My first flight was from Germany to Hawaii, a distance of around 12.000 km! I also wanted to see the Lava flow and to shoot some epic pictures there. I guess at that point, the true passion for photography was awakened within me. Hawaii and the Aloha spirit really changed my mind, that’s one reason why I’ve chosen @aloha_lars as my nickname.
To be able to realize these travels, I have a perfectly normal 9 to 5 job in finance that fills me out. I appreciate my job and the opportunities it provides to travel, but my free time is adventure time, either at the other side of the world or by going on hikes in my local area. That’s why I call myself a part time adventurer. I love all the adventure movies like Tomb Raider and always wanted to experience something similar.
"Feeling those adventure vibes became a passion, I want to be kind of like a modern day Indiana Jones. That's the spirit I want to live up to."
We all know that traveling teaches to look at things from another perspective, and so I got a whole new perspective on my home area (Swabian Jura in Southern Germany). I found a lot to explore: castles, caves, cliffs, wild animals, rivers, valleys and waterfalls. My local area is so diverse, some locals even say we live in an area where other people spend their holidays. It does not always have to be the expensive holiday abroad, so that one can experience an adventure.
"We should appreciate where we are coming from."
"I believe that exploring, not just in the sense of traveling, can only have positive outcomes."
When I started with photography, I had no clue about exposure time, aperture or ISO. I also didn’t know how to build up a good picture. Instagram is a great source of inspiration: There are so many talented and experienced photographers out there, that showed me the way into photography. I watched a lot of videos about photography and image processing on Youtube, so I taught myself everything and of course my brother explained me a lot. The key is practicing everything over and over again. Some pictures will turn out great, others won’t work.
"I always try to edit my pictures in a unique way, to get the most out of the spot and the mood where the picture was taken."
My goal is not to create an Instagram feed with dozens of pictures all looking the same, just for having a nice and clean feed. I totally respect all the photographers, who edit their pictures in one unique style. But for myself, I don’t want to limit my creativity with that. All the spots I’ve been to are somehow unique and vary in colors, weather and lighting. That is what I want to point out. I am also interested in finding new and unknown spots. I know that pictures from places like Lago di Braies, Hallstatt or Lofoten are very popular, but those places don’t attract me.
"For me, the real charm lies in seeing new things and discovering unknown terrain."
I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, I honestly don’t even know what I want to eat tomorrow… But all joking aside: I just want to keep going on adventures and doing what I love, including photography. If I could reach and inspire even more people with my pictures, that would make me very happy. I would like to “infect” them with the adventure spirit as well, so that they also want to go out and explore the world. There is no better feeling than to leave positive traces in the lives of others. And last but not least, hopefully I will have some children in the future.
"It would be great to go on some adventures with them."
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