Long has been part of Nomadict’s community for quite some time now and we’ve loved seeing him grow and the diversity of work he is doing. He has won the Best of the Week a few times now and we’ve worked on some projects together. In this article, Long shares the story behind the winning photo, explains his shooting and editing approach, and talks about how he made sure to be effective during the limited amount of time they had. He also shared his favorite projects he’s worked on and what he sees himself doing in the future.
A few years ago, I went to Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland for three days with Niko (@patheight). We both had the idea to get an epic shot of a tiny person standing above the enormous glacier. During the three days, we were looking for the right viewpoint to get the perfect shot. Surprisingly, everything on this trip went amazingly well and every sunrise and sunset was a success. We found many spectacular viewpoints above the glacier and had a great time shooting.
The last morning, we went all the way up to the top of Eggishorn for sunrise, which was definitely the best out of all the viewpoints. Blue Hour up there was absolutely beautiful, that’s when we took this shot. We had such an incredible panorama view of the glacier, some of Switzerland’s highest mountains, and even the famous Matterhorn. It got even better when the first sunlight came up and the peaks started to glow.
The composition of this shot happened while trying out many options. In general, I think there are two types of photographers: The first type, tries to find the best perspective for one perfect shot. And the second type tries to capture as many different perspectives and variations as possible. I’d assign myself to the second category. When we were up there everything was pretty pragmatic: We tried every possible perspective on that spot, and we got ultra-wide shots, compressed tele shots, detailed shots of the surrounding mountain, and also panoramic shots. Shooting like this allows you to get into a very intense flow and create as much content as possible. Later, when you have more time, you can then choose your favorite shots.
The photo that won the weekly competition is one of the ultra-wide panoramas that we took there. The good thing about panos is that you have a very wide field of view with a high resolution. So, you don’t need to worry too much about the frame that you’re capturing. You always have the possibility and freedom to reframe your shot afterward.
This exact shot wasn’t taken by me but by Niko @patheight, while I was in front of the camera. Since we’re both photographers, we always try to alternate our tasks when we’re shooting. Sometimes he’s in front of the camera and sometimes I am. Afterward, we share all the shots. That helps to get even more variations because everyone has a different eye for perspectives and compositions. The final result of a shot can turn out very differently as well since we both have our own approach to editing.
I love editing, just like I love cooking. Both are fun and exciting and you get to discover new techniques so that the process is always evolving. Photo edits on Instagram look most aesthetic if you have a clear and recognizable color scheme that makes your feed look homogenous with matching colors, contrast, and brightness levels. But just like with food, the same over and over again gets boring after some time. So once in a while, I change the color scheme on my profile.
Sometimes my feed looks dark green, sometimes I leave all greens out and everything looks blue and orange. Switching color schemes also makes it easier for me. Some photos aren’t meant to look green, like deserts for example. I could never edit a desert photo to fit into an entirely green feed. At the same time, it wouldn’t make sense to remove all greens from a lush green forest photo, just to make it fit in a non-green Instagram feed. So, what I do is to edit those photos with compatible and appropriate colors and post them, once they fit into the color scheme on Instagram.
For this image, I started off by putting three separate photos together to get a panorama file. Then I cropped the photo and made sure that it was nicely framed. The next step was to edit the overall exposure and the colors: I used an S-shaped tone curve to get a nice contrast that doesn’t look too harsh. I tried to match the colors to my current color scheme, with a bit of green, slightly turquoise blues, orange subjects, and a little bit of orange in the bright highlights. Lastly, I edited parts of the photo separately to move the attention of the viewers to the person, the glacier, and the mountain peaks. That included darkening the foreground, adding clarity on the mountain peaks (while softening the whole image), adding contrast to the person, and darkening the sky.
To me, the key aspects of a landscape photograph are emotion, mood, lighting, and location. If you have a great location during a good sunrise, maybe some fog or colorful clouds for the right atmosphere, you have the perfect conditions. If you then manage to include a person in a photo that evokes the viewer’s emotions, then it’s surely going to be a great photo.
Moreover, ideally, a landscape photograph should be created in an effective and efficient manner, especially if time is limited or you are doing client work. The morning we took this shot we had a tight schedule. Starting at the blue hour we had around 1,5 hours for our shoot up there. So, we planned everything in advance and talked everything through very thoroughly to get the best possible results. There’s nothing worse than coming back from a great shoot and thinking about the photos and perspectives that you missed. Up there we were as effective as possible; for every perspective, we only spent a few minutes. We got at least 20 different angles and perspectives in all lighting conditions (blue hour, Alpenglow, golden hour), which was exactly what we hoped for.
We made this trip and planned this shoot for personal motivation and interest; as photographers making a living of photography it remains crucial to do projects for yourselves and for fun! Looking at the business projects I’ve done so far though, there are some that are particularly memorable:
1) Writing a book about landscape photography. A book that’s not mainly focused on technique, like most of the other photography books, but much more on how to get the perfect light and weather conditions, how to find great locations and perspectives, and how to evoke feelings with photos. Fun fact: The cover of my book was shot at the same spot as the winning photo.
2) Writing and filming a story-driven short film in Scotland for a client. Something that I always wanted to try out and it became one of my biggest projects last year. It was pretty much a “DIY-project”, from building all the props like the time machine in my workshop to planning and shooting everything with friends in Edinburgh.
3) A lifestyle shoot in Norway together with @Nomadict where more than 20 people were involved and we spent an incredibly intense and great time with an amazing team. For me, a lifestyle shoot was something relatively new, and an amazing opportunity to learn a new set of skills.
4) Creating weekly 60-second video tutorials for Tamron that can be seen on Tamron Europe’s TikTok channel in English and on Tamron Deutschland’s Instagram channel in German.
I can’t say how next year is going to be, or what projects I will be doing. Jobs are never the same and sometimes present themselves out of nowhere. In the social media and photography niche everything is spontaneous and unpredictable. As much as I enjoy and love my job, I don’t think that I will be doing this forever. It’s as awesome as it can get, but at the same time, it’s also exhausting and stressful. In the future I could imagine opening a restaurant, becoming a musician, being a designer, or doing other creative jobs. As long as it is something creative, I’m happy.
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