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Long-Nong Huang
@long.explorer
Landscape photographer based in Germany
Introducing Long-Nong Huang
When a friend who usually took the photos couldn’t join on a trip with a group of friends, Long took over his role. And that’s how photography somehow became a thing. He got better, brands approached him and it got to the point where Long quit his job in an event management agency to travel and shoot more. Now, photography is his full time passion.
For Long, photography is like a game: getting up in the dark to be at the right place for sunrise, looking for the best perspectives and making the most out of every unexpected situation. And it’s even more fun in unfamiliar environments or traveling alone. Long learned a lot in China, where he suddenly wasn’t able to use the internet and apps the way he was used to, and in Canada, where he traveled alone for the first time and suddenly had all the freedom to get the best pictures and figured how to be both the cameraman and the model.
While Long kept growing as a creator, he also learned about the importance of quality, consistency, uniqueness and community to optimize success. Although he believes there is no fixed master plan, these four factors really make a difference. For each of these Long gives an explanation and examples in the interview. He particularly loves to build a connection with his community, interact and create a meaningful space with innovative content for the people that support him.
And to stay innovative, Long focuses on choosing the right travel destinations. Unknown countries or less visited regions in popular countries is where he would travel to, such as Kazakhstan and China. “Try to create great content within the landscape niche that’s unique and different. It’s a lot harder than going the ordinary way, but it makes all the difference between being one of many photographers or being the one who surprises the followers every single day”, he says.
In the interview Long also speaks about his editing style, which is not limited to one single set of colors or moods, but still recognizable. He mentions a few artists he’s inspired by and hopes to inspire people himself too, now working on creating more videos and involving his second passion: music.
Interview
Welcome Long!
You started out with outdoor photography once you visited Iceland. When you were a kid, did you imagine yourself working as a full time visual creator? If not, how did you end up in such a unique career?
Thanks for having me! I actually never thought of that until it happened a few years ago. Photography was always fun to me, but being a professional photographer was never really one of my main goals until the last years. There is one friend who took great photos on two of the trips that we did together with some friends. When he couldn’t come with us to Iceland, I tried to take over his role. So I took a lot of photos there for fellow travellers. When I came back to university, I was bored and started editing and posting those photos on Instagram. Back then we were lucky to have two weeks off, because many lectures were cancelled. So I took my moms car and went to Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia where I took even more photos. Then somehow it became a thing for me to just go out on weekends to shoot photos that I could post on Instagram. With every road trip my photos became more and more professional and I started to grow on Instagram. All of a sudden, brands started approaching me for collaborations. At the beginning it was just a nice extra income, but later it was enough to make a living of that. So I quit my job in an event management agency to be able to travel more.
Besides the experiences lived anywhere in the world and in the wilderness, what do you enjoy the most about your job?
Sometimes you discover landscape photos online which are so spectacular, that you can’t believe they are real. You have to see them with your own eyes and oftentimes they are even more impressive in real life than you think. For me there’s nothing better than driving around and discovering those places. It’s such a crazy feeling to watch the sunrise on a high mountain peak or to stand on the edge of a steep cliff.
And also photography is fun. For me it’s like a game. You look out for the best perspectives, get up in the middle of the night to be at the right place for sunrise and try to make the best out of the situation. Sometimes you put a lot of effort in it and the photos turn out badly and sometimes the results are just amazing, which then feels extremely rewarding.
You mentioned: “For me outdoor photography is much more than just capturing natural sceneries and landscapes. It is about the experiences and feelings that people have when they are traveling.” We are curious to know, to this day, what has been your most remarkable moment outdoors? What made it so special?
There are a lot of unforgettable moments. I think my favorite moment was when we entered an ice cave in a glacier in Switzerland. All of us haven’t been inside of a glacier before and we didn’t know what to expect. When we entered the cave through the tiny entrance at the side of the glacier, it was just captivating. The walls were crystal clear and blue in a way that I’ve never seen before. The melting walls were shaped beautifully and inside of the ice we saw small rocks and plants, which were trapped in there for hundreds of years. The deeper we went inside, the more the ice started to glow. The two other friends were also thrilled and we spent almost two hours inside. I tried to not only capture the cave with my camera, but also their reactions.
To this day you have visited a great amount of countries. I know the following may be a hard question, but could you share with us which three countries that impacted you the most, in any way, in both your personal and professional path of growth?
For me every country has been a very different and unique experience. Iceland was the beginning of everything for me. The landscape there is just unreal, there are black deserts, green hills, glaciers and blue lakes. In the highlands there’s always so much to discover, that you have never seen before in photos.
"I think I learned the most when I went to Canada and the US in 2018. Since I was travelling alone, I was able to do whatever I wanted."
And so I spent every second to get the best photos out of this trip, which is sometimes not possible with friends who aren’t really into photography. Since I always try to include a person in my pictures, I had to take photos of myself. So I placed the camera on a tripod and controlled it from the distance with my smartphone. I learned how to find the right perspectives, how to act in front of the camera and be effective at the same time.
"The third destination that changed a lot for me was China."
While China is a very modern country, they have their own domestic version of the internet. Every app that I normally use for travelling is blocked there and you can’t use the internet in English. So without Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Dropbox and Spotify it was a lot harder to get around. It was even a challenge to find a rental car provider and a bank which accepts foreign credit cards. I even had to get a Chinese driver licence within a few days, which was extremely complicated and frustrating. But I learned a lot about perseverance and being patient.
Related to the previous question, what opportunities that have come along on your professional path helped you to gain confidence in your work and in approaching potential clients?
Meeting other great people. In the first 1,5 years I never met another landscape influencer and so I had no idea on how everything works. Instagram is a strange world for someone who’s new in the game. When I started meeting other people that I’ve known from Instagram it brought a lot of light into the dark and I learned so much.
And meeting strangers was until now always an amazing experience which in many times resulted in great friendships. One very eye opening experience was when I met a couple in New Zealand randomly and they didn’t only knew who I was, but also went to Iceland because of my photos. I never really thought about the reach and the impact of my photos before.
Besides landscape photography, you shoot other genres too and offer different services to assist businesses. When it comes to social media management, you have been able to grow an impressive online community yourself. What have you learned, are the most important strategies or tactics to take into account when trying to build your brand on social media (besides posting consistently and using a specialized set of hashtags)?
Well, that’s a question that I thought a lot about in the beginning. There’s no secret trick or a fixed master plan that you have to follow. It takes a lot of time, especially in the beginning. What I think are the most important factors are quality, consistency, uniqueness and community.
"The content that you post has to be better than what others do."
On Instagram we consume so much great content, that a good photo is nothing special. You need to create something that makes the viewer stop scrolling because it’s spectacular.
Then it’s important to stick to one niche. In my case the followers expect landscape photos and for example urban photography or close up portraits just aren’t that interesting for them. It also helps Instagram’s algorithm to assign your profile to a niche, which is very important. Your account will then be recommended when someone else follows another account with similar content.
And I know that consistency is often mentioned and sounds kind of basic, but it’s absolutely necessary. In one month this year I only posted a photo every two days, and I grew by 40-80 followers a day. Now that I post every single day, I get around 180-300 followers a day. It makes a huge difference.
"Another thing that’s important is uniqueness."
I know so many people who take good landscape photos, but always at the same places that you’ve seen a thousand times before on Instagram. Most of the photos look great but they’re often exchangeable and somehow ordinary. It’s much more interesting to share photos of subjects and places that no one has ever seen before and to create a style that is recognisable.
Then it’s also essential to be in touch with the community. Answering comments and messages, interacting with other accounts that share similar content.
Among all the photos you have shared on social media and also the 9 beautiful shots/prints we see in your online shop, could you share with us three photos you are really proud of? What are the reasons these photos are so special to you?
The first one are the volcanic craters in Iceland. It looks like a landscape from a different planet with the black desert and the red craters. I absolutely love otherworldly places and this is probably my favourite. The craters are so close to one of the main highland roads, but most of the tourists don’t even notice them when they drive by.
The second one are the white houses on a towering mountain peak in China. When I was there I had zero visibility and didn’t expect to get a single shot out of that place. After four hours of waiting I still tried to get the drone up in the air and all of a sudden the fog opened up. It was just a short moment, maybe ten seconds, but enough for me to get the shot!
The third one is the Stokksnes in Iceland. After one week of bad weather we had this perfect sunrise at the black sand beach. Everything around us was glowing and it felt like being in a dream.
Personally I believe you have achieved a unique and well defined style. We can recognize your photos in our explore page for instance. I would like to say congratulations for that in the first place 🙂 Could you give us an insight into your editing style?
Well first of all thank you so much! That means a lot to me.
Actually I don’t have one single style and sometimes I switch colour schemes to have more creative freedom. This summer my photos were mainly vibrant green and turquoise, and now I switched to a more desaturated orange and blue look.
Before I take photos, I always keep in mind how I want them to look in the end. With similar lighting situations, subjects and perspectives I do the first step to create photos that match each other.
When it comes to editing I always try to get similar colours and light with all of the pictures that I post. The grass should have the roughly same green or orange tones and the sunlight the same orange colour in every photo. Also I try to get the same amount of brightness and fade on every photo. I also add split toning to the highlights and the shadows, and they’re always the same colours.
What strategies do you think have allowed you to succeed in the industry? What four pieces of advice would you give to anyone pursuing a career as a landscape photographer?
I think one of the strategies that helped me grow was choosing the right travel destinations. Instead of going to popular locations, I rather tried to visit more unknown regions and countries. That’s why I went to Kazakhstan and China or the Icelandic highlands, instead of the touristy spots at the ring road in Iceland.
For a new photographer I can recommend this:
1) Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Try to create great content within the landscape niche that’s unique and different. It’s a lot harder than going the ordinary way, but it makes all the difference between being one of many photographers or being the one who surprises the followers every single day.
2) Find your style. Every great photographer on Instagram has an individual style that is quickly recognisable. It’s like a brand that you’re familiar with, just in a more subtle way. Check out for example @shortstache, @fursty, @withluke, @maxrivephotography or @anarkristjans_photography. Their style is unique and stunning in a special way.
That can be frustrating sometimes when you don’t get instant success, but that’s normal. Especially in the beginning you have to do as much as you can to get the best possible content. That means travelling a lot, getting up for sunrise at 4 am even when it’s your well earned holiday and using every situation that you can get.
Engage with others. There are so many amazing people out there, with similar interests. Meet up with others, make friends and learn from them. Working on your own can bring you forward quickly, but sometimes you need to see what others do to move on.
Can you give us an insight in your dreams as a visual creator? What are projects you would love to work on and why?
I’d love to visit so many more countries. The deserts in Algeria are absolutely incredible, the volcanic landscape in Kamchatka is unlike anything you’ve seen before, and Greenland is a destination that I’ve always dreamed of.
I want to take more videos and tell more stories. And I also want to connect photography and videography with the music that I’m working on right now. Music was my passion long before photography and I want to share that with many people too!
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