There are different styles within what is commonly known as landscape photography. One of the most elegant and pure ones is the representational style. Basically, representational landscapes are the most natural and realistic out of all the styles of landscape photography. They approach landscape photography with “a what you see is what you get” mentality. No props or artificial components are added. However special attention is paid to the framing, lighting and composition of the image.
Michael, better known in Instagram as @michaelschauerphoto, is probably one of the most talented representational landscape photographers in social media. Constantly searching for new adventures and landscapes, our guest has immortalized a vast amount of unique moments! The shapes, textures, and colors that Michael captures couldn’t represent better the powerful landscapes of Planet Earth. As a photographer, Michael perfectly immortalizes nature’s energy and flow, and this is why his art is so unique!
Welcome Michael! I went through most of your pictures posted in Instagram. What a visual inspiration! Can you explain to us how did you develop your current style?
Thanks for having me! As for all artists, my work did and does develop over time. When I first started with photography in late 2014, I shot mostly architecture and churches in and around my hometown Munich. Then, I went into the woods and mountains to see what I would find there. Photography for me has always been about (self-)exploration so there is always a great amount of “myself” in my images. This stems from the fact that I try to not only capture what my eye sees, but also what I feel at the moment I press the shutter. Of course, I follow basic rules of composition (thirds, lines, golden ratio, juxtaposition, etc.) and I try to shoot when the light is favorable. However, my photography has been shaped due to three main things:
Using telephoto lenses instead of wide angles to get this beautifully surreal compression out of my images.
Using drones – world just looks so different from above.
Focussing on connected series of images that follow a theme, rather than single images standing for themselves. This strategy has allowed me to focus and tell the visual story of small details.
Nowadays I am really into aerial photography and videography and also got a DJI Inspire recently. I am really committed to this branch of photography. So far I love everything about it!
Some people discover photography traveling or capturing little moments with friends and family. As a landscape photographer, what stimulated your interest for photography?
Discovering photography was a rather serendipitous venture since I basically picked up my phone and started shooting. In 2014 I was looking for a new creative outlet since my band broke up and I always used writing or music to process the impressions that life threw at me. Photography was a new thing that was really fun and really relaxing at first. Today photography has turned into a journey of inspiration and growth, specially when I discovered that I might actually be, kind of, good at it.
Traveling is getting cheaper and easier everyday. However, maintaining a life full of travels, especially at the beginning of your journey, can be challenging. What is your approach in this regard? Can you share with us some tips?
A life full of travels certainly is not a glorious life so everything that we spend when we are on the road comes from a tight budget to keep costs low. We are mostly traveling as a group so we can split costs for rental cars, fuel and accommodation. We try to constantly have an eye on flights that we are interested about. If we find a good deal then we book it as soon as possible. Booking the flight at the right time helps!
In addition, I sell prints and stock photography a lot and I am also reaching out to brands constantly to pitch cooperations that may be fruitful for both parties in order to either get extra budget for an assignment or to book a flight for instance.
As a landscape photographer, being at the right place at the right time is really important. What is your approach when it comes to planning your trip and finding your ideal locations?
I started my journey as a landscape photographer in Instagram. This platform was and still is a reliable source of amazing and inspirational places. Planning trips just got easier thanks to Mapify, which is a travel app that I really like to use. You can use Mapify to log your travels and geotag your spots and then connect them to trips. It is really well coded, making it very easy to find nice places and get to know the whereabouts and how to get there.
As I mentioned before, your art has unique characteristics! What is the first thing you do when editing a photo and how much time do you normally spend on Lightroom?
Thanks again! The first thing would be to straighten the horizon and applying perspective and lens corrections. I normally spend about 15 to 30 minutes on one photo, but this absolutely depends on the image and what details I want to enhance ( I use the brush tool a lot!). And yeah, I can be quite obsessive regarding tiny details because for me they make or break a great image.
As a traveler and photographer, sometimes you end up in places which have been captured thousands of times. Yet, in your case, you always share a different and unique perspective. How do you ensure this creativity?
As stated above, the equipment I mostly use is different to the classic landscape photographer and luckily there are places that have not been droned to death so there is that as well. As for the emotional side of my images, I try to make photographing something as introspective as possible so the emotions that you find in the images are my own mixed with yours, the viewer’s. Like a painter would pour his heart in every brushstroke, I try to let myself feel the flow of a place and pour this impression into my photography. That is one way to, hopefully, do the places I go to justice.
Among your works, do you have any picture that you really like? Which is your favorite photo?
Rhone Glacier ice cave. This glacier is covered in white canvas to protect it from the sunlight in summer so it is a really surreal and also very grievous experience. When you actually go inside the ice cave you see the glacier living, breathing and flowing. Playing with the light in it’s blue ice is beautiful.
Can you tell us the most notorious anecdote that ever happened to you being outdoors?
I stood at the top of Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland at sunset once. We made our way through thick banks of snow with a Land Rover Defender and once up there we had views over the whole south of Iceland while we stood in a sea of snow and ice. This experience was a one of a kind adventure, really hard to put it into words…
Among all the extraordinary places you have been to, what landscape impressed you the most?
This would be Iceland. Nowhere else I have witnessed so much beauty condensed into so little space. In Iceland one can see all these volcanic rock formations which just seem otherworldly with the right light. Speaking of which… due to Iceland’s placement in the world you have long days in the summer with golden hours lasting the whole night so it’s always time to shoot. I can’t wait to go back there this summer!
We hear about the Five-P’s that together make a successful photographer – Purpose, Patience, Practice, Preparation and Passion. Does these 5 principles apply to your photographic progress?
Yes they do! I cannot count the hours I spent practicing editing in Lightroom and Photoshop to get to the level that I am now. This wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been me knowing that photography is the one thing I want to do for the rest of my life. This also goes into planning my travels and times when I want to be shooting. So yeah, they did!
What are the 3 most important pieces of advice you would give to young talent pursuing a career as a photographer?
1. If you are serious, play serious. Be as good as a person to work with as you are a photographer. Communicate properly and thoroughly with your clients and be ready to negotiate.
2. Be on the top of your game. Keep looking for inspiration everywhere and you will never run out of ideas. That being said: Inspiration means not to copy the same postcard motives that everyone shoots but to put your heart, your soul into something that could be done only by you.
3. Think not only in single images but rather in connected series that tell a story.
Is there any artist/photographer who has inspired your art? Can you name three?
I do find much of my inspiration outside of photography. It comes from books (Haruki Murakami, Tolkien and Camus), music (Ben Frost and Joy Division) and movies (Lars von Trier, Nolan, Kubrick). Cultural events and just life happening. I try to treat my images as scenes of a movie yet to be produced.
Yet, there are many photographers that I deeply admire and, in some cases, I am lucky to call them my good friends. Marina Weishaupt (@marinaweishaupt), Jan Erik Waider (@northlandscapes) and Reuben Wu (@itsreuben) (all on instagram) are photographers whose work I simply adore.
Any new projects coming up or countries you will be visiting soon?
Newfoundland and Labrador, Greenland, Svalbard and Norway are on the list for the next trips!
Can you fix the world in one sentence?
It would be a nice start if we would stop taking ourselves so fucking serious for once.
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