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Simeon Kraeft
@simeonkraeft
Best of the week 48 at #nomadict 2020
Spending hours and hours as a small boy browsing outdoor shopping catalogues fascinated me, with all the types of equipment available. There were many things I wanted. But even more fascinating were the pictures of landscapes shown in these catalogues. This passion for nature has always been within me and, as a child, I devoured all kinds of books from people who lived with wildlife, including bears, wolves and orcas. It all interested me! Then, as I grew older, I often went hiking and slept outdoors.
"I captured all of this with my small digital camera because even back then, I was obsessed with taking photographs."
Fast forward to when I became an adult, and I spent two years in the German army. I enjoyed the comradeship and experiences. We would often sleep in vehicles and sometimes even in the fields. I was outdoors a lot and it was all a big adventure for me. Then after the army, I went to work for a hotel. To be honest, my school days were not the most successful and I left school without a degree. So I had to work hard to get my way after that. I had to concentrate on my training in the hotel and didn’t have much time for the outdoors, what I loved that much in the army. Today I am a manager in a hotel and have a degree which makes me very proud.
"Though I need a balance beside my job, just like many of us, and for me that is nature and photography."
This did not stop me dreaming of far away places I would like to visit. I’ve always followed many landscape photographers and adventurers on Instagram, as I knew I wanted to experience what they had. So, when I bought my first car, the station wagon, life changed for me. Suddenly I was able to drive, sometimes thousands of kilometres, just to see the landscapes I was so desperate to experience first hand.
This was incredibly fun! One of those places I had wanted to see was Eibsee lake in Germany. To see the lake up close was terrific. The region around the Eibsee has always attracted me and I’m overjoyed to be living here this year.
"Another photo I remember very well, even to this day, is the one I took on the Brocken in Germany."
This is the image that won the contest. When I took it, I was with a friend, and I wanted to capture some snow on the mountaintop. But when we arrived, there was no snow anywhere to be seen. It was a bit frustrating. So, in the afternoon, we decided to take the Brocken Bahn to the top where it was simply breathtakingly beautiful. The blisteringly cold winds did not matter to me. I was just excited to be there. And as we walked over the Brocken, that’s where I took my winning photograph. The sun had almost set, and the last train was coming up around the mountain. I was just in the right place at the right time to capture it. And then, as we boarded the train, it was completely packed, so we had to stand outside on one of the wagons. This meant we arrived at our car almost frozen. But it was all worth it, just to capture this photo!
When I was editing this photograph afterwards, I saw that the photo was very dark, and that the sun dominated too much of the picture. I wanted to emphasize the coldness of the environment but also the beautiful sunset I saw there. And I wanted the locomotive to be the main point of the picture, as it’s almost like looking into a fairy-tale story. Almost like something from “Harry Potter” or “The Polar Express”. So, I took all of this into account while editing.
"These are the types of beautiful moments that inspire me, when I’m standing on a mountain, with my girlfriend or friends."
It’s rare to see anything more breath-taking when you have felt frozen for the whole night in your tent or have walked for hours, just to witness this view for yourself. This is why, when I get home, after a long trip or cold night, there’s nothing better than to enjoy a pizza I’ve baked for myself. And thus, relaxing after the exhausting day I’ve just had.
Nowadays when I am on the road, my girlfriend is always with me and I feel we make a great team. She’s the person who has helped me develop both personally and professionally. We support each other in order to achieve the best results. Together we develop new ideas for pictures, videos and everything that goes with it. And when you are outside, staying together overnight on the side of a mountain, you bond even closer and that’s where I feel like our relationship has become stronger.
I’ve been able to learn many valuable lessons on my photography trips. One of the most important, was that you need to have patience and to also accept defeats when they happen. Because most of the time, things never go the way you plan or the way you would like them to. It’s not like you can go out quickly, take a picture or two and then be completely satisfied. In reality, you’ll find that you spend 95% of the time running up mountains, freezing, sweating or being tired. Then, after all that, you’ll often not be happy with the photo you took. But it is exactly this experience that a photo communicates, that makes photography so special for me.
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