Blog - Behind the Shot

I'd like to tell you a nice story about mistakes, drone crashes, coincidences and one very cool shoot in which I took a panorama of Tambora Volcano in Indonesia. Tambora is a volcano on the island of Sumbawa. In 1815, Tambora produced the largest volcanic eruption in recorded human history, which spewed 37-45 cubic kilometers (8.9-10.8 cubic miles) of rock, weighing about 10 billion tons, into the atmosphere. This left a caldera measuring 6-7 km across and 600-700 m (2,000-2,300 ft)...

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I wrote this article deep in Covid times. It was a rough time for a nature photographer who makes a living shooting around the world. This kind of time period sometimes makes us artists think about our life missions and convictions, and delve deeper into our beliefs and the way we view our art and what makes it worthwhile. While some people don't see photography as art, I definitely do, and for that reason I feel that a discussion is needed about what makes photography an art form...

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In mid 2019 I traveled to Argentina to shoot the total solar eclipse that took place July 2nd. This was going to be my first total eclipse experience, and I was very motivated to make the most out of it. Northern Argentina is quite a ways from home - about 20 hours in the sky - but several things about this specific eclipse made it worth the effort. First of all, the path of totality was going through the Argentinean desert - a vast place full of photographic potential - which allowed my...

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In this article I'd like to take you on a nighttime adventure to the remote Torres Del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. This highly photographed park has attracted many photographers, and for good reason: it offers incredible mountainous landscapes and wonderful weather conditions, making for very interesting photography. There are many hiking routes in the park, which range from relatively easy to hard. After visiting Patagonia in 2014 to scout, I regretted not being...

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In this article I'll tell about the interesting process of producing my image 'Crystalline'. I shot it during January 2014, and processed it at the time, but lately the addition of new Photoshop features lead me to revisit it, and reprocess it in a different way. This image is an HDR-Panorama, a kind of shot which is usually technically difficult to produce, but as I show below, this difficulty is now relegated to the past. I hope you find the explanation interesting and...

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In this article I'll take you to a grisly scene I encountered, which enabled me to produce quite a rare shot. This image is special to me for two reasons: first of all, it's a very unique image, telling a story you don't come across very often. Secondly, I've had to put in work I usually don't do when it comes to post-processing, to make it look right. All in all, I'm happy with the result, and it has won good acclaim in international competitions and publications. The...

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In this article I'd like to talk about an Aurora shot I achieved using a special technique. I took the image during the first of two 'Land of Ice' photo workshops I guided in Southern Iceland earlier this year. I was leading the group when we arrived at Iceland famous glacier lagoon, Jökulsárlón. The sky was mostly clear and the Northern Lights were starting to pick up about an hour after arrival. We set up our cameras, found compositions and started a long,...

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On this article I'll invite you to join me for one of the most amazing nights of my life: a night that began in preparing for sleep after a hard day of shooting in the bitter cold, and finished with a light-show unlike I'd ever seen before. Background It wasn't easy spending a week shooting in the Mývatn district of northern Iceland. It was early February this year and I was working hard scouting locations for my 'Winter Paradise' workshop. Shooting,...

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In this article I'll take you to the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland, to talk about an image I'm very happy about. It wasn't easy getting the shot to look as it does now, but I think the outcome justifies all the hard work, and I hope you'll agree. This picture was taken on my second visit to Kirkjufell ('Church Mountain' in Icelandic, also called 'Pyramid Mountain' for obvious reasons. The mountain is conveniently situated right outside...

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'Dark Matter' is a personal favorite, shot during my 'Land of Ice' photographic workshop held in January 2013. One of the most popular photography locations in Iceland is Breiðamerkursandur - the ice beach, pitch-black and covered in countless pieces of ice which disconnected from Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, dropped to the famous Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, carried by the small stream connecting the lagoon to the ocean and deposited back...

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