Me

I am a freelance landscape photographer living in Hanover, Germany. My images from different countries and places are best described as landscape photography art. My work has been published and awarded. I am a freelance writer for Chip Foto Video, one of the biggest photo magazines. I am an official Haida global brand ambassador. I connect with my audience regularly through my Instagram where more than 41.000 people follow my images and behind the scenes of my photo tours. I share my knowledge and approach to photography in my articles, online trainings and in the field.

The long story:

I started to get into photography in mid 2016. Meaning I wanted to learn more than just playing around with a camera and capturing my children and holiday experiences like I had before. The more I got into it the more I felt comfortable shooting landscapes. Traveling to Ireland in 2016 literally opened my eyes to landscape photography. Seeing nature in a way I hadn´t before is truly rewarding and enriches my life. In the past 2 years I have travelled and photographed countries like for example Iceland, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and of course within my home country Germany. Daily interaction with my growing audience on social media – mainly Instagram, has made me aware how much images can move and connect people all over the planet. I write articles about modern landscape photography that have been published on various sources and magazines.

I am a father of 2 great children and I work as a human resources consultant. Many years ago I earned my university degree as business economist. Recruiting and training people and also being a keynote speaker in German and English have been some of my main professional tasks.

Photographing Lofoten, Norway (Image by: Mikkel Beiter)

I was born in 1975. The year “Jaws” hit the big screen and “Bohemian Rhapsody“ from Queen went on the air. That is quite some time ago, actually. When I was a young boy I wanted to be a football pro. Next I wanted to be a tennis pro like Boris Becker. Although I wasn’t bad in sports I learned that being creative was my main driving force. So I started singing and writing lyrics and ultimately formed a band together with friends when I was 17: Sonic Front. With this heavy alternative electronic rock band I played many concerts, recorded albums, won a band contest and got radio und tv airplay. I am still in a band up to this day: Soon Is Now (including concerts, albums and videos). Music has always been important to me and a way of expressing feelings and emotions to have others connect with it. When starting with photography in 2016, I learned that I could do the same with images. And that´s what I am doing now: imagery with mood and emotion.

Staying up to date in Frankfurt, Germany

Vision

Images are memories. First of all those of the photographer. Obviously. A good image lets you reflect your own memories of the place the capture was taken at. A great image makes people that have never been at that place feel like being there themselves. Enabling them to feel and (re-) live the mood and emotion inside a frame created by the artist. This is what I am shooting for: making you feel the world and mood that I pointed my camera at. Make your eyes and mind rest inside an image and stir an emotion. In other words: have you relate and make you care.

Technics

behind the scenes sunrise shooting at Usedom, baltic sea Germany

To achieve this I use the advantages of modern digital photography with special post processing technics. While masters of the analog era used different technics and solutions in the dark room I use the opportunities of Adobes Lightroom and Photoshop with Plugins like Nik Collection, Luminar and actions inside Raya Pro. For me post processing is a creative and fun part of my photography. I always shoot in RAW and take the image from there. It all starts in the field though where composition and light are everything. If the photo is bad you cannot help with post processing.

When I started to actually learn the art-form of photography and post processing I spent countless hours of tutorial studying and trying in the field. I spent money on gear but more so on learning and travel. I started to shoot with a plan. And most of all I have never stopped learning. In fact this road of evolving and improving is a road I enjoy to the fullest. And I am still on the way.

Looking back, I point to spring 2017 that I started to feel comfortable with my way of shooting landscapes and processing my images. Using social media and reaching out to other photographers has helped tremendously. In multiple ways: in actually ‘seeing’ shots, improving my compositioning, getting more and more picky about what helps and what distracts from a good shot and having a sense for light and color. Learning all the rules of photography as a craft and then forgetting about them. Or better: use them naturally or break those rules deliberately.

But in the end it comes down to one thing I always tell people when asked for advice to get better in taking pictures: be passionate about it and simply enjoy it!