Life as a Traveling Landscape Photographer

Landscape Photography  •  Photography Tips  •  Travel Photography

As with many photographers who travel the globe looking for adventure and the next amazing shot, here’s a guy who can’t be defined by one photographic style or genre. When not doing commercial travel and lifestyle shoots, German photographer Lars Schneider is exploring the world, shooting landscape photography that inspires and invigorates him. This past winter, Schneider spent some time in one of the wildest, harshest, and most beautiful places on earth—the Faroe Islands:

The film, This is Me – My Other Life as a Photographer, is a personal look into what it’s like to be a photographer on the road, balancing two very different photography lives. While Schneider became passionate about photography as the son of a sailor traveling around taking pictures, then as a young man bike-touring different countries, these days he mainly works as a commercial photographer. But his real love lies in the promise of adventure and he still longs for the next big road trip.

The Promise of Adventure and Beautiful Photography

The short film opens with a sleepy-eyed Schneider waking up to a gray, snowy morning in a rooftop tent on a Land Rover in the North Atlantic between Norway and Iceland. Filmed in February 2016 by DOP, Peter Bender, it follows Schneider around the Faroe Islands, where he shoots landscapes with his Hasselblad medium format camera.

The main reason for this specific trip was to create amazing landscape images for Canyon Bikes in what Schneider calls one of the wildest (and most beautiful) places he has visited. The other reason was to create a film about it and his life as a photographer.

Schneider says that once or twice a year he tries to travel to places he chooses, countries he wants to visit and be inspired by, so he can be 100% creative, the way he feels. It’s a much needed break from the usual assigned shoots where he’s trying to please the client and capture their vision. And it’s a way to slow down from his normally hectic professional life, as the secluded, nature-inspired trips allow him to take his time, and create a nice balance.

While the job comes with some sacrifices, like being away from his family, Schneider loves visiting places where he can be engulfed in wild weather and harsh environments that allow him to get moody images that really capture the energy of the place.

The wilder, the better for Schneider. His favorite places are Norway, Scotland and California, and he thrives on stormy, unpredictable weather. That’s what really makes him feel alive.

“I want one sun beam coming out of crazy clouds a second after the rain storm has passed.”