Whenever possible, Ursula and I travel once a year to an exciting place to take photos without a big concept - a kind of carte blanche. By taking photographs we perceive our surroundings more intensely. We observe and sometimes take a long time to notice and record changes in light. I edit the images afterwards without any limits. That means: It's about conveying a mood and not showing what the situation was like on site. Interestingly, I hardly edited some photos and heavily edited others. As with photography, I let my intuition guide me when editing. Everything is allowed.

The photographers

Even before we met, Ursula loved taking photographs, “but without rhyme or reason,” she always says. Well, I don't entirely agree, because she always thinks very carefully about what she does. She then gained all the technical understanding. This trip was the first time she took photos with her own camera equipment. I am very proud that some of her pictures ended up in the best photos selection.

The cameras

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big fan of Leica cameras. The excellent quality of the Leica lenses and the easy operation of the cameras make them my first choice for almost all projects. In addition, cameras and lenses are very solidly built, which is particularly advantageous in challenging weather conditions. Ursula took photos with the Leica SL2. The camera delivers excellent images with almost 50 megapixels and a huge dynamic range. I took photos with the Leica S3. In my opinion, this medium format camera delivers the most beautiful image files, but it is unforgiving. You have to work extremely precisely to exploit the full potential of the 63 megapixels. Practically all of my pictures were taken using a tripod. Meanwhile, I love the slower pace of composing the motifs with the S3. If I then edit the data extremely in post-production, you get a grain that is very reminiscent of analogue images.

On the screen you can't see any difference between the images of the SL2 and the S3. But if you then print the motifs large - and by that I mean prints with a size of, for example, 150 x 100 cm, then the wealth of detail in the S3 images is overwhelming.

When you look at the galleries you will notice that a few motifs were created with a drone.

The pictures

Iceland is actually visual overkill. For me, the barren landscape with its ice blue, olive and anthracite color worlds with endless nuances and splashes of color is always overwhelming. It is sometimes difficult to make a selection from the realized motifs. Maybe you would favor completely different images than I do. But that's one aspect that I love so much about photography: Each person finds their own approach to the images. The two galleries are my very personal selection. Some pictures will definitely make their way into our long-term project “The Power of the Elements” find.

Iceland in color