On the field, I ended up putting the person much further compared to the AI reference, like my original idea, and surrounded him with more snow. I added more snow in post-production to match the feelings I had when taking the photograph.

Initially, my original idea was to have just the snow in the foreground, but once I arrived at the location, I found constantly changing patterns in the snow. While these made the photograph much more difficult to make, they also made it better. After maybe an hour, I finally spotted patterns that served the shot and had a leading line to the person.

My dad was the "actor" here, although much acting wasn't needed as the conditions were perfect for the shot. Both my dad and I were freezing, and my dad had a frozen face as he was facing the storm for this shot (thanks for the dedication Dad <3). My fingers and face were frozen too. In short, it was bloody freezing like it often is in a snowstorm.

Due to the loud wind, my dad and I had to communicate by phoning each other. Using a phone in freezing conditions is a challenge of its own because of the battery life and holding the phone without gloves for extended periods of time, but it needed to be done.

Neither of us had cover during the whole time while being on the ice, and we both were on the brink of turning into snowmen. Eventually, I found patterns I loved and called my dad, advising him to just walk back and forth and have his arm as a cover as one would normally do when walking/facing a headwind. You can see this in the first video of two and hear the wind!

After being in the snowstorm and on the wild ice for over an hour, we headed back home using kicksleds, which helped us move on the icy surface.

THE EDITING

I started the editing process of this photograph immediately in January. While I was happy with the shot in the field, I wasn't sure if I captured the exact vision I had in my mind. So, I decided to start editing the piece to match my vision and bring it to life.

However, nailing the edit took me many months, and I went through tons of different versions of the shot. I wasn't happy with how it looked and kept working on it tirelessly.

After months of hard work, I finally got it to look exactly how I wanted it to in April. This was my hardest image to nail editing-wise to date, but I'm super proud of the outcome.

RAW IMAGE

FINISHED PIECE

What I went for in the editing process - a sneak peek into my mind:

I wanted to make sure that the focus of the photograph was clearly on the person, so I decided to get rid of the island in the background. Although I could have avoided the island, I really wanted to keep the patterns of the snow, so I had no other choice but to remove it. Additionally, I removed a few small trees that could barely be seen to make the focus even stronger on the person.

To direct the viewer's attention to the person, I added a vignette around them and darkened the spots that weren't as important to the shot. I also brightened the areas on the ice that were white and leading to the person, which was the original idea behind using the patterns. This made a huge difference and also led the eye more nicely into the photograph and the subject.

Even though it was snowing hard when I took the shot, the RAW image didn't reflect what I was feeling at that moment and the story I wanted to tell. So, in post-production, I added some snow with motion blur to convey the feeling I was going for.

After removing more distractions, the most challenging part was finding the correct softness and lighting for the piece. I spent months playing around with it, but I feel that I have now nailed it.

Inspiration

When it comes to inspiration, I draw from many places, one being music. I love listening to Hans Zimmer's music, and I was actually working on this exact piece while playing his music in the background.

If you want to get a deeper look into my mind, type "The frozen planet - From Frozen Planet II" on Spotify or other music platforms and watch the piece while listening to that music.

To find out more information on how I made it - I made an extensive thread about it! You can read it from the link below!

Although I LOVE to travel, I often make some of my best work very close to my home.

It’s common amongst photographers to complain about not being able to travel for photos - and sure, travelling is awesome. But you can be surprised at how beautiful opportunities your hometown presents.

Through my hometown photos, I hope to encourage everyone to go outside in their hometown. Most likely, you’ll be surprised by what you find.

Conditions in photographs make a huge difference in the photograph as you can see from the photos above.

I waited quite a while to get the conditions I wanted to make this piece come alive.