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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Wanja Wiese

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Wanja Wiese

Design Ideas
April 13, 2016
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Wanja Wiese spent a couple of years of his childhood in Finland and have Finnish blood in his veins as well, so he has a very strong connection to nature and loves snowy winters. Hamburg is not known for its white winters but sometimes one gets lucky. On the 22nd of November 2015 it started snowing very heavily and though he had a little cold he knew he had to go for it. He got dressed chose one lens and went for a walk in the heathland nearby called "Fischbeker Heide". He took about 300 shots and these 6 images of his project are among the best.

Wanja Wiese

My urge was to express my feelings and show the beauty of nature and winter and I knew I could capture some moments one is very unlikely to see in Hamburg. I kept looking at landscape shots of several Finnish photographers the last years over and over again, mostly of Lapland and I wanted to travel there myself so bad to get similar results. Well, here we are. This landscape does not have the same magic as Scandinavia but I am quite satisfied nevertheless.
-Wanja Wiese

Wanja Wiese

I don't even know if I have developed an own style yet. My friends say my photography is very moody and one can see what I felt the moment I captured what I saw. My goal is to keep my images quite natural, mostly, unless I have one of those days I want to process colorful sunsets again to get the mood and the tones right.
I guess I got most of my inspirations from movies and well shot documentaries. I became a film enthusiast in my childhood. During the holidays I watched lots of old flicks with my german grandmother Käthe till late at night.
-Wanja Wiese

Wanja Wiese

Wanja Wiese

Colorwise italian movies by Mario Bava and Dario Argento had a huge influence on some of my photographs. When it comes to photography I really fancy the work of Anton Corbijn, Russ Meyer, Cecil Beaton, Lewis Hine and David Hull, as well as Ivo von Renner and Helmut Newton.
-Wanja Wiese

Wanja Wiese

Do what feels right. Don't give too much on the opinions of others but accept criticism. Try to improve and keep on shooting though starting from nothing is often anything but easy. There is no photographer on earth who produces only stunning images. Most likely you will reach a point where about 10% of your shots are good but one of a hundred shots will be excellent if you succeed. Don't believe everything you read about gear and do not get blinded. Yes, good gear is important but worthless if you don't got a good eye and you don't know your camera at all and you are unable to work with light! Average gear will do for the start and neither my camera nor my lenses are superb but I love my hardware still a lot. Read about photography and check the work of professionals. You may check images of amateurs as well but do not get stuck there. Set goals and aim high but don't be too hard on yourself that may be counterproductive.
-Wanja Wiese

Wanja Wiese

I used a Canon EOS 7D and the EF 24-70mm f2.8 L USM, which really is a very good zoom lense. It is the older version not the unaffordable "II". The images were processed with Adobe Lightroom 5.
-Wanja Wiese

About Wanja Wiese

Wanja Wiese is a 36-year-old photographer and former bookseller in the biggest from Hamburg, Germany. His love with photography started the moment he bought my first DSLR in December 2011, it was a Nikon D5000. It served him well but in 2014 he felt he really needed an upgrade, so he shifted to Canon, because he enjoyed photographing birds really much at that time and Nikon did not have any similar body as the 7D, at least not in the same category. Of course he dreamed of a D4 and he still does. See more of his works on Behance.

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