A small village right at the edge of the forest, with backyard doors almost always opened straight into the woods. It was there that Petr from NZICESCAPES IMAGES spent his childhood. It was an everyday playground that would have been a childhood dream.

Being out there all the time seeded Petr's love for the outdoors. When he turned 18 he was gifted a camera from his parents – a Russian Zenith with black and white film in it. From then on Petr spent his days taking pictures of anything around him.

It was those influences, combined with his urge to show and share what he liked to experience, that sparked his passion for photography and extended his excitement further. Petr says, “It hasn’t changed a bit. It makes me tremendously happy when I can take my audience to the places and scenes I love, and if it resonates with them that’s the holy grail for me.”

Today, we all know how powerful a photograph can be, and how important connecting people with our landscape is. For Petr, being a landscape photographer gives him the opportunity to bring spectacular places in front of the public. Not only to educate, but also to contribute in the battle to protect these wild and special places from “ruthless mens’ hands”.

Twilight at Gillespies Beach: Moonrise this close to Mt. Tasman happens only once a year in the shortest winter month. It took me 3 years of attempts to capture it. This is also one of my favourite times of day for photography. Those soft pastel-pink colours of alpen glow, when the contrast is well balanced, enable us to see into the shadows, the details of which become a part of the image.

Aoraki/Mt. Cook 3724m right, Mt. Tasman 3497m left, and Fox Glacier far left, as seen from Mt. Fox, Westland Tai Poutini National Park, West Coast, UNESCO World Heritage Area, New Zealand: One of my favourite spots. I never get tired of climbing up to these alpine heights to explore the vast open space. You're surrounded by the Southern Alps in front of you, and the Tasman Sea behind your back. 360 degree views everywhere you look. For me, here are some of the best views of the Alps, with Aoraki/Mt. Cook, Mt. Tasman, and Fox Glacier (hidden under clouds on the left in this photo}.

Petr enjoys images with colours. However, as he progresses through his career, he’s finding himself more and more feeling that colour doesn’t need to overwhelm the image, or be there just because it can be. Rather, it needs to complement the image. “For me it is composition that is the most important element in the photograph, and if I can combine that with great light, that’s what I strive for.

Petr always tries to be honest and “unpretentious” in his photographs. He strives to capture, not create, and to show a true representation of the landscape in front of him. “Some may call it old fashioned and boring, but I want people who weren’t there with me to experience it too. To show them how it was, rather then illustrating and creating an artificial image afterwards. Generally, I’d love my landscape photographs to be timeless, appealing to viewers in 50-100 years time. I don’t drop in skies, remove structures, make mountains bigger, change colours etc. That’s just not my style. I think Mother Nature has developed the most beautiful environment for us, and it’s up to us landscape photographers to capture it in its best and raw condition out there, rather than from the comfort of a couch, with software.

For Petr, photography is all about prints. “It is about having a physical print in their hands, the ultimate culmination of our efforts to capture and share the moment. Since the inception of photography it has always been about printing the image. It's no different for me today, but with the range of Fine Art museum grade papers available, and their incredible capacity to combine with pigmented inks, printed images if correctly prepared are just incredible. Not to mention their archival qualities, which are counted in many decades. These prints need to be seen to be fully appreciated. There is no better feeling in photography than seeing the print at its real size rolling out of the printer — incomparable with looking at pixels on a screen.”

If you’d like to read more about Petr's life as a landscape photographer, be sure to check out our last blog post, all about “why landscape photography”. Otherwise head over to his website, to see more of his work.

Alexandria x