Transsiberian Dream

One of my last jobs took me to the Trans-Siberian Railway, where, in addition to several themed videos for the client, my current work "Transsiberian Dream" was created. Since I have been working for Interrail and Eurail since the beginning of my self-employment, I have a special connection to train travel. I have always found the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest railroad line in the world, very fascinating. I am therefore all the more delighted to have been able to realize this incredible project together with my colleague and assistant Christopher Schmid.

We were on the road for a total of 16 days and deviated slightly from the original route (Moscow - Vladivostok): Our journey started in Beijing and took us through Mongolia, along Lake Baikal and across the Siberian taiga to Moscow. The highlights definitely included the overnight stay in yurts in "Mongolian Switzerland", various visits to the nomads living there and a dip in Lake Baikal, which was 5 degrees Celsius cold. Of course, we also captured all of this in our movie.

Another milestone was my penultimate project "The Beauty of Greenland". Last year at midsummer I was able to take part in a photo workshop by renowned photographers Daniel Kordan and Iurie Belegurschi in Disko Bay, Greenland. It was the first time I had attended such a workshop and visited the "land of ice". I was absolutely fascinated by both. Greenland is the largest island in the world, consists of 80 percent ice and has just 56,000 inhabitants.

In addition, there are hardly any roads connecting towns and villages. The main means of transportation are by plane and ship. We opted for the ship, or to be more precise, a Russian sailing boat that had just returned from Antarctica. Does it all sound like an adventure? It was!

It was shortly after midsummer and at this time of year, the sun is known not to set at all or only very briefly. During our stay, the interval between sunrise and sunset was a maximum of 20 minutes, so it never really got dark here at night. The sky turned incredible colors due to the cold and the low sun, often for hours. This meant we were able to take our time and visit several spots without getting stressed. Every night we sailed through the ice fjords of Ilulissat in search of spectacular ice formations, reflections, whales or seals. And we almost always found what we were looking for. Icebergs as far as the eye could see and everything constantly in motion. On the very first evening, a meter-high iceberg crashed into the sea right before our eyes and surprised us with a small tsunami wave. It's constantly cracking, crunching and banging here - even when an iceberg crashed in out of sight, we could hear the muffled sound for miles.

We also visited the locals and other small towns around Ilulissat, all on our sailing boat. On the penultimate evening, we even encountered whales that circled our boat and put on a cinematic show. I could go on for hours and hope my movie "The Beauty of Greenland" can capture the unique atmosphere at least a little. The video went viral and was even shown on American and Spanish TV. Comments, likes and interview requests poured in and I was rewarded with my first Vimeo StaffPick. Such sensational feedback gives you the courage to carry on, especially with the freelance work - the next projects are already planned!