Torn
031438
An island on a little pond close to Káraný in a chilling January weather.
Eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic
I took this photo on an early morning drive on January 2nd from vacations in the mountains to get a shot at a doctor’s and then coming back to join my group. This image - one of the first photos I took in 2020 - then became a strong symbol of a torn mind, dualities, things we need to reconcile…
This island isn’t man made - nature presents us here with a torn mind of this complicated island. The January morning freeze painted the trees white, while it wasn’t cold enough to make the water freeze and hide the sand and mud texture of the island “lagoon”.
Rainbow Surfers
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An early bird couple takes a morning stroll on a beach on Xmas day at the Canary Islands.
Canary Islands, Spain
This Canary beach is actually a man made lagoon, which made the sea completely flat, especially in the early morning. Very soon, the beach got very full, but this moment must have had been serene from the ground, as it definitely was from the air as well.
Untitled No 171342
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Sunbathers at a shore
Croatia
This was actually a little urban beach in a little bay in an originally fishermen village, with a road for cars being right next to it. Still, the few beach goers over there definitely didn’t mind and enjoyed their time.
Untitled No 251037
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Early morning at a hotel beach
Canary Islands, Spain
A very early morning. You can imagine that later in the day, the beach got filled by very lively murmur of people. And yes, it was on the Christmas!
Treencarnation
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River mouth bringing dead trees and sediments into the lake.
Northern Italy
The river that flows from the Alps to the lake brings in all kinds of messages from the mountains - should it be trees or various colorful sediments. Of all the rather more complex images I took at this area this one strikes out clearly… a combination of happiness vs endings, tranquility vs. strong currents, merry colors vs. the blackness of decay. It really depends on what you want to see in this and there’s definitely tons more stories than what the simple view would tell.
Untitled No 260631
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A swimming platform extending to the lake.
Northern Italy
The muddy coast of this very large Alpine lake wasn’t too welcoming for swimmers, so occasionally you could find these swimming platforms. Together with the water colored by all kinds of sediments brought by the rivers from the Alps, you can rightly feel like on a space mission.
Houston- We Have No Problem
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Fallen leaves and algae on the top of Slapy dam near Prague in the Autumn.
Czech Republic
The colorful pattern is created by a combination of leaves fallen down from the forests of the surrounding hills and various colored algae that grew massively during the summer. A fisherman makes his way through it to land shortly on the shore.
Cast Away
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A tiny island on a little pond in the Autumn.
Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic
South Bohemia is a region with hundreds of man-made lakes and ponds dating back to the medieval era. These ponds are scattered by many muddy islands, often providing home to many bird species.
Fire Dragon
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Start of a lava stream at the Icelandic volcano Fagradalsfjall.
South Western Iceland
This photo captures the moment when I came into complete contact with the energy of the earth, unexpectedly, against all odds, and with a wonder that completely overcame the fear of an otherwise risky flight.
It was my first day in Iceland, and I had originally planned to go to the volcano at the end of the trip, because what if something happened to my drone, but curiosity made me go right away. I flew some thirty meters above the lava field and felt myself looking directly into another world below me and the creatures that inhabit it. The lava there was a raw, unstoppable force that rolled through the valley no matter what. The heat, the risk, and at the same time the sheer amazement of what was happening almost before my eyes, simply a journey beyond known universes.
And it was also for me about how insignificant we are compared to such a force... that doesn't adapt, it just is, rolling, destroying, changing the world. A sense of complete respect... and connection to something unstoppable and powerful.
That this ancient energy then took the form of a fiery dragon creature... that's just obvious.
Many volcanoes have side openings near to them, from which lava flows (not erupts, or just very lightly) down in long lava creeks. This one was about 3 meters wide at a maximum, but the hot lava lasted for at least a kilometer or two down the valley. I was lucky enough to visit the Fagradalsfjall volcano on an active day, moreover, there were several of these side craters. The opening of this one reminds me of a fire dragon that's been released from the Earth.
(Note: The photo postprocess incorporates a subtle perspective shift).
Falling Light
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A late Autumn forest in bright afternoon sunlight.
Central Bohemia, Czech Republic
The Koněprusy area is a place covered by many fairly deep forests, which are also a favorite destination for many weekend hikers or tramps. I so much wanted to take a photo of another location a kilometer from here but I managed to crash my drone a few days before that. Thanks to a friend who lent me her drone I managed to get to the place anyway, but my original location didn’t reveal anything that would speak to me that day. In some disappointment, I just flew around the area rather randomly, only to discover this forest. It had almost all leaves already fallen and the sharp yet low-angle sun created an incredible canvas out of it.
Sand Flower 1
131843
A sand drill, bringing a sand on the carrier to create a cone of various segments of a diverse colored sand.
Central Bohemia, Czech Republic
The places which we deem ugly, even toxic, places that we associate with destruction of Earth – even those have a hidden side where a new kind of beauty emerges. I love exploring these places, almost giving them a chance to shine, to tell their story, to let them contribute at least some beauty to the world of natural beauty in which they seem to be the opposite.
Acidragon
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A wastewater substance in a puddle in the surface mining area.
North Western Bohemia, Czech Republic
Another of my photos which were taken on completely randomly discovered locations. I actually went to photograph something different, but parked right next to this puddle, which caught my attention right after the take off. Needless to say, I spent a generous time right at my spot looking at this colorful beast before flying to my final location (out of which, as far as I remember, not significant photo was made…)
The Last One
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The last tree with leaves in a late autumn forest.
Central Bohemia, Czech Republic
This was so late in the autumn that virtually all trees had their leaves down. This one last standing hero remained and thanks to a very sharp sun that day, strong contrasts were created, strongly differentiating it from the rest of the already winter-ready forest. I used to think that the forests in the time closer to winter are rather depressing places. But from the air, I learned that the undressing of the trees leaves some of them are still exposed in their full autumn beauty. Yes, even this tree will get ready for winter soon… but now it is like the candle waiting to be extinguished and the world falling to white darkness.
Acid Flower 3
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A dump into a wastewater reservoir in an industrial area.
Western Bohemia, Czech Republic
These dumps are very uninspiring from the ground and nobody comes to visit. However, from a bird's perspective, a wholly different realm opens up. I love flying, whenever possible, above these areas - definitely being avoided by an average tourist. But again, if you look at them with a different perspective, and a different attitude, perhaps, they reveal flowers of a wholly different kind.
Extinguished Candles
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Two dead trees in the middle of an autumn-colored forest.
Central Bohemia, Czech Republic
In the autumn, it’s a real therapy to take walks in the forests around Prague. And there are a few places to capture the color madness from the air - even to realize that death, which met these two drying out trees, can highlight a beauty everywhere.
Untitled No 011124
011124
The Lužnice river flowing south of Třeboň, CZ.
Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic
The Luznice river flows between two autumn-colored forests. I used to go on canoeing trips with my dad and his friends as a kid on this river. I remember how joyful, adventurous and mosquito-ridden these trips were.
Untitled No 011302
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Little man made islands on a pond in Southern Bohemia.
Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic
Untitled No 204654
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A dead end of the Labe river meeting autumn fields.
Central Bohemia, Czech Republic
I discovered this part of Labe - the biggest Czech river, here flowing through a very flat and agricultural country - pretty much randomly on a bike trip. I didn’t have much time so I flew only for may be 20 minutes looking for interesting areas, lucky enough to discover this somewhat ethereal area.
Between Love and Hope
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A path between two ponds called Love and Hope
Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic
This curious path separates two man made ponds. My theory is that the curious shape was there before the ponds, which probably only filled the areas on the side of an already existing road between villages in this part of South Bohemia.
Heart of Rychleby
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A former quarry now filled with water.
Nothern Moravia, Czech Republic
This quarry heart is one of the many man made tiny lakes in the very remote area of the Rychlebské mountains on the border of the Czech Republic and Poland. These quarries are a fantastic destination for a couple day hike through the wilderness of the mountains, but from the sky, they reveal even another level of beauty.
Cracked Waters 1
091952
Gulls over a dried out pond with a few centimeters of water.
Eastern Moravia, Czech Republic
The Czech Republic saw some heavy droughts in the Spring 2020. Many ponds dried out, especially in South Moravia. When rains brought a few centimeters of water in later, it did not dissolve the dry mud and a "cracked water" pond full of birds was born.
Note: In addition to the limited edition prints, there are a maximum of 3 Artist Proof Prints (AP) of previous versions of this photograph.
Wind over Hvalnes
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A view of the little peninsula of Hvalnes from above the sea
Southern Iceland
Just being in Iceland gives you the feeling of being outside of your normal reality, of looking at it from a distance. But when I fly above the island itself, above its peninsulas, and find myself, at least with a drone, above the sea, there is suddenly a sense of being truly "above it" - literally and figuratively. Even something as majestic as these massifs can look much smaller, more graspable and understandable from above.
Most of my photos play with abstraction, with rhythms and visual compositions that one has to discover. Here, it's immediately clear what we're looking at - a massif, surrounded by sea and sky. But it has a great significance for me because it shows that we can also take a distance from the concrete and look at it with a detached perspective. The photo still carries that moment when it allows us to move away... detach.. and suddenly everything is more bearable, more graspable, more readable...
For me, this image is also very much about an expedition into the world of color. In editing, I worked with the saturation and brightness of the land and sea to remove the grey veil of late autumn and reveal a richness and vibrancy that may not have been visible there, but was fully present in my vision of this part of the world.
From the perspective of Iceland, you are the beginning of the world and everything feels “down to the South”. The Hvalnes lighthouse is an area that definitely invites you to have a look from a bit away - for which you need a ship (I didn't have) or a drone (I had!). It was a wildly windy day and I was seriously concerned that the drone wouldn't come back from the sea, but it did and brought this amazing panorama with it. I had an extreme luck with good light and excellent wind and weather conditions…
Sailing to Sunset
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A flock of wild geese during sunset on a glacier river.
Northern Iceland
A wide river about a kilometer before it flew to the ocean on the northern coast of Iceland. I was at this location a few times until I got very lucky with weather conditions and a full day of sun and low wind (quite a rarity in Iceland and many of good photo intentions stay just on paper due to the conditions that Ódin creates for us there). This was one of the last photos I took that day. Even standing with my drone controller on the ground, I was completely taken away by the tranquility of the moment. Actually, even now when looking at this photo I hear the silence that started preparing the entry of the night…
Moon Herons
111407
A dried out pond before the Fall fish-takeaway season.
Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic
In the autumn, fishermen in the Czech Republic remove water from many of the medieval man made ponds they manage so that they can take out fish and especially carp for the Xmas season - with carp being the preferred meal of the Xmas Eve dinner in the country. The "mud ponds" are then a haven for many bird species.
The Swan Lake
311941
Swans at a pond.
Eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic
This is one of my most tranquil photos. I feel like this is the Swan Lake that was the inspiration for the ballet, the Tchaikovsky music and everything else which is somewhat ethereal, flowing, quiet, slow yet powerful… I took a polite distance to these swans but had been observing them from their perspective for quite some time, totally forgetting about the areas I originally planned for that day's shoot. I totally don’t regret it.
Silky Paths 2
051711
Wild geese on a glacier river at the beginning of sunset.
Northern Iceland
Glacial rivers are a major attraction for my aerial photography as Iceland is a true paradise in this regard. These incredible patterns created by the interaction of the river bed, various sediments brought from the mountains, combinations of many incoming streams and the profile of the surface can provide endless possibilities for abstract discoveries. However, the best views happen when you manage to encounter the true local inhabitants of these magical places… like these geese.
Silky Paths 1
051708
Wild geese on a glacier river at the beginning of sunset.
Northern Iceland
Glacial rivers are a major attraction for my aerial photography as Iceland is a true paradise in this regard. These incredible patterns created by the interaction of the river bed, various sediments brought from the mountains, combinations of many incoming streams and the profile of the surface can provide endless possibilities for abstract discoveries. However, the best views happen when you manage to encounter the true local inhabitants of these magical places… like these geese.
Pulsing Flow 2
271306
Glacial river before finding its entrance to the ocean over a black sand beach.
Southern Iceland
Many of my places were not pre-planned and I found them by sheer chance. One of them is this magical place, which is not at all one of the tourist attractions of Iceland. I was driving around the coast and from the road I could see the river and wondered how it would get to the sea. Only from the air, flying over the shore, did I see the incredible almost optical illusion that the river looks almost 3D due to the play of sediments. But... it is completely flat (except for a small sand barrier between the river and the ocean), there is no ice and the water flows freely. After checking the maps afterwards, I found out that this pattern is only temporary, aerial maps from other periods showed a completely different picture. So now it's probably gone too... How lucky we were to witness this!
(The photo is created using a technique of composing several perspectives.)
Pulsing Flow 1
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A glacial river tries to find its way over the lava sand barrier to the ocean.
Southern Iceland
This mesmerizing puzzle of shapes, patterns and shades is painted by a river flowing from nearby glaciers straight to the ocean - provided that there isn’t a lava sand barrier between the river and the waves. It took the river a few hundred meters around the shore to finally find the opening and enter the Atlantic ocean. This day was very dark, windy and rainy and flying around taking photos was quite an adventure.
(Note: In addition to the limited edition prints, there are also max. 3 Artist Proof Prints (AP) of earlier edits.)
Interstellar 3
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The DC3 crash site on a black beach in Iceland.
South Iceland
This beach - along with its many sisters - featured in quite a few of recent movies and TV shows and for a reason. It looks straight from another planet. Combine this with the very bad weather that day (thanks drone for surviving) and quite disastrous light conditions, we can really feel that Earth transformed to something else this particular afternoon…
Interstellar 2
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The black sand lava beach on the South Iceland coast.
South Iceland
In 1973, a United States Navy DC plane ran out of fuel and crashed on the black beach at Sólheimasandur, in the South Coast of Iceland. Fortunately, everyone in that plane survived. Later it turned out that the pilot had simply switched over to the wrong fuel tank. The remains are still on the sand very close to the sea. The photo is almost a rescue mission for a pilot crash landed on another planet - these little red dots are quad bikes of a tour expedition.
Ray sailing
281939
A yacht in the Adriatic Sea.
Croatia
A sail between the Croatian Islands Brac and Hvar. It's a very busy sailing area. This day was actually very bright, sunny, one joyful summer experience in Croatia. I took my drone and myself off the beach and chased - from a polite distance - a few of the yachts around. When shooting against the sun, the epic contrast hid everything in sight and we are left only with the boat, the waves, the reflection… and nothing else. Sometimes I feel I’d enjoy, if for a few days, to live in a world as simple as that.
The Flower of Venus
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A pipe pumping some oily waste to a partly frozen wastewater pond.
North West Bohemia, Czech Republic
Odkaliště Venuše (“Sludge pond Venus”) is probably the last place where you’d look for beauty in the Czech Republic. In the middle of a land destroyed by mining and industrial activity is a pond with a content you don’t even want to think of. Yet - here we are presented with a magically pretty flower… an acid flower, perhaps.
Czech Submarine Base
111428
A curious structure at a pond.
Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic
I often say it’s a submarine base of a Czech Navy. Well, we have no military navy, yet even submarines, as a happily landlocked country. I have no idea how this facility works - so I'll choose the parallel universe where there's a sub or two waiting underwater for their time that will come one day.
I actually came here a couple years later to make the same photo... only to realize the water looked completely different this time!
Untitled No 182027
182027
Fish farms near the coast.
Croatia
I was driving to the beach that sunny day when I suddenly saw these ships somewhat in the distance in the sea. Me carrying the drone pretty much everywhere asked to stop and I took some time exploring what’s going on, before we indulged in the summer fun on the beach. The nets and the ships and boats around provided an unexpectedly visually satisfying view…
Whitefalls
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A creek surrounded by the forest
Northern Bohemia, Czech Republic
First Snow in Fjallabak 1
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The beginning of winter in the Icelandic Highlands
Friðland að Fjallabaki highlands, Central Iceland
First Snow in Fjallabak 4
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The first snow at the reserve.
Friðland að Fjallabaki highlands, Central Iceland
The First Snow in Fjallabak 5
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The first snow at the reserve.
Friðland að Fjallabaki highlands, Central Iceland
Baby Island
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A micro island covered by autumn vegetation in the middle of a glacial river.
Northern Iceland
This river has a wide delta stretching for more than a kilometer before entering the Atlantic ocean. The colorful surface - which you can see really only from the skies - is caused by sediments brought by the stream from the mountains and their interaction with the bedrock. I could fly there for hours… no, days… and still find mesmerizing new abstract views.
Bursting Out
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A pseudocrater covered by autumn moss.
North Eastern Iceland
It is not a classic volcanic crater because it is not "connected" to the magma in the earth and has never spewed lava. Still, these craters were created thanks to lava streams from nearby volcanoes flowing over a wet surface in the past, creating massive explosions of steam.
This was one of my last photos of the day. It was too late and very quickly the wind began to rise from the south (at the top of the photo), which brought a lot of clouds, fog and rain. My drone very much dislikes these conditions, so I took this picture and headed for the landing quickly.
Interstellar 1
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The DC3 crash site.
Southern Iceland
In 1973, a United States Navy DC plane ran out of fuel and crashed on the black beach at Sólheimasandur, in the South Coast of Iceland. Fortunately, everyone in that plane survived. Later it turned out that the pilot had simply switched over to the wrong fuel tank. The remains are still on the sand very close to the sea. The photo is almost a rescue mission for a pilot crash landed on another planet - these little red dots are quad bikes of a tour expedition.
(Note: In addition to the limited edition prints, there are a maximum of 3 Artist Proof Prints (AP) of previous versions of this photograph.)
Interstellar 3
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A river on a black moss beach covered with autumn-colored moss.
Southern Iceland
The black sand beaches in South Iceland look especially otherworldly in late September.
River Rhythms
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Braided river in Northern Iceland.
Northern Iceland
A glacial river, but it could also be a tree, a vein, a fractal, an ancient organism that lives its own life down there in the valley. From this height, the scale disappears, and we don't know whether the view is of a river or a vast riverbed stretching into the distance... and it doesn't matter.
For me, this photo is in the category of images that I sometimes purposely look for in a landscape - it's about the rhythm of shapes, colours, energies, contrasts in the whole and in the details... I sense a rhythm in it, I see something moving, dancing, I can hear it.... It's not a symphony with fixed rules, it's more like jazz, constantly changing, full of improvisation, where for example here each element of the river has its own motif and plays its own solo and you don't know what's coming in the next bar, but still all the instruments and their notes are connected by the same line. For me, the contrasts and blending here create music that you can't see but you can feel.
And I stand there as a silent observer, a listener to a concerto, played by masters for millennia. I'm not creating, just perceiving and sharing the experience. I'm humbled by the beauty and power that's happening in the shapes and colors... and all that jazz that's going on.
This photo is a crop of a huge 600 megapixel composite I made with my drone covering a larger area of the river. I then opened it at home, taking crops of the source image and looking for patterns and rhythms.
Untitled No 101821
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A river flowing from a glacier to a lake.
Central Norway
This river was just a few kilometers long, originating in a glacier and flowing in a nearby glacial lake.
I saw a comet
271211
A forest on the top of a mountain ridge.
North Western Bohemia, Czech Republic
I found this place by a pure coincidence - as is the case of quite a few other photos here - when flying from a site that actually didn’t prove to be as appealing as I’d have guessed from the online “satellite” maps (this also happens quite often). But I’m glad I did. And after seeing this photo in large prints, I understand why people sometimes take this part of the forest to their homes!
(Note: The photo employs a technique of several composed perspectives)
Long Spring Locks
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South Moravian hills and fields in early spring.
Southern Moravia, Czech Republic
I found this particular place between Bílovice and Čejkovice by chance, it is not one of the usual South Moravian photo locations. The large agricultural country area of South Moravian hills is quite difficult to photograph from above - but when you get to the right place, it literally flies. I spent a lot of time with this photo sailing on its waves, because it contains several almost optical illusions (sometime due to eroding surface due to removed trees, which is nothing great actually), at the same time the colors of the South Moravian spring are difficult to interpret, let alone when you want to extract the spirit you feel there.
Sailing the Spring
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South Moravian hills and fields in early spring.
Southern Moravia, Czech Republic
The large agricultural country area of South Moravian hills is quite difficult to photograph from above - but when you get to the right place, it literally flies. I I spent a lot of time with this photo sailing on its waves, because it contains several almost optical illusions (sometime due to eroding surface due to removed trees, which is nothing great actually), at the same time the colors of the South Moravian spring are difficult to interpret, let alone when you want to extract the spirit you feel there. I found this particular place between Bílovice and Čejkovice by chance, it is not one of the usual South Moravian photo locations.
I found this particular place between Bílovice and Čejkovice by chance, it is not one of the usual South Moravian photographic locations.
Obsidian Heart
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A glacial delta river at the South Iceland coast.
South Eastern Iceland