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In the last months I worked on a new project - in-game photography. Since I like exploring and enjoying virtual adventures like Skyrim, Witcher, Fallout, Doom etc. and I've already spent quite some time with those adventures and I already have some knowledge about creating images in general, I recently thought why not combining both interests. This new gallery of in-game photographs is the result of this endeavor. All the images below are created in the world of Witcher III, most of them in Skellige. The islands of Skellige remind me the strongest of the real northern realms like ... Continue reading →

During the last two weeks we were finally on the road again and drove a few thousand kilometers from the Baltic Sea in the North of Germany south to the Dolomites in Italy. We had lots of new impressions, experiences, awesome scenic drives and beautiful grand vistas. And, in contrast to some previous trips, this time we were incredibly lucky with the weather. We enjoyed a very good mix of sunny weather with blue bird skies to relax and spend some time at the beach and some dynamic mountain weather with a lot of drama in the sky which is perfect for landscape photography. I will not write a ... Continue reading →

Last weekend, after a period of very unstable weather with lots of thunderstorms and heavy rain here in Germany, on Friday, the forecast for the next two days looked stable and promising enough for me to go on my mountain summit bivouac in Saxon Switzerland National Park. I planned this trip around a possible sunrise shooting at a peak called Heringstein, where I wasn't before. I wanted to explore the area and scout possible new locations for upcoming trips into the region. Between early June and mid-July the suns position at sunrise would be exactly between two peaks you see from Heringstein ... Continue reading →

Since I was born and raised in East Germany, or the GDR (German Democratic Republic), which was reunited with West Germany in 1989 and I formerly was - for instance - a so called "Jungpionier" during primary school and surrounded by Soviet influences, I am particular interested in the past of the UDSSR and their influence of our lifes in the GDR between the World War II and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and beyond. Even now (2016+) a lot of people are living in soviet like buildings which we call the "Platte" here in East Germany. I find it somehow fascinating that ... Continue reading →

For those of you who are interested I just wanted to let you know that I decided to stop writing about every single photo-trip I do, like I did for example last year. Instead I will focus more on other, more general topics like motivation in landscape photography or more photo-related tutorials like  7 essential elements of stunning landscape photos or resize and sharpen photos for web and prints and so on. That said, I probably will nevertheless write trip-reports (or something similar) about upcoming adventures like my mou ... Continue reading →

With this article I want to present to you my annual selection of the twelve personal favorite landscape photos from the year 2015. You can read on and scroll down or feel free to directly check out the gallery or sitback, relax and enjoy the slideshow! This year during winter between January and March we traveled to the Baltic Sea, Harz National Park and to the Saxon Switzerland, I conducted a photo workshop in April and photographed the wild garlic season in May in and around Leipzig. At the end of May we did an awesome Roadtrip through Fjord Norway followed by some shorter daytrips and ... Continue reading →

Last weekend I re-visited the Elendstal in the Harz region. A pretty nice valley I first explored in this years winter season. The weather was overcast and a little rainy which is actually pretty good for forest photography because the rain pushes the natural colors and with a polarizer filter you can easily boost the overall contrast and at the same time reduces reflections of the water which makes a huge positive difference on the image. But unfortunately due to our autumn trip to the Dolomites and the massive rainfalls and strong winds during the last weeks I was a bit late to capture autumns ... Continue reading →

This year we have visited and explored the Italian Dolomites during the autumn season in October. In the beginning of the year we originally planed to go to the famous Aletsch Glacier and the Matterhorn region around the village Zermatt in Switzerland but after a little online research in Google Maps, Earth and The Photographer's Ephemeris for possible photo opportunities, locations, sights and things to do there (beside hiking and photographing) and how to actually get there we both decided to look for an alternative and postpone the trip to an early summer season when the wild flowers ... Continue reading →

I am pretty happy to be awarded again in the International Photo Awards in 2015. This year I received five Honorable Mentions in the three different categories Landscapes, Trees and Seasons. The official Press Release: On September 29 2015 the International Photography Awards competition (IPA) announced Category Winners of 2015 Competition! This year, IPA received over 27000 submissions from 104 countries across the globe and is pleased to declare that Dave Derbis was awarded Honorable Mention in the Nature - Landscapes, Trees and Seasons Categories in the 2015 International ... Continue reading →

Last weekend, after literally months of incredibly hot weather here in Germany this year, I once again left the comfort zone of my regular life with our cozy appartment, the large comfortable bed, my digital darkroom / computer & gaming room with new inspirational and entertaining digital adventures like Witcher III waiting for me to be consumed as well as the strong, hot and tasty coffee in the morning. All in exchange for another real experience and to really feel alive and enjoy being out in nature in the central German uplands of Saxon-Switzerland National Park as well as the fore ... Continue reading →