The Creative Journey in Landscape Photography: Growth From Inspiration to Mastery

How to evolve beyond taking photos to creating meaningful landscape imagery in Switzerland's demanding alpine environment

Creativity in photography isn’t just the instant you press the shutter. It’s a long practice: planning, showing up, experimenting, selecting, printing, sharing, reflecting—and repeating. My journey started with a Norway sunrise, hit plateaus, and widened into a process guided by values, constraints, and honest feedback. We keep going because making pictures changes us. We play to play, not to win.

Why We Create: The Fundamental Drive to Be Seen

Every creative journey begins with a simple yet profound question: why do we create? The answer reaches deeper than technique or equipment—we create to be seen. This fundamental human need drives us to capture and share moments, much like how food satisfies hunger or water quenches thirst. Creation becomes our answer to the innate desire for recognition, reward, and ultimately, personal growth.

For landscape photographers drawn to dramatic mountains, this drive manifests in our pursuit of perfect light hitting the Matterhorn at dawn, or capturing the ethereal moment when clouds part to reveal hidden alpine valleys. We seek not just photographs, but validation of our experience and vision.

The Spark: Where It All Begins

Nine years ago, a trip to Norway's Preikestolen changed everything for me. What started as a simple suggestion from met photographers to wake up for sunrise became a revelation. Standing above a sea of clouds as the sky transformed into golden light, I experienced what I now recognize as the creative spark—that moment when possibility crystallizes into passion. This was 2017 - a year before I moved to Switzerland.

Preikestolen, Norway, 17 Aug 2016, Wed, 06:00

Mountains, especially Switzerland, offers countless such moments for those willing to seek them. Whether it's your first glimpse of the Bernese Alps from Harder Kulm, or discovering how morning light transforms the peaks around St Moritz, these experiences plant the seeds for a lifelong creative journey.

But inspiration alone isn't enough. Creativity is the ability to connect dots. To create meaningful connections, we need two things: numerous high-quality "dots" of experience and knowledge, and the ability to see patterns between them. In landscape photography it is the ability to connect disparate ideas—to link that perfect morning light with compositional knowledge, technical skill, and personal vision.

The Creative Journey: Embracing the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Every photographer's journey follows a predictable pattern that mirrors the Dunning-Kruger effect—that psychological phenomenon describing how confidence fluctuates with knowledge and experience.

At the beginning, everything feels possible. For me in 2017 the Swiss Alps seemed full of undiscovered compositions - a true novelty.

New techniques excite us. Gear discussions captivate us—Canon versus Sony, which tripod handles alpine winds best, whether that expensive filter set is worth the investment. Early photos give us satisfaction because our efforts are followed by uncertain outcomes. A sense of achievement despite obstacles.

This honeymoon phase included also a destructive comparison to masters like Karol Nienartowicz, Max Rive or Chris Burkard with their adventurous pursuits. I saw their finished work without understanding the years of dedication, failed attempts, missed shots, rejected compositions, deleted files and, the most important: gradual skill development behind each image. When my own photos of 2017 from places like Madeira or the Bernese Oberland fell short of these inspirations, my confidence plummeted.

This is a common for all - the valley of despair eliminates many potential photographers who switch to other pursuits rather than persevere through the learning curve.

Finding Your Path: Mentorship and Community

The key to surviving this challenging phase lies in finding companions or mentors—people just a few steps ahead who can provide guidance without feeling impossibly distant. In my case, meeting Lukasz (instagram) in Switzerland proved transformative. Together we chased light across the Swiss Alps, critiqued each other's work, and pushed boundaries by attempting increasingly challenging conditions.

Having someone to share the sunrise shots of the Matterhorn at 4 AM, or to provide honest feedback on your composition choices, accelerates growth immeasurably. It is important to look actively for such connections - join a photography club (I am an active member of PICZ.ch), look for people to hike with. And... don't believe that Instagram is a validation of your skills.

As photos gradually improve, the process becomes rewarding. You begin appreciating the journey itself—the pre-dawn hikes to viewpoints, the patient wait for perfect conditions, even the failures when weather doesn't cooperate.

My photos from December of 2017 from Madeira are still rated with four stars. That time I could not make anything better despite the fact, that Madeira is one of the most spectacular place for landscape photography.

Finding Pleasure in the Process

For a long time I thought photography was about catching moments. Then, standing on a ridge while wind carried a thin veil of cloud across the face of a mountain, I noticed something else happening. I was happy before I pressed the shutter. I was happy even if I never pressed it at all. The pleasure was in looking, choosing, arranging, waiting. The photo would be a receipt. The process was the reward.

Pleasure is not decoration. It is fuel. When the work itself feels good, you return to it more often. Repetition builds intuition. Intuition makes decisions lighter. Lighter decisions make room for curiosity. Curiosity brings you back out the door. This is how a hobby becomes a practice, and how a practice becomes a life you like living.

There is also a practical reason. If your joy depends on perfect light or viral attention, the joy will be rare. If you learn to enjoy the parts you control, the joy can be daily.

Me in 2019

For me after reaching the valley of despair I found this joy in experimenting, going out, trying new things. Shooting, failing, wining, making mistakes.

Photos from 2019 - some rated with four stars in Lightroom. None is flawless, none is perfect. But I think those days were all worth it.

The Breakthrough: When Magic Happens

Eventually, breakthrough moments arrive. Suddenly, barriers dissolve. You instinctively know where to position your tripod on a narrow Engadin ridge, how to compose foreground elements with distant peaks, which settings will capture both the bright snow and shadowed valleys below.

As Ansel Adams observed, good photographers know "where to stand or where to run." When dramatic light breaks through storm clouds over the Rigi massif, you can set up, compose, and capture the moment within minutes. You understand your subject—whether it's the interplay of light and shadow or the delicate balance of elements in an alpine lake reflection.

There is a set of skills I had to develop to be able to capture this photo in 2019. Understanding camera, lens, settings, composition. All to use the lucky moment fully - capture the scene in given five minutes. And then process the RAW files in Lightroom.

The Double Diamond Process: A Framework for Landscape Photography

My approach to landscape photography adapts the "Double Diamond" process from product design—a framework particularly suited to the demanding environment of Swiss alpine photography.

The process consists of two distinct phases, each involving divergent thinking (exploring possibilities) followed by convergent thinking (making focused decisions).

Phase One: Photographing the Right Things

Discovery Phase: landscape photography demands extensive planning. I use tools like:

• Peak Finder for determining exact sunrise/sunset positions behind specific mountains

• Stellarium for planning Milky Way shots above iconic peaks like the Matterhorn

• SwissMeteo and MeteoBlue for crucial weather forecasting

• Topographic maps for accessing remote viewpoints safely

  
  

For photos of the Grand Combin from the FXB Panosierre hut, this research phase reveals optimal timing, weather windows, and safety considerations unique to high-altitude Swiss photography.

Define Phase: After research comes decision-making. Will this be a scouting trip or focused on capturing specific compositions? Should I hike (allowing more photographic opportunities along the trail) or take the mountain bike for faster access to a single location?

For new locations, I arrive 90 minutes before desired shooting time. For familiar spots, 30 minutes usually suffices. Swiss alpine conditions change rapidly, so timing flexibility becomes crucial.

Phase Two: How to Photograph Things

Develop Phase - On Location Experimentation

Once positioned, experimentation begins systematically:

1. Start with your everyday lens (24-70mm range): Survey the scene, identify potential compositions, note foreground elements like interesting rock formations or alpine flora

2. Switch to wide-angle lenses: Capture broader vistas, incorporate dramatic foreground elements. In Swiss alpine photography, ultra-wide angles (14-24mm) prove most challenging—a few degrees can completely transform composition when foreground elements are mere centimeters away

3. Try longer focal lengths: Isolate specific mountain features, compress perspective to emphasize the scale of peaks like Mont Blanc or the Eiger

4. Use smartphone for composition scouting: The larger screen helps visualize crops and compositions more easily than small camera viewfinders

Multiple subjects I was photographing during my trip to the FXB Panossiere hut in July 2025. I used three lenses with different filters.

Subject Exploration: Swiss alpine environments offer rich photographic opportunities:

• A mountain hut with drying socks and weathered wood telling human stories

• Intimate window views framing distant peaks

• Vast panoramic vistas showcasing the scale of the Alps and glaciers

• Textural details of glacial ice, weathered rock, and hardy alpine vegetation

The constant decision between wide-angle environmental shots and telephoto details requires balancing multiple subjects within each location.

Experimenting with a wide angle lens and foreground vs lack of foreground element.

Long Exposure Techniques: Swiss mountain weather creates ideal conditions for long exposures, particularly with moving clouds around peaks. However, 5-8 minute exposures during sunrise or sunset carry risks—dramatic light can emerge elsewhere while your camera remains locked in position. This risk-reward calculation becomes part of the creative decision-making process.

Exposure times of 1s and 3min

Deliver Phase - Post-Processing: The convergent phase involves selection and processing in Lightroom, Photoshop, or specialized software like Luminar Neo. A successful session typically yields one to five four-star images worthy of printing or sharing.

Post-processing techniques specific to Swiss alpine photography include:

• Time blending to balance extreme contrast between bright snow and dark rock

• Focal length blending to overcome ultra-wide lens distortion

• Color grading to enhance the unique quality of alpine light

• Strategic cropping to refine compositions captured in challenging conditions

Processing RAW file is also a critical part of the creative process and making of the final image.

Me in 2025

From Craft to Art: The Evolution Continues

When you can consistently produce strong images—achieving good results 85% (let's call them 4 of 5 stars rating in Lightroom) of the time—you've reached craftsman level. You know the likely outcome before pressing the shutter, understanding how morning light will interact with specific peaks, how weather patterns develop, how to compose with an ultra wide angle lens.

But mastery extends beyond craft into art—experimenting to reach unknown outcomes, challenging established processes, and developing personal vision that transcends technical competence.

Self-Awareness: Understanding Your Photographic Voice

True growth requires honest self-examination:

• Which subjects draw you repeatedly? Alpine lakes, dramatic peaks, intimate forest scenes, or human elements in mountain environments?

• What defines your style? High contrast black and white, vibrant color work, minimalist compositions, or complex layered scenes?

• How do your photographs connect to personal values? For me those are: exploration, environmental awareness, solitude, adventure. What are yours?

Expanding Beyond the Known: Growing Your Creative Input

Photography inspiration shouldn't rely solely on Instagram's algorithm. There is so much more to use as seeds.

Actively seek diverse inspiration sources:

• Photography exhibitions

• Photo Basel, Photo Paris and similar fairs offering exposure to various techniques and generes

• Podcasts featuring established photographers discussing their creative processes

• Art exhibitions at Kunsthaus Zurich or during Art Basel, providing cross-pollination from other visual mediums

• Watch a favourite movie without sound

New inspirations lead to new subjects and styles. Perhaps street photography techniques can inform your approach to documenting mountain villages. Maybe video storytelling could enhance your understanding of visual narrative in still images.

Establishing Creative Habits

Sustainable creativity requires supportive habits:

• Spontaneous shooting when planned expeditions aren't possible—discovering photogenic opportunities in your immediate surroundings

• Experimental techniques like infrared photography to see familiar landscapes differently

• Regular printing to understand how digital images translate to physical form

• Participating in constructive competitions like LenseCulture that provide professional feedback

• Documenting and organizing work to track artistic development over time

• Building your portfolio and curating, organising, grouping your photos - and then thinking about next photos as pieces of existing collection. How do they add value to what already exist?

Working on couple of exhibitions or organising my portfolio was a new discovery for me - finding patterns of subjects, colours, motifs or selecting photos that matter to me.

Patterns of winter

Long-term Projects: Deepening Your Connection

Extended projects create deeper relationships with subjects. My current work on a photographic guidebook to Valais and the Alps requires repeated visits to the same locations across different seasons and conditions. This repetitive engagement reveals subtleties invisible during single visits—how light moves across specific valleys throughout the year, how seasonal changes transform familiar compositions, how weather patterns create unique photographic opportunities.

Long-term projects also serve others by sharing discovered locations and techniques, contributing to the broader Swiss landscape photography community.

Or embracing something new. For me this is about making collages of landscape photos and observing how the subject changes over time. and capturing its essence in balanced shapes.

Check my Blends of Memories

Embracing Failure as Growth

Growth happens through failure. Swiss alpine photography provides ample opportunities for instructive setbacks:

• Equipment failures in harsh mountain conditions (like my camera drop resulting in lens damage)

• Timing mistakes—arriving too late for optimal light or too early for accessible conditions

• Weather misjudgments leading to dangerous situations or missed opportunities

• Technical errors in extreme contrast situations common to alpine environments

• Compositional failures when dramatic scenes overwhelm careful planning

Learning to embrace these failures, extract lessons, and maintain enthusiasm despite frustration becomes essential for long-term creative development.

The Beginner's Mind: Approaching Familiar Places with Fresh Eyes

Even when visiting frequently photographed locations like Stellisee with its iconic Matterhorn reflection, approaching with beginner's mind reveals new possibilities. What would first-time visitors notice? What angles have you overlooked through familiarity? How might changing seasons or unusual weather create unprecedented opportunities?

This mindset recently rewarded me during a stormy visit to Verpeilerkopf in Valais. Initially discouraged by poor weather, persistence through uncomfortable conditions led to a brief clearing that revealed the iconic stream and mountain composition in completely unique light—wet, cold, but ultimately rewarding conditions I would have missed from the comfort of accommodation.

True Mastery: Destabilizing Your Process

Advanced practitioners eventually destabilize their established processes, working with familiar elements at deeper levels rather than constantly seeking new inputs.

This might involve creating intentional constraints:

• Extremely long exposures lasting hours, like Hiroshi Sugimoto's seascapes

• Focusing intensively on single subjects across extended periods

• Rejecting digital workflows in favor of traditional analog processes

• Time-blending techniques like Stephen Wilkes' day-to-night series

• Hand-transferred to paper analog photographies by Joost Vandebrug

Such approaches require deep process understanding and willingness to challenge comfortable methods. They ask fundamental questions: "How would it feel to approach photography this way?" and "Who will I become through this exploration?"

The Mountain Photography Challenge

Mountain photography (typical genre for photographing in Switzerland) presents unique challenges that accelerate creative development:

• Rapidly changing mountain weather requiring quick adaptation

• Extreme altitude conditions testing equipment and physical endurance

• Complex access requiring careful planning and safety considerations

• Seasonal limitations creating narrow shooting windows for specific locations

• High contrast lighting situations demanding technical precision

• Tourist pressures at popular locations requiring creative timing and positioning

These constraints force growth by demanding adaptability, preparation, and persistence—qualities that translate into stronger creative practice regardless of location.

Resources for Continued Growth

Three books have proven invaluable for developing creative discipline and artistic awareness:

1. "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron: A 12-week self-paced workshop including practices like morning pages and weekly artist dates that develop creative habits and overcome mental barriers

2. "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" by Rick Rubin: Insights from one of music's most influential producers on process, authenticity, and maintaining creative flow

3. "The Meaning in the Making" by Sean Tucker: A street photographer's philosophical exploration of purpose and fulfillment in creative practice

Playing to Play, Not Playing to Win

Rick Rubin's observation that "we are playing to play, not playing to win" encapsulates the healthiest approach to creative development. For me landscape photography offers profound rewards beyond social media metrics or competition results—personal growth through challenge, deeper environmental connection, and the satisfaction of capturing fleeting alpine beauty.

The goal isn't winning photography contests or accumulating followers, but engaging meaningfully with the creative process itself. In Switzerland's demanding alpine environment, this means accepting that harsh weather might prevent planned shoots, that physical challenges might limit access, and that technical difficulties might compromise results.

Yet these very constraints create space for authentic creative development—pushing beyond comfort zones, developing resilience, and finding unique personal vision within Switzerland's well-documented landscape.

The creative journey in landscape photography extends far beyond technical mastery or location knowledge. It's about developing the awareness to see with fresh eyes, the persistence to work through difficulties, and the courage to express personal vision within one of the world's most photographed mountain ranges.

Whether you're just beginning this journey or seeking to deepen existing practice, remember that creativity develops through patient accumulation of experiences, honest self-reflection, and willingness to embrace both success and failure as teachers. In the Swiss Alps, both are guaranteed.

This content was part of a talk in Zurich, 06 Sep 2025

Maciej Karpinski is a landscape photographer and product designer based in Switzerland. His work focuses on the intersection of technical craft and creative expression in alpine environments. You can see more of his photography and artworks at MaciejKarpinski.com