Martin Siering – Questions for…

Posted in Blog

Short biography of selected participants of the Datacolor Photo Contest, summer 2017. Martin Siering is a technical executive officer in the automobile industry who is photographically drawn to expeditions to active volcanoes and the “Spreewald” in Germany, where he lives.

We received many impressive photos from dedicated photographers for our Datacolor photo contest about travel and landscape photography that took place in Germany during summer 2017. Our jury had a hard time selecting the five winning images, as so many photos would have deserved to be awarded. In order to savor these wonderful images, we will present some of these pictures in our blog from time to time, introduce you to the photographer and tell the story behind the image.

Name:

Martin Siering (martinsieringphotography)

CV:

37 years old
Main Profession: Technical Executive Officer in automobile industry
Part-time: Nature Photographer and Photo Guide
Photography Education: 2014-2015 at Imago Fotokunst in Berlin
Home base: No man’s land in between Berlin and Brandenburg

When did you start your photography?

When traveling abroad to countries like Uganda, India or Costa Rica I discovered my love for taking pictures in nature. In 2013, I bought my first DSLR and joined a few photo workshop travels, for example lead by National Geographic photographers. That evolved into expeditions to volcanoes for photography reasons.

Is photography your hobby or your profession?

Because of photography as my hobby and my participation in several photo expeditions I came up with the idea to offer nature photography excursions kayaking in „Spreewald“ (Germany). I’m also listed with a stock agency selling my images to the market and I do get some photo assignments on top.

How and where what the image taken which you entered to the competition? Is there a story about it?

The landscape around the volcano Batu Tara that is situated far off in the Ocean of Flores Sea in Indonesia is quite surreal.

It feels like being on another planet and even the stones were glowing in different colors. During an eruption the side of the crater bursts and lava flows towards the ocean.

This image was taken during a photo expedition. To create an even more unreal sighting I used light sticks available as angling accessories.

Who and/or what inspires you most?

Most of all, nature in all expressions and facets. I’m most inspired by wild and untouched landscapes without humans.

What’s your photographic focus?

Primary Focus: Active volcanoes, mainly in Indonesia and South Pacific
Secondary Focus: Wild Germany, long-term project biosphere reserve Spreewald (Germany)

What’s your next photo project, your next challenge?

During my next volcano project I would like to try to take images of lighting during an eruption. This happens sometimes due to electrically charged ash particles and friction. There aren’t that many volcanoes where this happens.

My next project at Spreewald will be to find wild wolves right outside of Berlin and to take pictures of them at the biosphere reserve. About 65km away from Berlin, one can find tracks of wolves and their prey. But they are very shy and hard to find.

Do you include color management in you photographic workflow?

It plays an important role in my photographic workflow.

I work on my images using a monitor for image editing that has been calibrated with Datacolor’s tools in order to achieve best possible colors and to be able to compare the images in other calibrated environments.

What do you do with your photos, do you print them, post them on your social media accounts or your website or do they simply stay on your hard drive?

All of the above. Of course, my images are stored on hard drives. I also use them for my website (www.martinsieringphotography.de) and I print images for exhibitions, photo competitions or photo books.

What’s your photographic goal, what do you dream of?

It would be a dream come true to travel to all the active volcanoes of the Pacific Ring of Fire in one long expedition!

I also want to continue to get involved at the biosphere reserve Spreewald as a photographer and establish my business as a nature photographer, become the contact person for nature images of Spreewald and a guide for nature photography expeditions in the same area.

Website: www.martinsieringphotography.de

Facebook: reicheltdesign

All images have been taken on a photo expedition to the volcano Batu Tara (“burning rock”), which has been erupting for a very long period of time, but is still very unknown and not even marked on all maps or being fully explored. The volcano has a height of about 3000 meters but only 750 meters are above sea level. It is uninhabited and very hard to get to. In order to visit the volcano you have to travel 8 hours across the open water in one of the tuna fishing boats. There’s no possibility to land ashore the volcano, so if you want to go there you have to jump into the water – with all your supplies, your gear and your camera equipment…