Christoph Fischer 1


About

Thank you for taking the time to visit my portfolio.

I am a landscape and wildlife photographer based in Montreal, Canada, and I specialize in running national and international photography workshops. I love the natural world and I have always felt the need to capture, and freeze in time, any beautiful scenes I bear witness to. The thrill of chasing great light, as well as the way photography makes me look at the world with new eyes, is wonderful. I truly enjoy teaching fellow photographers how best to capture and portray the beauty they see and perceive, and I love sharing with them the amazing landscapes and natural surroundings I am privileged to witness. Photography workshops and tours thus fit naturally into my world.

My work is extensive and covers North America, Africa and South America. I seek bold, unusual compositions and hope to infuse the viewer with a sense of excitement, wonder and contemplation. I have been honored in international competitions and have been published in premier Canadian photography magazines, Smithsonian Magazine, as well as in National Geographic Media.


Works

Patagonia is the epitome of wilderness untamed. Patagonia is challenging to photograph, the mountains can be hidden for days, but when they clear, the beauty is unmatched. The glorious Fitz Roy mountain range in Argentinian Patagonia emerges from the clouds, as strong winds put an end to a cloudy, overcast morning.

A one of a kind moment in Namibia's world famous Deadvlei as dust, blown up by strong winds, and illuminated by the morning sun, forms a stunning backdrop to the graceful dead trees which populate this unique part of the world.

The perfect arrangement of elements in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park: A spot lit, deep blue iceberg is dwarfed by surrounding towering mountains which have receded into the shade, except for the glorious, jagged summit, bathed in the warm light of the afternoon sun.

A beautifully shaped iceberg is framed by the burning morning light on a distant mountain range in Greenland's Scoresby Sund.

The coastal dunes of Namibia, Africa, also are home to beautiful wildlife, such as this Springbok, sprinting up one of the dunes. They are specially adapted to this area, and can eat a plant rich in water, but bitter, which their own species in other parts of Namibia would not be able to tolerate.

It has taken me several years to finally capture a scene I could only dream of. A magnificent Condor glides above the distant peaks of Argentina's Mount Fitz Roy massif, as they are spot lit in beautiful, warm early morning light.

Namibia, is not all desert and dunes. It has a vast coast line with spectacular flamingo, pelican and seal populations. There are so many flamingos that it is difficult to isolate them, but the fog this morning helped, and it created a magical, mysterious mood.

Light is at its most powerful at the moment it first breaks through the darkness. The mesmerizing shapes and textures of Namibia's dunes come to life as they emerge out of darkness and are touched by the first light of day.

I have always been mesmerized by the soft, ethereal light that seems to emanate from glaciers and touches all that is nearby. In Patagonia's Torres del Pain National Park, the warm light of the sun intermittently broke through clouds, gracing a mountain right next to glacier Grey in some of the most beautiful light I have seen.

When photographing wildlife, I love to capture and portray the more artistic and subtle aspects: Soft afternoon light silhouettes an elephant's beautifully textured face in Namibia's Etosha National Park.

The wilderness of Greenland has an effect on me like no other, and every time I visit I am put under its spell. Its rough, rugged beauty is overwhelming, vast and endless. On an unforgettable morning in Greenland's spectacular Scoresby Sund, giant icebergs contrast against distant mountains which emerge softly from clearing clouds.

The perfect light for the perfect landscape. A breathtaking scene in Namibia's Sossusvlei region as the last light of day touches a lone tree, behind which towers a giant ochre coloured sand dune.

A short lived moment of breathtaking beauty when a granite outcrop in Patagonia's Torres del Paine catches fire, in the continual fight between light and darkness.

A beautiful orphaned Cheetah eyes a piece of meat that its Namibian caretaker is about to feed it. It was a privilege to be so close to this majestic animal.

There is so much fleeting beauty, so much potential, to the world of mountains. It reveals itself over a matter of seconds, before it is gone forever. Far above, barely visible to the naked eye, the peak of Paine Grande in Patagonia's Torres del Paine national park, is transformed into a short lived moment of utter beauty.

An unforgettable morning in Patagonia's Torres del Paine National Park. Gale force winds transform the calm turquoise colored waters of Lake Pehoe into a raging sea, blowing away crashing waves and literally lifting the water off the lake surface, all of this against the unforgettable mountain backdrop of los Cuernos del Paine!

The coastal dunes of Namibia are awe inspiring and unforgettable. Look at the top left corner. What you see there is a group of people taking in a view that is nothing other than breath taking.

The last light of day glistens on the edges of nearby ice bergs framing a distant giant, itself surrounded by a sea of glittering ice. It was getting late during our adventure in East Greenland's Scoresby Sund, and our captain decided to spend the night here: In the middle of a sea of still, calm water, surrounded by uncountably many ice bergs, all of it framed by giant mountain ranges. It was a day we will never forget.

The magnificent dead trees in Namibia's Deadvlei draw beautiful graphical lines against the red walls of neighbouring towering dunes. A surreal, yet mesmerizingly beautiful, combination of elements, so typical of Namibia.

The peaks of Cerro Paine Grande, at an incredible elevation gain of 2.6 km (1.6 miles) over surrounding lakes and foothills, are enveloped in intense alpen glow that was able to break through dense cloud cover. A spectacular, yet brief, moment, so typical of Patagonia.

The deeply contorted lands of Namibia give rise to some truly unusual and otherworldly landscapes. This particular evening, fierce winds were blowing, and the combination of twilight and windblown dust blessed us with exceptional light, transforming these strange lands into the surreal.

A moment of angelic beauty as beams of light from the rising sun penetrate clearing fog over dew covered pine trees in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park. The beams were visible only for a few seconds before more of the fog cleared. These scenes are so special and beautiful, and they happen every year in Algonquin!

There is an infinite beauty to moving water and it can be unlocked by looking beyond what we first see. A slight adjustment in shutter speed may do real magic, creating subtle, intriguing textures and emphasizing lines and shapes. The purple of a winter evening's twilight is softly reflected in the fast moving waters of the St. Lawrence River, Montreal, Canada.

A beautiful, moody morning in South Africa's Cape Point Nature Reserve. Humid air, blown inland by gale force winds, climbed the abruptly ending coastal mountains and formed fast moving clouds racing over Cape Point's plains. The rising sun broke through the clouds, painting the landscape in spectacular and rapidly changing light.

Ripples of sand on the crest of a sand dune in Namibia catch the last light of day, while wind blown sand further down glows golden as it is lifted into the light.

In South Africa's Cape Point Nature reserve, soft light touches rows of crashing waves and distant golden sand, in a beautiful example of the transformative power of light.

A breaking wave explodes on the cliff faces of one of the world's highest impact zones, in South Africa's Cape Peninsula. Freak waves occur randomly, but patience was duly rewarded and the wave came straight at my camera, exploding at least 5 m above sea level.

Life flourishes everywhere! Two lone trees live on the edge of a giant dune which rises sharply above them in Namibia's Sossusvlei region. In fact, one of the trees is actually buried in the dune's sand!

Gale force winds were coming in from the ocean in South Africa's Cape Point Nature Reserve and, although the wind was screaming in my ears, it was a scene of serenity and breathtaking majesty. In the background humid ocean air turns into clouds at the coastal mountain peaks, which then are blown inland over the gentle, fynbos covered plains.

A moment of sublime beauty in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park, as the early morning sunlight filters through the tree tops to illuminate the lifting fog and dew covered pine trees in radiant light.

A moment of unspeakable beauty as the last light of day touches churning clouds rushing over the ragged cliff faces of South Africa's Table Mountain.

An example of the infinite power of light. The rising sun turns an already beautiful scene of red wildebeest grazing in Namibia's Etosha National Park into the purely magical!