During the several years I spent photographing the Red Bull Air Race, I was always looking for the truly special moments away from the race track – the sort of competitive flying that illustrated the whole sense of freedom in those spectacular locations.

On the morning after the Red Bull Air race in Monument Valley, I had the chance to set up this picture of two race planes flying near the track on a transfer flight. After a briefing at the race airport and a location check, I was able to direct everyone from the air to their positions. The weather and the light was perfect for what I had in mind. Alex Maclean and Nicolas Ivanoff were able to perfectly execute the idea, and they switched their smoke on at precisely the right moment – it all happened so quickly. You're standing outside the helicopter on the skid and the airplanes are racing towards you at about 350 km/h.

The picture was ideally suited to enhance with a 3-D depiction because in this case the technology works for the picture and not vice-versa. The 3-D depiction was created exclusively in post-production. To get an optimal view of the 3-D enhancement of this picture you have to look at it with the red lens on your left eye and the blue lens on your right eye. During the preparations for the Red Bull Air Race in Monument Valley I had the chance to talk with one of the local Indian inhabitants about the meaning of putting on a race at this spot. She said the Gods were most likely pleased about it – otherwise they would have prevented it with stormy weather or heavy rain.

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As I was collecting ambrotypes for years, I always wanted to learn the process. Last year, I finally found someone who could teach me. After a few months of experiments and many hours in the lab, I managed to make my own collodion ambrotype using chemicals bought at the local pharmacy and glass from the closest DIY store. Even though the process is complicated and long, it's pure freedom for me.

My main goal with this process was to shoot large format portraits and eventually adapt it to skateboarding. As the speed used for wet plates is 1 ISO, it's almost impossible to shoot fast movement so the only way to bring wet plates to skateboarding was to use the collodion wet plates for print. I then shot this photo of Eniz Fazliov, one of my favorite skateboarders, developed the film and printed the image on a collodion wetplate that was later scanned. The result is a very light 4x5" piece of glass.

I really enjoy the very organic feeling of holding such a photograph and this one was my first try. It's got tons of stains and defects that are part of this unpredictable beauty that I'm looking for in photography. I like to contradict the idea, which most photographers have, that an image should be as clean as possible. I persist with the idea to stay dirty.

The original idea was to take a climbing picture using the light-painting technique combined with the night sky in long exposure. I did the first tests in 2008, shooting with film, which made me understand how to make the picture I wanted.

In October 2009 I visited my friend and climber Bruno Dias, who took me to some rocks in São Tomé das Letras and we found the perfect place for the photo. We spent two nights shooting and this was the first picture we made. The picture is a mixture of residual light coming from the city, LED light, flash and headlamps. It is a composition of three different pictures of the same scene with different shutter speeds, white balances and lights. I used 1/250 to shoot the climber; 30 seconds to shoot the rock; and 28 minutes to shoot the stars.

I was very happy with the outcome and eager to produce more pictures using a mixture of different types of lights.

Nowadays, if you take a close look at skateboarding photography, you will notice that back lighting is used less often. I am a big fan of this type of lighting. I often work using different backgrounds such as the sky, shiny floors or even the rain. This time I wanted to work with a different background texture that is more unusual – including a stylish trick and good scenery. I decided to use a white background, like I normally do when working in studio, but I used it as an extensive light diffuser and placed powerful flashes behind the background.

I had the clear image of placing a skate trick in-between two trucks, to create a gap. I called two of my friends who are truck drivers and after negotiating with them, they finally allowed me to use their trucks. Then I needed to find an indoor space that would be big enough to hold the trucks, and also a place where the wind would not pass because of the 25m2 fabric I used to create the white background.

Bad weather. At the very beginning of my career in photography, I was afraid of it: no sun, no blue sky and my camera getting wet. But quickly I got bored of the cliché shots taken in what can normally only be described as ‘perfect conditions.’ That's why I really enjoyed traveling to Japan in 2009. Fog was one of the main elements we had to work with. In this weather, having an open-minded athlete who is on the same wavelength is essential.

On the morning of this particular shot, it was raining on the snow which is generally not a good thing, especially as the powder the day before had been perfect. I don't think that many riders would have shared my enthusiasm, or agreed when I said: “Let's go riding and see if we can shoot something!”

Nico Vaudroz is the kind of person you need in the described circumstances. As well as being a talented snowboarder, he is a great painter. His skills and passion mean he has nothing to prove. That's why taking a risk doesn't scare him – snowboarding with his friends is a pleasure. When we saw the silhouette of this lost tree, braving the cold mix of snow and rain, we instantly knew there was something special about the scene. The majestic trunk was the focal point. The scene just framed itself. We just had to wait for the fog to disperse a bit. After the shot, we got home totally wet and cold, but happy to have had the opportunity to appreciate the moody landscapes.