This shot was taken in Ruka, Finland, on December 16th 2009. Ruka is located close to the Polar Circle, and at that time of the year the sun shines for just three hours during the whole day before it sets around lunchtime. The temperature on the day was around -28°C, and everybody was really happy to get back to our apartment to warm up after a full day of shooting.
Marco Smolla still had some energy left to hit a kicker right outside of our apartment window. I shot this picture from inside our apartment. I didn’t do this because I was cold from the weather outside; I wanted to show the lifestyle that goes on during a trip in the cold North - a lot of Facebook, sleeping and relaxing happens, as well as a lot of snowboarding.
To frame Marco’s frontside 360 perfectly in the window took some time, but I was really happy that we finally managed to capture the photo the way I imagined it.
Lorenz Holder

About the shot

Biography
I grew up in Munich, close to the Bavarian mountains, and it is those mountains that have always played a major role in my life. Being outside with my friends was always the thing that motivated me most, be it as a snowboarder back in the days or nowadays as a photographer.
I've never studied or learned photography but I was so impressed and fascinated, how one single image can describe a whole scene, a whole day or even a whole trip. This power of an image caught me straight away and passion became profession. I've finished my university for being a teacher and then went all in - All I wanted to do, is to shoot and create.
The biggest influence on my style of shooting comes from outside the action sport scene. I love to get impressed by creative work from landscape-, architecture- and fine-art-photography. But for me, this was always a little bit too boring to shoot, so I tried to combine those genres with action sport and that's where I found my true love for what I'm doing. Walking through life with open eyes and seeing possibilities.