Rok Romih's Minimal Landscapes

Welcome to Hero of the Week, an ongoing series sharing stories from some of the best photographers in the Pexels community.

We're captivated by the landscape photography of Rok Romih, a photographer based in Slovenia.

Rok works in marketing but hopes to focus on photography full time. He bought his first camera just two years while on a worldwide backpacking trip. Rok shoots with Fuji X-T20 and X-T2.

Rok says he learned a lot from his time spent travelling. "I started focusing on what makes me happy, buying less clutter, living simple and minimalistic lifestyle," he says. That minimal perspective can be seen in Rok's photography, too. No matter the harsh conditions he's shooting in, his images tend to be calm and composed.

"Life shouldn’t be just about paying bills and rent. Society tells us how to live, but that’s not necessarily how you as an individual should be living! My motto: More stories, less stuff."

He takes inspiration from the work of the American photographer Chris Burkard. "Great images and storytelling is spot on."

"Every person has a different vision of seeing things," says Rok. "I try not to replicate other work and capture images that I personally like the most."

From the icy textures of frozen water to aerial views of rocky landscapes, Rok's outdoor photography covers a wide range of locations. So far, Rok lists New Zealand, Alaska, Indonesia, Svalbard, and Kyrgzystan as some of the favorite locations he's captured.

"I like clean and minimalistic images the most," Rok says.

He chose the photo above as a favorite from his Pexels profile, because of the tough conditions at the mountain when he snapped the shot: "It was 15 degrees below zero and super windy." But the result is a gorgeous and very minimalist capture that looks perfectly calm.

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