Learn to dream: incredible stories of photographer Kirill Umrikhin

What can’t be hidden, journalists are often invited on press tours. For us, this is not just an opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the event, but also to meet and talk to unique people. During my trip to Krasnoyarsk, I attended a Boardspeskers lecture as part of an extreme weekend from Toyota. One of the speakers at the lecture was photographer Kirill Umrikhin.

He told a lot about his travels in pursuit of stunning shots. He told us how these trips changed his life, taught him to think bigger and not to be afraid to get involved in adventures. Afterwards we had a chance to talk in person. For me this is not just an interview, but a great opportunity to show readers that when you sincerely love your business and are not afraid to put everything at stake at one moment, you can make a fortune and go on an incredible and exciting journey of a lifetime.

Watch the video on the official YouTube channel.

Story 1. Raise the sails of the legendary “Kruzenshtern”

Location: the world’s oldest sailing ship “Krusenstern”. The history of the ship is unique – it went through World War II, it was not destroyed, it was not damaged during the war. It went to Russia as a payment to the winning side. If it had remained in Germany, it would have been sawed up for scrap. And somehow, incredibly, it made it through the ’90s. It was built as a cargo ship, but it’s been helping maritime college students learn a trade for a long time. When I was offered the opportunity to go there and take pictures, I accepted without thinking.

Travel time: 8 days on the high seas.

Route: Amsterdam – Copenhagen.

– Kirill, tell me, how did you end up on a sailing ship?
– I have been invited there for two years now. The point is that anyone can get on this ship. And Mikhail Kozhukhov, the founder of the “Travel Club”, made it so that everyone could get on it, he negotiated with the ship owners, which is very difficult… They wrote to me, told me not to plan anything for July, and I agreed. I thought, I’ve never sailed on a yacht before. So before that I went to Norway on a small yacht for a week, then I practiced in Moscow and only then I got on “Kruzenshtern”.

Watch the video on the official YouTube channel.

– Were you called there to photograph life on the ship?
– I was called there to shoot mostly photo reportage from a drone, no one had ever done that before me. Because there are so many complications in the process, starting with the fact that the ship is metal and that creates interference. Plus you can’t launch a boat, sail it and then launch the drone from there because it’s very complicated. The boat doesn’t catch up to the ship, you can’t do anything on the fly.

– You told me that the Kruzenshtern’s sails were stuffed especially for you. Tell me about it.
– Oh, it’s a separate story! Stuffing a sail takes about two and a half hours. That is, 200 people stuffed the sails for me for two and a half hours to get a beautiful shot. When we did it on the first day and I showed it to the captain, he was very surprised. When you see your ship from the side, from above, it’s like a movie. We shot two days in a row, and on the third day at some point he calls me up and asks me if we’ve shot everything. I said yes. Then he told me he was asking me because if we didn’t take the sails down in half an hour, we were going to crash into the ground.

– What was it like technically?
– Technically it was probably the most difficult shoot I’ve ever done. It got to the point where the sailing master said: “Let him crash into the sail, we’ll catch him, just to get the shot back. Because everyone sees a beautiful shot on the screen, but the drone is floating in the sky. I ended up making a one-minute video just for the guys. The photographer, who lives on the ship, saw it and told me that he went on a 14-month round-the-world trip. They launched the boat four times in 14 months for him. So he had the opportunity to photograph the outside of the ship four times. I had two or three days in a row with the technology, the drones. Then he asked me to send these photos to publish them in a book.

– What was the most difficult – the copter launch or the landing?
– The landing, of course. During the launch we almost hit the flagpole. You launch in the shadow of the wind, near the sail, and then you fly out and the drone is immediately blown away. The ship is sailing at full throttle and it’s technically very difficult to catch up. The ship is also rocking hard. So it’s very difficult to synchronize the drone so it doesn’t crash into anyone.

– How long were you on the ship?
– About eight or nine days. We were coming from Amsterdam, from Den Helder. There was a big ship festival going on there. We left the festival on the Kruzenstern in a parade. I was supposed to film the parade myself, but because it was a NATO military base, we were not allowed to fly a drone, and the weather was not good. We left Den Helder, circumnavigated the entire North Sea and entered Copenhagen. The North Sea is very difficult to navigate. We were running away from the storm the whole time.

– How did you plan the shoot?
– I had two drones. If one went down, I had the second one – that was it(laughs). I would change the flash drives every time I landed and take off again so I would have some material already. When we saw it all on the computer, it was incredible. This year they are offering me to shoot the rest of the sailing ships. There is also the Sedov, there are ships that sail in the Pacific. I may be going there yet.

Story 2. Conquering Antarctica

– Tell us about your experience of traveling to Antarctica. How did it happen? It’s insanely expensive!
– I think that the best thing in life is to do what you love. Because then you get to do your job cool. When you do your work cool, people notice you, and after that they want to invite you to such unique projects. The only way to get on them is to be an oligarch. Because a trip to Antarctica costs at least 50 thousand dollars, and that’s without tickets. I’m not ready to pay that kind of money to go there. I went to Antarctica with the Mamont Cup. “Mamont” is a foundation that develops unusual adventures. After Antarctica I realized that there are real travelers, discoverers on earth. It would seem that everything has already been discovered, but there are things that no one has ever done. And here are such foundations that help to make new discoveries.

“Mammoth” every year organizes a trip somewhere. Two years ago I ended up with them as a drone operator. I am usually taken as a person who will take off with a drone where others would say that it is impossible to fly here. When conditions are very difficult: wind, sea, ocean, mountains. I was called back two years ago when there was a vacancy on a research vessel. Then I said that everything was fine, but it was December 22-26, I had New Year’s plans, and January was scheduled. I could not agree to a two-month expedition. Therefore, when they called me for the second time this year, I thought that it would be impossible to refuse Antarctica for the second time.

And I did. It’s impossible to realize where you were, it was more like space: in terms of feelings, sensations and remoteness. There are only a thousand people around you on a circle of 6000 kilometers.

– Do you often go on trips like this?
– There are trips where I am called as a photographer, somewhere as a drone operator. And other projects I have to organize myself. It’s much more interesting, but more complicated. First you get an idea where you want to go, then you assemble a team, find a whole team, sponsors, media support. It’s a lot of stress, but when you see that people are happy, companies are happy and you yourself are happy with your photos. And when you show it at exhibitions or in magazines, you see the result.

Story 3: A story with a sequel

– Which of your latest projects are you proud of?
– I have now started filming in Krasnaya Polyana. I really want to show this region as a diamond of Russia. A place where there is nature, surfing, snowboarding. But this story isn’t over yet. I am now organizing the next project. There are some very remote islands where I am going to go on a yacht, having assembled a team. Nine out of ten people there don’t even know it’s Russia. It’s the Far East, the Pacific Ocean. I want to try to work there. We have a team assembled, the only thing left to figure out is how and when we go, because it’s not safe and it’s not easy, you have to take everything into account. It’s storm season and we need a storm for the shot, but we also have to sail a boat for two days across the ocean to the filming location and back from there.

Watch the video on the official YouTube channel.

And a small project I did in October together with Pasha Vishnev. There is an amazing place, almost no one knew about it – the village of Konduki. In the mid-20th century, there was a quarry there, which was abandoned after the revolution because it was unprofitable to mine coal. They dug huge pits, which are now filled with blue water. It’s very beautiful there. What the locals dug out, they stacked into the mountains. They got sandy mountains of hard ground, blue lakes and golden fall trees in the background. Not a single person around. When we met the cameraman, we simultaneously told each other that it was so beautiful there, it was incomprehensible how to shoot it. The blue water, yellow trees and blue sky was just perfect. I hope to go back there again, because the prospects of the place, in terms of filming, are enormous.

It’s important to learn to dream

– When you started working as a photographer, did you initially think that everything would develop like this?
– I read some motivational books at school when I was a kid. It said it was important to dream. And my mom also told me that it’s important to do things you enjoy and it’s important to dream. When you find a dream, you grudgingly mentally go towards it. I must have written and drawn some of my dreams somewhere.

Recently, my mom found this in her house and wanted to show it to me. And my drawings matched one hundred percent.

Basically, I wanted to be a sports photographer since 10th grade. I loved snowboarding and accordingly wanted to shoot it. I wanted to travel. It used to be business trips from magazines, then from brands, now it’s some of my own projects. It’s evolving and it’s important for me to look for new ways. It’s important for me to tell stories, to get people into sports and into photography. I feel that by educating people or developing myself, I get the opportunity to move on and not stop. What that will translate into, I don’t know. What has it translated into now? In beautiful photos, beautiful emotions and in the fulfillment of my goal – to get people off their couches and go traveling, looking for adventure, doing sports, healthy lifestyle, traveling around Russia.

The crisis has given motivation to explore Russia, not to go to the Alps, to the States, but to find new places in our country.

The best camera is the one you have with you.

I’m often asked what to shoot with. It doesn’t matter if it’s a super expensive camera or not. The important thing is to take pictures, to get emotions and enjoyment. Some of the most important values in life that we can get here and now are adventure and traveling.

And while on an adventure, it’s hard not to take photos, so you have to get up and do. Get up and look for adventure, whether it’s in the city or at work. If there aren’t any, there is a certain fading away. It’s important to constantly be going somewhere. You have to find something you want to do and pursue it.

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