Making a living from landscape photography

Gunnar Freyr is part of a new generation of entrepreneurial landscape and nature photographers harnessing the power of the internet to build their business. Based in Reykjavik, Iceland, he has clients ranging from local companies such as Promote Iceland to international brands including Condé Nast Traveller and American Express.

Gunnar, who has more than 400,000 Instagram followers, took an unusual path on the way to his current career. Born in Denmark to Icelandic parents, he studied Business Administration at university and afterwards began working for a major auditing company. He bought his first DSLR in 2007, but for several years landscape photography was simply a hobby.

However, he soon realised a career in auditing was not what he wanted and made a radical change: he and his partner sold their possessions and bought a round-the-world ticket, subsequently settling in Iceland in 2015.

Since then, Gunnar has built a successful career travelling the world and photographing monumental scenery. He utilises a holistic business model with multiple income streams and leverages his large social media presence, something not available to landscape photographers of the past, who were more likely to be dependent on web and print sales. Here, Gunnar discusses how to make a living from landscape photography in the digital age.

Hear more about how photographers can harness the power of social media in this episode of Canon's Shutter Stories podcast:

Since then, his main income source has been commissioned photography work, either one-off projects or retainers, obtained primarily thanks to his website and social media accounts. "I've developed really good relationships with clients and we've mostly had long-term collaborations, which has been financially great, with job security and income safety," Gunnar says. "I also do visual strategy or social media strategy work, which is a mixture of photography and strategy."

Gunnar doesn't rely on just one revenue source; he has several other income streams. He has had some success selling prints and also runs photography workshops, with Gunnar's social media presence driving people to seek to learn from him in person. He has also done some destination wedding and elopement photography. "It's very demanding and has a high degree of responsibility, but it pays well," he says. "If you specialise in that work, you can make a really good business out of it."

Landscape photography has evolved in style and content over the past decade or so and is now less about technical perfection and more about a photographer's particular style and creative vision. For Gunnar, it's not so much about how the landscapes look, but how they make people feel and the messages they can convey.

"It has been very easy to see the changes here in Iceland because it's such a small community," he says. "I would say there was a generational change, starting about 10 years ago. Here in Iceland, there were many photographers whose work was contrasty, saturated and technically perfect. That's changed in a much more creative direction, and landscape photography is now much more soft and dreamy than it was before."

This new way of shooting landscapes is popular with Gunnar's audience. "For years I have received positive feedback and compliments from people about my style of photography, in terms of framing and composition, overall aesthetics and photo editing," he says. "Many of my Iceland images have attracted people to come here, wanting to capture 'that photo'."

He believes the change is partly driven by new camera technology. "The pro cameras have become much easier to use with features such as improved autofocus, auto exposure, high ISO performance and wider dynamic range," Gunnar says. "So maybe it's a different crowd that is able to flourish now – less technically driven and more creatively driven."

His main camera is the Canon EOS R5. "It's by far the best camera I've used in my life," Gunnar says. "It's amazing at both photos and video. The Eye Detection AF is really great, and I've got some razor-sharp photos of Arctic foxes up close that are really hard to get because they move unpredictably and fast. The overall image quality is really excellent." His second camera is a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, and it has served him well over the years: he has shot more than 300,000 photos with it.

One of Gunnar's main lenses is the Canon RF 24-70MM F2.8L IS USM. It's the one lens he says he couldn't do without in his work. "It's like a multipurpose tool because it can do so many things in landscape photography – wide scenes and close-ups of details, as well as portraits," he says.

"Usually, I have that lens on the Canon EOS R5 and the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM on the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. That's also a very versatile lens and, using it, I'm ready for almost anything – for example, if I'm in the field and some reindeer appear out of nowhere. I also carry the Canon RF 50mm F1.2L USM, which is very sharp and has so little distortion it's unbelievable."

The 5-axis in-body IS in his Canon EOS R5, combined with the image stabilisation in his RF lenses, gives Gunnar lots of flexibility while out on a shoot. "I'm definitely not a tripod person, so it's a big advantage," he says. "I feel the tripod gets in the way more than it helps, except for specific things like shooting the Northern Lights and astrophotography, or some interiors in poor lighting. The Canon EOS R5 is great for handheld shooting because you can move around really fast with it and get a steady photo and a sharp picture."

Gunnar says his website and social media accounts are crucial to his success, gaining him many of the commissions that make up the bulk of his livelihood. "Social media is super important and 99% of the work I do today is because of my Instagram account," he says.

"In the past, people would drive their business through the website first, but to a much bigger extent now, I use social media to direct attention to my website. It's very hard to reach people with your website, but you can do that with your social channels and then direct them to your website and show a much broader range of work."

While social media brings great advantages for photographers, really growing your account means making social media part of your lifestyle. "You have to see it as a job – it's very time-consuming, and you really have to invest a lot of yourself into it," Gunnar continues. "You need to enjoy it and find it exciting to be able to build your audience.

"A lot of people think of social media as being just platforms for posting work, but keeping your eye on the social part and connecting with your community is so important. To grow your account, you need to be active all the time. If you don't post, you just bleed followers.

"Instagram, for example, favours people who take full advantage of the platform. You have to use all the features, such as Instagram Highlights, Reels and Stories. If you use everything the platform has to offer, you'll do better than if you're just focusing on posting photos. The more you do, the more people will come to your profile."