This Uplifting Video Resonates With All Landscape Photographers

Filmed and edited by Nejc Miljak, “Before You Wake Up” is a short production that casts a strong motivating monologue aimed at landscape photographers around the world. Alongside its message, the video portrays an awe-inspiring adventure into nature as photographer Janez Tolar captures images sunrise to sunset. The combination of these makes this semi-ethereal video too good to pass up sharing.

So many of the poetic lines in “Before You Wake Up” ring true, at least for me. I’m impressed with the way Tolar’s speech was able to hit so many of these intangible points on what makes landscape photography so wonderful, because they aren’t always easy to verbalize. Most of us shoot landscape "because we want pretty pictures," but we all know there is something deeper at play happening at the same time. If you've ever spent a day searching for quality photos and came back empty-handed, yet still felt overall successful in a strange way, then I think you know what I mean.

To check out more of Miljak’s work, you can find him on Vimeo and Instagram. Credit is also due to the fine work done by Director of Photography Anze Osterman.

Ryan Mense's picture

Ryan Mense is a wildlife cameraperson specializing in birds. Alongside gear reviews and news, Ryan heads selection for the Fstoppers Photo of the Day.

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18 Comments

Incredibly beautiful! I love living in Minnesota for the food and the people but the landscape is so flat and boring. Any other states wanna let us borrow your mountains for a few months?

Lol! This comment made my day!

I lived in Minnesota for 26 years. I've been in Florida now for ten years. Every time I go back to Minnesota I'm in complete awe just by looking around at the landscapes and rolling hills. Sure, there are no real "mountains" there until you go farther northeast for bigger "hills" but I still see Minnesota as an absolutely beautiful state.

I hear ya but after heading out west a few times and seeing real mountains and gigantic trees, I've grown envious of more dramatic landscapes. In Minnesota you can get some rolling hills but I would even say those are more synonymous with being "close to Wisconsin". The north shore and BWCA are are about the only thing that I enjoy to look at here... and that's not a day trip from Minneapolis.

Really beautiful video! My only critique is the voice over felt kind of out of place. And that may be due to the fact that the actual voice sounds kind of artificial. Perhaps it's just me though...

There were a couple comments on Vimeo that said something similar. I guess I just don't see it. It sounds like a live poetry reading which I liked. With the message being said, I think it's fine they were cautious with not going too far overenthusiastic in order to avoid coming across corny.

I agree. I think it's a combo of the audio mix (music was too loud behind the narration), and the voice itself -- not everyone has a great narrative voice, and sometimes it pays to hire voice talent for this kind of thing.

Where was this filmed?

I'm inclined to say Slovenia since that's where Nejc and Janez are from.

Yes it is Slovenia ... try to hit "Mangartsko sedlo" in to the google

what bag was he using?

I would have just played the music and left the narration out of it. I think there is way too much of a desire today to explain things instead of letting videos, shows, movies speak for themselves.

Still also surprised to see some people still using graduated filters.

Nice scenery. Thanks for posting.

Such a beautifully shot and edit video. I don't do much landscape photography but it might a have to be a challenge I take on this year. I can image it to be such a relaxing experience.

Reminds me of this video I shot a while back: https://vimeo.com/69925068

Incredibly true! I don't get to do quite the same type of adventuring in such beautiful places, but I always spend my days off climbing out of bed long before the sun rises and exploring where ever I happen to be and hoping to capture the beauty that's unique to that particular spot. Even if I come back empty handed, as mentioned in the article, I feel a sense of success.... sort of a zen-like feeling as if I've achieved something that many will never begin to understand.

It looks beautifull ... but still looks more like advert from sony

Awesome. I love the idea of this video. Agree on the voice over. It just made it a little cheesy. But nicely done otherwise.