Gierlinksi says his award-winning image is a culmination of all the skills and experience he’s picked up during his career as a corporate and business photographer. We spoke with Gierlinski via email to talk about his approach to photography, his career, and how he captured the winning shot.

Format Magazine: Why did you choose that photo as your submission to the contest?

Filip Gierlinski: I have been developing a cinematic style of environmental portraiture over the past few years on my travels, and the shot of Embe is a culmination of that vision, practice, and development. It is really symbolic to me and my journey as a photographer.

In a way, it has taken me about 10 years to take that shot; learning my craft, getting the right kit, developing my own approach to portraits and building up my travel experience.

The creative vision is to have the subject backlit by the sun to add an edge light from behind, and shoot with a very wide aperture to blur the background. Exposing for the landscape leaves the subject as a silhouette, so I add the big fill-in flash and using high-speed sync I can achieve the desired aesthetic effect and still maintain balanced exposure by shooting on manual and at about 1/5000s - 1/8000s shutter speed and f1.4 - f1.8.

This was the highest profile industry awards I have submitted to and I wanted to put forward a shot that represented my whole ethos and reason why I do what I do.

I’d like to know more about the photo, can you talk about what was going on that day and how you got it?

The shot was taken in August 2017 in Western Mongolia. I was leading a photography tour for creative holiday company Frui, and the group was having a homestay experience with the local families.

Archery is a very important traditional activity, for hunting and celebrated as a national sport. The family was sharing their skills and we were relaxing and testing out shooting in the afternoon sun.

I had been doing some portraits, and when I saw Embe pick up the bow and gesture he wanted to play too, I immediately recognized a great photo opportunity. We had a local guide with us, and she suggested he run off to get his traditional smock, called a “deel,” so he would look his best.

My new kit consists of a high-speed sync battery flash with a large softbox so it creates a studio style flash set up, but it’s portable enough to be able to travel and drag it all to remote locations such as this. I had a specific shot and portrait style in mind, and after setting up the flash and framing the shot, I invited Embe to come and do his thing.

It took a few frames to get it right, and then we were good to go. He pulled at the string, and our guide held the end of the arrow so he was facing the right way. I directed them both a bit to get the shot I was after—shooting at f1.6 there’s not much room for focus error.

As he pulled and shot an arrow, it was a good photo, but nothing special. “Ok, this time Embe, really pull hard as you can, and shout!!”

We got into position again. He pulls, I focus, I shout, he shouts, I shout louder, he shouts louder and pulls even harder…and click, the tension, strength, energy and focus all comes together and I’ve got the perfect shot!