Mastering the Light: OM SYSTEM Ambassador Matt Suess on the Art of the All-Day Landscape

BOZEMAN, Montana — In the world of landscape photography, the traditional rhythm of the craft is rigidly defined by two fleeting moments: the golden warmth of sunrise and the fiery conclusion of sunset. For decades, practitioners of the genre have treated the hours in between as dead time—periods reserved exclusively for driving, scouting, or resting.

However, professional landscape photographer and OM SYSTEM Ambassador Matt Suess argues that this conventional approach leaves some of the most compelling visual narratives on the table.

Drawing on a 17-year background as a hard-hitting newspaper photojournalist, Suess has popularized a demanding yet deeply rewarding creative exercise: the dawn-to-dusk single-location challenge. By committing to a solitary spot from the deepest hours of pre-dawn blue hour, through the unforgiving glare of midday, and back out into the mysteries of night photography, Suess forces himself—and the workshop participants he guides in locations like Grand Teton and Badlands National Parks—to confront conditions that most photographers actively avoid.

Main Facts: Redefining Landscape Photography Through Endurance

The core thesis of Suess’s methodology is simple: time is the one variable in photography that cannot be compromised. While modern gear trends lean heavily toward speed, convenience, and automation, Suess emphasizes that true creative growth stems from deep, uninterrupted immersion in a single environment.

• The Core Premise: Spend an entire day—from dark to dark—in one specific geographic location.
• The Philosophy: Reject the "sunrise-and-sunset-only" mindset to discover how shifting atmospheric conditions, variable weather, and passing shadows transform a single landscape over 12 to 18 hours.
• The Gear Ecosystem: Utilizing the weather-sealed, highly portable OM SYSTEM OM-5 Mark II kit alongside versatile optics like the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-100mm F4.0 IS PRO, Suess proves that traveling light leaves maximum physical capacity for safety gear, warm layers, and sustained endurance.
• The Commercial Context: This documentary-style exploration is brought to light through a partnership with OM SYSTEM, aligning with recent visual showcases such as the PetaPixel Films documentary chronicling Suess’s expeditions through Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness.

Chronology of a Full-Day Shoot: From Pre-Dawn to Deep Night

To understand Suess’s approach, one must follow the chronological arc of his shooting days. Far from a static routine, a full-day session unfolds in distinct chapters, each demanding a specialized technical and creative response.

Phase 1: Pre-Dawn and the Blue Hour

Long before the sun breaches the horizon, Suess is on location. Working in the low-contrast, monochromatic blues of the early morning requires a shift away from relying on saturated colors and high-contrast drama.

• The Technique: Suess forces himself to look at the scene with his naked eyes before looking through the viewfinder, identifying organic leading lines created by textures, tones, and subtle foreground details.
• The Stabilization Advantage: Utilizing the OM-5 Mark II’s class-leading image stabilization—capable of up to 6.5 stops of compensation—Suess can forgo a tripod during long hikes in the dark, capturing crisp handheld shots under extreme low-light conditions.

Phase 2: Sunrise and the "Three-Shot Story"

When the sun finally rises, the dynamic range explodes, and colors shift rapidly within minutes. Borrowing from his newspaper days covering breaking news, Suess applies a narrative framework to his frames.

• The Narrative Arc: He initiates a sequence by shooting wide to establish the environmental context, moves to a medium frame to capture middle-ground action (such as mist rising or wildlife moving), and finishes with a telephoto detail shot.
• Computational Photography: For static scenes, he leverages High Res Shot mode to merge multiple exposures into a massive, highly detailed file suitable for gallery-grade prints.

Phase 3: The Midday Challenge and Variable Weather

When the midday sun beats down vertically, creating harsh shadows that send amateur photographers packing, Suess leans into the complexity.

• Weather Selection: Suess deliberately plans his shoots around variable, stormy weather forecasts rather than cloudless, bluebird skies. Spotty sunlight breaking through storm clouds provides dynamic, shifting highlights across vistas like the Grand Canyon or Norwegian coastlines.
• Art Filters in Practice: When natural light fails, Suess turns to the OM-5 Mark II’s built-in ART filters (such as grainy black-and-white, pinhole, and bleach bypass modes). By recording simultaneous RAW and JPEG files, he preserves the safety of a clean color digital negative while instantly exploring gritty, high-contrast monochrome concepts straight out of the camera.

Phase 4: The Reverse Day and Evening Magic

As afternoon yields to evening, the thermal dynamics shift. Unlike the damp, misty, earthier moods of morning blue hour, evening light is often clearer and drier.

• Extended Color Windows: Suess notes that intense atmospheric colors frequently peak up to 30 minutes after the official sunset. Photographers who pack up immediately miss this phenomenon entirely.

Phase 5: Astrophotography and Live Composite

As true darkness sets in, the day concludes with astrophotography, star trails, or light painting.

• Computational Brilliance: Suess relies heavily on the OM-5 Mark II’s Live Composite mode, which continuously exposes a base background while intelligently adding only newly introduced light sources—such as passing car headlights, lightning strikes, or rotating star trails—preventing the overall image from blowing out.

Supporting Data and Technical Specifications

Suess’s minimalist gear choices are heavily dictated by physical ergonomics, safety considerations, and optical reliability in rugged back-country environments.

Official Responses and Industry Insights

Reflecting on his transition from daily journalism to fine art landscape education, Suess emphasizes that the ultimate goal of his workshops is psychological rather than purely technical.

"Most landscape photographers plan their days around sunrise and sunset," Suess remarks in interviews with industry media. "The rest of the day is drive time, scouting, or sleep… If you have a full day, pick one place and stay there from before sunrise until after dark. It puts you in light conditions you may not have worked with before, and that’s the point."

By refusing to compromise on time, Suess challenges the instant-gratification culture prevalent in modern digital photography. He stresses that coming home without a portfolio-worthy masterpiece is never a failure, provided the exercise yields deeper self-awareness regarding how one observes and interprets the natural world.

Implications for the Modern Landscape Photographer

The philosophies championed by Matt Suess and supported by OM SYSTEM carry profound implications for the future of outdoor photography:

1. Combating Gear Saturation: In an era where photographers constantly feel pressured to upgrade to heavier, more expensive full-frame kits and massive lens lineups, Suess demonstrates that a lightweight, weather-sealed Micro Four Thirds system enables greater physical endurance, deeper exploration, and superior safety preparedness.
2. Mental Resilience Over Instant Results: The all-day challenge forces creatives to push past the frustration of bad lighting, teaching them how to find micro-compositions—such as wildflowers under forest canopies or textural details in cracked desert earth—when grand vistas fail to deliver.
3. Redefining Success: Ultimately, Suess’s framework shifts the metric of a successful photography excursion away from social media metrics or commercial viability, returning it to its purest root: a profound, patient, and uninterrupted appreciation of the natural world.