Erik Almås was commissioned for the assignment of a lifetime. To transport the viewer to another place, somewhere on a vacation of their dreams… From New Zealand, Argentina, Rome, and beyond, Erik logged over 200 days of travel and the result was this truly extraordinary campaign. Working with Y&R, Erik visited 10 countries on 5 continents for this campaign from Crystal Cruises.

To read more about this dream assignment and what went into making these amazing images, check out Erik’s blog.

“Among all the adventures I had in creating this campaign for Crystal, the one capturing this moment in New Zealand stands tall as the most extraordinary experience. During our travels into New Zealand, the forecast had turned for the worse and when we arrived, our helicopter was grounded because of weather. We arrived in Queenstown to massive rains and at this point, we were running out of time. On that last day, we woke to a stunning morning and I boarded the helicopter with a big sense of relief.

During our 90 minute helicopter ride, however, the clouds started rolling in again, pushed forward by the next storm. As the pilot let me down on the ground, the sky had clouded over with snow flurries in the air, but just as I stepped to the edge of the cliff the skies parted and the sun came through, creating what might be the most extraordinary moment I have had as a photographer.

The light and the drama unfolding over the next 20 minutes was just extraordinary. All the travel, waiting, and anticipation were worth it when standing among these lakes and mountains watching the sun trailing in and out of the clouds. It quickly turned into dark clouds and the sun disappeared. But, those moments were all we needed and we were off to make our plane to Argentina.”

– Erik Almas

Some behind the scenes from Erik’s studio shoots: