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Tell us about your first introduction to photography. What drew you into this world？
I was still in primary school when I got my hands on one of the first digital cameras for the first time (a friend of my brother lent it to us for a day). It truly surprised me that the picture could be viewed immediately. But I bought my first digital camera a lot later in life (in 2011). I didn’t know anything about photography but set a goal to try everything there was (landscapes, portraits, wildlife, timelapse, night photography, etc). In that first year, I took more than 30,000 pictures and quickly sold the camera to upgrade to a better one.
Do you remember your first shot? What was it?
It was probably a portrait of my brother since the reason why we borrowed the camera was to take a portrait photo of him. But the first photos with my own camera were of Miami Beach from my balcony (ocean and palm trees).
What kind of photography type do you focus more attention on? Which one(s)?
I love to do landscape and wildlife photography the most, especially when traveling to amazing places. However, since I have the YouTube channel, I do a lot of product, portrait, and street/travel photography too.
Who or what influenced you?
Other photographers are a great inspiration to me. I look at their photos and think – how could they do it? It is a great way for me to get better and try new things.
What details do you believe make the best photographs?
I recently heard the saying “It is not what you include in the photo but what you leave out”. It goes the same with “less is more”. Photos that are full of elements, oversaturated, overedited, and “overcrowded” rarely make for a good photo. Instead, I have found that my best photos are more minimalistic where the subject is clearly visible, so I try to capture less in photos and I think that those left-out details make the best photos.
How do you educate yourself to take better photos?
YouTube for me personally is a great place to learn. Also simply exposing yourself to great photographer work and analyzing them gives you a lot. And don’t underestimate going shooting with your friend. Everyone has their own view of photos and you can learn so much by just being next to someone and taking seemingly “the same” photo.
What was the best piece of advice you were given starting out?
“Go out and shoot as much and as often you can” – I heard it a very long time ago, but didn’t really know the importance of it since I didn’t really feel the improvement day over day, however it truly is the best advice since when I look back at the photos I took 5 years ago – I see an enormous improvement. So go out, shoot as much and as often as you can, but most importantly, don’t be afraid to experiment, try new things and go out in all sorts of weather conditions.
You are known for photographing landscape photography? What draws your initial interest in a place?
In landscape photography I try to capture the mood, feeling and emotions more than the landscape itself. The location of course is important, however, I search for places that enable viewers feelings, even if they are abstract like freedom, hope, relief.
What equipment do you use?
I started off with Canon but for the last 6 years have been shooting Sony mirrorless cameras (Sony A7IV, A6400 and A6000). I also have quite a large lens collection consisting of full frame and APS-C lenses from Sony, Zeiss, Sigma and Viltrox, although I wish to sell most of my lenses and have a more minimal setup with only the highest quality lenses that I use the most.
Do you spend a lot of time editing your work? Why?
Most of the time, yes. Since I shoot in RAW, the photo comes out rather flat and I want to recreate the feeling I had when I took the photo. I try to do it through colors, mood, warmth of the image etc. I usually create a multiple image collage to tell the story and pass the feeling even more clearly which always takes more time than just editing one photo. But it is worth it.
