How long have you been doing photography? I have been shooting steady for about two years. I remember attending one of the workshops in LA for the first time just to have a slight idea. However photography, especially black and white, always fascinated me since my childhood when I was assisting my father and working in his dark room. I was always interested in art. After graduating from Art School years ago, I started painting, drawing, wood carving etc. But one day something changed and I realized what I was missing and what made my heart race. So I started to shoot. So in the past two years of your photography journey, what elements did you enjoy the most? What did you dislike (if any) the most? I definitely loved meeting so many talented people whom I learned so much from as well. I also experimented a lot with black and white and absolutely can say it’s my favorite! I can’t think of anything I disliked. Everything is a part of the learning process. Negative experiences were as appreciated as the good ones. How has the photography industry been changing over the course of the last few years? Have you found yourself adapting to the ever changing environment? Interesting question. It all changes constantly: from tricks and means, to styles and looks. There are more fancy tools, for example. I started shooting in a digital world but I still love using my 40 year old Mamiya. Emotions that film brings can never be replaced digitally if that makes any sense. As for me, I prefer one bag of equipment and a right attitude. That’s all I need. What factors have helped you grow as a photographer the most in your mind? Constant self-education is very important to me especially when certain aspects of the industry change so quickly. I love to study light especially natural lighting. I love to practice bringing more story, more emotions out from a simple photograph. Most of the time I get an idea or vision in my mind right before I start falling asleep and then good luck having a good night’s rest but I love it. Also, studying work of the greatest photographers helps me concentrate on something that I need to improve in my work. To be honest I don’t think I can fully answer this question. I just feel something about this that I cannot put in writing. So how do you exactly “study” lighting? Or study the work of other great photographers? Experimenting with lighting is fun and at times a bit frustrating (still way more fun though). It’s amazing to see how the mood changes with a slight change of the lighting (or even natural light and its cold or warm tones), whether you want to add dramatic mood with dark shadows or make it light and soft with a well-lit subject. I definitely am still learning different techniques and actual equipment (as I mentioned before, I’m more of a one bag shooter; simple sets are more fun for me but I definitely expending my horizons with each shoot).
Can you tell me a bit about your favorite story/spread that you’ve done? What do you like about it? I fully enjoy almost all of my shoots but the one that was something I have never done and was super exciting was my floating living room shoot a.k.a. Through the Spy Glass with very talented Amanda Jones. A friend of mine, Colter, let me use his cool “boat” and tremendously helped me navigating around it in the middle of the lake and shooting Amanda from different angles. Even the ducks were having fun getting very close to her. After we were done, our boat died so the living room towed us back to the land. It was a lot of fun, especially when you have such a great team and a sunny day.
“I prefer one bag of equipment and a right attitude. That’s all I need.”