Beginning
I got into photography when I was about 15. I was taking photos with a tiny compact camera of flowers, bees, spiders, basically anything that I found interesting on the balcony of my parent's apartment. I was like a child with his new favorite toy. A few months later, my brother got a ''semi-professional'' digital camera, and seeing how keen I was playing with the tiny camera, he started showing me how I can control different settings, use manual mode, what is RAW, you get the gist. This much information can be overwhelming to some people, as all they want to do is press a button and take a picture. On the contrary, for me, the technical side of photography and all the geeky stuff were the things that initially really got me into it, so with a quite fond interest, I started wrapping my head around it.
Experimenting
At the time I was still quite serious about Parkour and Freerunning, so I wanted to have a camera that will help me take better photos and make higher quality videos for a sort of a showreel that we were doing at the time. So in 2010, I got my first DSLR. It was an entry-level DSLR with a kit lens, but my knowledge about DSLR's and lenses was pretty scarce at the time, so everything was like witchcraft to me. I quite liked it as it was challenging and more and more I realized that getting a good shot was more about the way I shoot rather than what equipment you have (equipment still matters don't get me wrong). At the same time, I was getting myself around Photoshop, Lightroom and other post-processing software, so it became a little bit overwhelming, so there was a lot of experimenting going out as you can imagine. At one point the majority of photos I was taking were mostly landscapes, so there was this shift in the way and what I was taking pictures of. Everything at that point became about getting out there and capturing the sunset and the blue hour that followed shortly after. I realized after a while that the focus on post-processing became more than just going out and taking photos. There was a lack of passion and motivation when I was out in the field, which made me quite unhappy with my photography.
Moving away
After graduating from high school in 2013, I moved to the UK after being accepted to university. In the first year, I was focusing on studying and adapting to this whole new environment for me, as it is different moving rather than travel to a place regardless of how amazing this place can be. After the first year of university, I also started working. At that time, I was balancing 50-60 hours at work as a bartender and the same amount at uni every week. That continued pretty much until I finished university, so my first three years in the UK threw a spanner in the works quite a bit when it came to photography. Shortly after university, I had an opportunity to take a whole month off work, so I made the bold choice to travel to Europe. I contacted friends in a few places that I knew and asked them if I can crash for a day or two, bought the cheapest tickets I could find, and I set off. What can I say, visited so many new places, seen friends that I haven't seen in ages, but also I was taking so many pictures, and all I had with me was a phone. I was like a dog in the park, running around and taking pictures. A few months later, I planned a trip to Iceland. It sounds cliché, but since I was a kid, I've dreamt of going there because I've heard that it's so epic and magical and I've even haven't seen pictures of the place. I was quite excited to dust off the camera and take it with me this time, as I was so positive after my trip a few months prior. Iceland, in short, it blew my mind. It felt like I was on a different planet. The pictures I took weren't anything special, but I didn't care at the time as my passion and motivation for photography were stronger than ever before.
Recent years
I started being more critical when it came to my photography, so I started paying more and more attention to composition and light when going out, instead of going somewhere, regardless of conditions and point the camera and take a photo. The work of Thomas Heaton, Evgeni Dinev, and Adam Gibbs, to name a few, have helped me a lot when it comes to composition, detail, light, and their minimalistic, but at the same time expressive approach to landscape photography. While not being able to travel, I started getting into street photography quite influenced by Sean Tucker and Nick Carver. It was a completely different ball game. It felt a little bit uncomfortable but in a good way. Street photography helped me quite a lot with understanding light, which I incorporated and helped me massively with my landscape photography. There is much more experimenting in my photography at the moment compared to previous years, but it's targeted in one area rather than being all over the place, which brings me to the never-ending grind to push myself and improve my photography regardless of where I am.
