How did you know photography. Tell us from the beginning.
I made some home movies when I was little about me being chased by dinosaurs…
Then eventually our family got a digital camera point and shoot when I
was older. Then I shot some local bands for a bit and eventually got bigger clients,
better equipment and more money!

What interesting for you about
photography?
It makes me responsible for capturing
a person and presenting them in one
frame.

What makes you love travel photography?
Eating all the peanuts on the flights to
the locations.

When shooting travel photography.
What do you want to
achieved or must be achieved?
I am not looking so much for a photojournalistic
image, I am looking for a
dignified portrait. The same thought
process goes to a subject in a travel
portrait as a commercial portrait. I do
not believe in separating style based
on the subject.

In both technical & non technical
aspect, what is the most
important thing on doing travel
photography.
Putting the technical things at the
back of your head only, so you may use
them but are not distracted by them…
and of course making a portrait with
dignity.

On Non photography aspect,
what should people learn or pay
attention more to be a good
travel photographer.
Learn the story of their subject, what
they believe in, or at least something
small about them.

What triggering you to create a
picture?
It is the thing that fuels my journeys,
without photography I would not be
pushed to meet the interesting people
I do, or see the beautiful places I see. I
am very blessed to have the opportunities
I have.

When photography are growing
faster. So many photographer
have an identically the same
style & character. What should
a photographer do to get still
unique & distinct?
It is very important to first spend some
time viewing work, learning technicalities,
and learning but it is also just as
important to forget all about other
people’s photography, and ignore the
industry of it completely. When you do
this, you can take a picture more honest
to your vision.

You also shoot commercial &
portraiture. What’s interesting
about those two?
A new challenge every shoot.

Which one do you like doing it
most, travel photography, commercial
photography or portraiture?
Why?
I like my personal work better because I
have more control over my subjects.

What kind of photo deserved
labeled as a good photo?
A good photo is an image that makes
another photographer jealous of
course!

Share us some practical tips on
making a good photos.
Make a lot of mistakes and experiment
with everything you can.

Not many young photographer
or even they who older than you
have better capability and confidence
on photography. Share us
some tips to at least be better on
those aspect.
I think the best and most successful
photographers are always confident
but also trustworthy. If someone
doesn’t trust you, they will not be able
to make a good photo with you and
the quality will suffer because of it. A
good photographer takes time out of
shooting, and adds time into investigating.

payday loan

How to do such a photo? It’s a mixture
of Hollywood-like techniques – and
simple tricks. First, we built an almost(!)
exact miniature model of the island.
A perfect reproduction would have
turned it into a “find the 10 differences”
picture … not what I had in mind! We
spent nine days working on the model
of the rocks. It is made by Styrofoam
and is coated with cement.

As I couldn’t find any
cedar trees like the ones
in the original, I took pictures
of some poplars and
“cedared” them with the
aid of image processing.

In the original, a boat is
moving towards the island,
so my idea was for
a balloon-selling page
– and who better for the
role than Markus? – to
be sailing away from the
island. The only hitch
was finding a suitable
wooden boat, because
here we have only glassfiber
boats. I was lucky – I
found one in a souvenir
shop, a little model of
30cm.

Finding a merry-go-round was the next
challenge. I spent ages searching for
something suitable, and finally found
one in Paris. However, once it was
edited into the picture I realised that
it was far too pompous and practically
eclipsed the other elements. I
finally found what I was looking for at
a historical fair: a small, cosy, steamdriven
merry-go-round. Perfect! I had
to improve that photo a lot, see the
difference:
My brother
Markus is a
real entertainer,
so he
was perfect
as the balloon
page.

Now the photo was nearly finished, but I needed the reflection of the entire scene
in the water! We have software for producing this effect, but it is not good enough
for my needs. And here comes a very simple tool, to get the perfect reflection in
the water: my refrigerator! Most of the refrigerators have a sheet of “ribbled” glass
in the bottom (how is yours?).

I put this sheet of glass on a black paper in front of my monitor (if you try this,
take care of not damaging the monitor screen!). The “Island of the Death” scene
reflected perfectly in the sheet of glass. I only had to photograph it with a high
f-stop (f22, because it is a macro shot and I wanted to have everything sharp).
I love those simple tricks!
Let there be Light!

Share us some tips on how to
discover our distinct personal
style in our work.
This is probably the question I cannot
answer for you. If you are doing any
form of art whole-heartedly over a long
period of time, you are actually doing
a study about yourself. It is a journey
of discovering who you really are in
person, the deepest, unseen fragments
of yourself.
When you have a body of work in
which people can recognize you
through, you’ve successfully formulated
your style. So keep on doing
your art and reflect back on your own
work continuously. It is a journey and it
won’t happen overnight.

Share with us also the mindset &
habits that we should have to be
up to date to the current trend.
(I don’t quite understand this question)
Look at other photographers work and
study them carefully. Question them
why, why and why? Why are they good
or why are they not good?
Find a few artists whose work inspires
you the most and move towards that
direction.
Now I’m not talking about the work of
Joe the photographer from around the
corner here. You should be looking at
world’s best photographers’ work to
inspire you. Aim high and it is okay to
be a little bit ambitious, because that’s
what will take you far.

What words describe your work
best?
If I can only choose one word, it would
be the word ‘sultry’.
Sure I have made many non-feminine
images but I always tend to fall back
to my own nature – soft, feminine, and
sultry.

In your opinion, what makes a
great fashion photographer?
If we look back, the iconic fashion
photographers have always been those
who can reflect and respond to the
social issue happening in their era. And
they dare to respond to that controversially.
Helmut Newton is one good
example for this. And we have photographers
like Steven Meisel and David
Lachapelle in our time now.

And whats the definition of
“great image” for you?
Oh wow, it’s like asking what is the definition
of delicious food! Everyone will
have different opinions about this.
But art is about self-expression and it
is something that comes from inside
the creator’s feeling. So it works on a
personal level. Hence, in my opinion,
a piece of art is great when it is able to
evoke the emotion of the viewer.
This applies to photography. If you can
create an image that can evoke the
emotion of the viewer, whether it is
love, sadness, grief, awe, or even anger
or whatever it may be, you have made
a great image. And an image with emotional
level impact like that will not be
forgotten easily.
A great image has to work on a deeper
level than just being ‘eye candy’, like a
postcard photo that you will forget in
no time at all.

Could you share with us, beginners,
how to learn photography
effectively?
I think when you start learning photography
there are a few things that
you have to do. You have to start by
learning the basic camera operations
like shutter speed, aperture, white
balance, ISO, etc. You really need to
get very familiar with these. Also, learn
about what different focal length of the
lens have different effects on your image.
And finally and most importantly,
learn how to use artificial light sources,
flashes and tungsten.
This is photography not cameragraphy,
so please stop wasting time arguing
about which camera is the best and
which lens is the sharpest. Many photographers
spend way too much time
discussing about their equipment. My
advice is, to buy the equipment that
you can afford and get over it and start
shooting. Working professional photographers
treat their cameras as a tool
to create their work, just like a painter
uses a brush to paint.
After you pass that basic stage, you
need to learn how to make striking
images more than just correctly exposed
or correctly composed. This is the
stage where you have to think a lot and
prepare a lot before you shoot. Learn
about colours, learn about light, and
most importantly learn about making
conceptual images.
And the last stage, which I have discussed
before, is finding your work style.
This won’t happen overnight and will
take many years on the field to develop.

What brought you to do photography?
Could you share with us
a little bit of your background
story?
My passion for the creative world started
when I was very young. Of course, at
that time, I didn’t know anything about
photography. Our family had one camera
and it was this beautiful vintage
Voightlander. At the age of about 4, I
broke that camera into small pieces.
Obviously after that I was grounded;
not allowed to touch another camera
(hahahaha), at least not until I was old
enough to learn.
I liked drawing a lot when I was
younger and in particular, drawing
female figure. I know most kids love to
draw, however I was much more obsessed
with it than the other kids were.
I hardly paid any attention in class; I
just drew and drew and drew. Which
obviously got me into trouble many
times with the teachers. (hahahaha).
So, suffice to say I have always loved
and admired the female figure since an
early age.
My dad started teaching me how
to use a camera correctly when I
was about ten. It was a 1978 Canon
Rangefinder. This time I didn’t break it
into pieces and I started learning what
aperture was and what shutter speed
was, etc. But unfortunately, the cost of
buying films and developing them was
too expensive and so I had to stop.
In 2003, I finally bought my first camera.

It was this plastic low-end 35mm
SLR but it was enough to make me
feel over-the-moon. I bought a bunch
of expired films and soon after that I
couldn’t stop snapping almost anything
and everything. But at that time
I didn’t know that it was a start of a
brand new exciting journey in my life.
How did you learn photography?
Did you have a formal education
in photography?
Yes, I decided to take the full plunge
into photography in 2006 and I completed
a ‘Bachelor of Art in Photography’
degree at RMIT University, Australia.
It was here that I went from being
a “weekend warrior” to a professional
photographer.

What is it about fashion photography
that fascinates you?
In one word, women.
As I’ve explained before, since I was
very young I have always been attracted
to women and admired their beauty
and complexity. So I guess I’m doing
fashion photography because it is what
my personality responds to.
Fashion photography is the closest
sibling to movie making. This is one
genre of photography where you can
go pretty crazy with your ideas. One
thing that fashion photography is not
about, is documenting reality. Fashion
photography is never about reality.
It is about fantasy and story telling.
Very much like building a script for a
fictional movie.
You build your concept, create the
characters and put them into a set, and
then you direct the shoot. So you are
creating images – not documenting
reality. And that’s what fashion photography
is all about.
And that is exactly why I love fashion
photography; the dynamic nature of
it. There is always something new for
every photo shoot. Developing new
concepts, going to new places, new
challenges and meeting new and
exciting people. I just can’t ask for any
better job.

Fashion photography seems to
be the choice of many young
photographers nowadays. Could
you share some thoughts on this?
There are many reasons for this I think.
There is a general perception that
fashion photography is the “coolest”
genre in photography. People think
that being a fashion photographer is
so glamorous and you get to hang out
with beautiful girls all the time.
When you tell people that you are a still
life photographer for example, they will
respond “ahhhh okay” (with a bland
looking expression) but if you say
that you are a fashion photographer,
suddenly people’s reactions change to
“wow”. I think this perception is really
distorted because I believe fashion
photography is no more or less difficult
compared to any other genre. But I will
let you have your own opinion on that.
The problem now is that there are so
many other “fashion photographers”
out there who are doing it for the
wrong reasons. What they are doing is
actually very degrading. They just want
to shoot partially or fully nude girls and
basically take advantage of them.

Like what I mentioned before,
there are a lot more fashion photographers
out there nowadays.
Do you think in general their
quality is growing as fast as their
number?
I don’t believe I am in a position to generalize
and judge the quality of other
young fashion photographers out
there. But just like anything else, there
is a hierarchy that goes like a pyramid.
The quality photographers become
fewer and fewer as it gets closer to the
top.

When you are shooting fashion,
what are your goals? What do
you want to achieve and why?
It depends on the project, I suppose.
But in general, a successful shoot for
me is when every component of the
shoot falls right into place. They have
to feel right and “believable”, not forced
nor over-the-top. It has to have this
feeling of elegance.
First the concept has to be striking, the
photography technique used has to
be appropriate for the concept (more
complicated doesn’t mean its going to
be better), the styling has to be great,
makeup has to be neat and flawless,
and the model has to make the audience
believe that she is the character
we are trying to portray.
After the shoot, my team and myself
will look closely at the images. If they
strike us, it means we have exceeded
our own expectation. And hence, it is
successful. So we use a lot of “feeling”
here. After all, it’s not something we
can measure.
And obviously, a successful shoot also
means it has to exceed the client’s
expectation.

Tell us what is the most difficult
part you normally encounter
when conducting a fashion shoot?
Being a fashion photographer is like
being a captain of a ship with a large
crew. It is a big responsibility to carry.
There are a lot of decisions to make
that will eventually determine the success
of the photo shoot.
I am faced with various options and I
have to make decisions all throughout
the process. Whether it is in the
pre-production stage, when shooting,
or when post-producing the images.
And when a huge amount of money is
at stake, making a wrong decision can
be disastrous. And fashion shoots are
almost always very expensive to run.
So failure is really not an option. The
pressure is high.
So I guess the most difficult part of
being a fashion photographer is to be
a Captain who can drive the team to
success every time under any circumstance;
even when things are going
against you. And have you heard the
saying “You are only as good as your
last job!”

Check out the next part of this discussion.