In the beginning, long ago, a young boy was given the chance to take a few pictures with his uncle’s camera. I’d love to say that I was committed to photography from that day on, but that wasn’t really the case. Instead, Lego building and electronics became my main focus. Only much later, in high school, did those early experiences resurface and engage me in photography. I made much use of my first 35mm SLR and took a lot of pictures, but I quickly found it tedious to have to wait for the film to be processed before I could see the results. As my high school years slowly came to an end, I got involved in graphic design, creating VHS covers, presentations, and eventually layouts in software called Mosaic – later known as Netscape. The next step led me to image retouching as I worked freelance for a magazine publisher.
Digital cams were on the rise and as years ago I was offered the chance to use a friend’s camera to try out this new kind of photography. Little by little I learned digital photography starting by studying the exif data of the pictures. I also acquired a range of good photography books to find and understand digital camera settings that were necessary for good results – Yes, that was before the Youtube era with thousands of free tutorials. At that time the first DSLR for a reasonable price became available and finally all I had wished for came together. Without being limited I started shooting more and more photos. Particularly I enjoyed macro and portrait photography. And of course the mistakes I made were countless, but here my background in retouching always ensured perfect pictures in sharpness, exposure and color (don’t ask how many hours I sank into rescuing pictures). Over time my skill in taking pictures grew and the effort to fix them shrank to a few touches inside of Lightroom. Learning by doing has always worked for me, including when taking pictures.
You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the movies you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.