Who I am, story time...
Hey! Welcome to my photography workshop. I’m super excited to share with you some tips and tricks on how to capture amazing landscapes and travel photos. But before we get into that, let me tell you a little bit about myself and how I got into photography.
The head of the massive Breiðamerkurjökull glacier in Iceland
Feel free to skip this bit :)
I’ve been a landscape and travel photographer for more than 15 years now, but it all started with a phone camera and a cheap ultra-zoom. Yes, you heard me right, a phone camera. Not an iPhone, not a Samsung. A Nokia N70 and a Olympus SP-510UZ. Those were my first cameras and I loved taking photos with them.
The cameras were flexible but cheap enough to cover me for both taking landscape photos and keep my urban videography. I used it to take photos of everything and anything. It made me explore many styles of photography, especially when I was doing parkour with my friends. We would film ourselves jumping over walls and roofs and then edit the videos on our computers. That’s how I learned the basics of composition, framing, and storytelling.
2005 Nokia N70, one of my first edited images from it
Eventually, I got more into landscape photography and upgrade Olympus SP-510UZ.
Then I discovered HDR photography. HDR stands for high dynamic range, and it’s a technique that allows you to capture more details in the shadows and highlights of your photos by combining multiple exposures. I was blown away by the results and I wanted to try it myself. So I got myself a software called Photomatix and started experimenting with different settings and filters. I was hooked. HDR let me create the same feeling and visuals as I was experiencing as I was looking at the landscape.
Blue hour photography with the help of HDR
But as much as I enjoyed HDR photography, I also wanted to explore other styles and genres and go beyond of what my Olympus super-zoom camera could do. I finally transitioned to an Olympus E-420 DSLR and continued to refine my landscape photography.
Around that time I moved to the UK. That's when my desire started to see more of the world and capture its beauty in different ways. So I started hiking and traveling more often, and I realized that I needed a camera that was lighter, smaller, and more versatile than my DSLR. That’s when I switched to a mirrorless system camera that fits in my pocket but still delivers amazing image quality and zoom range. I went with Panasonic and finally my current daily driver Sony a6300. It’s perfect for hiking and traveling because it doesn’t weigh me down or take up too much space in my backpack.
Mixing hiking, backpacking and travel has changed how I interact with photography
And that’s where I am today. A landscape and travel photographer who loves to hike and explore new places with a pocket-sized camera. And that’s what I want to teach you in this workshop: how to take stunning photos of nature and culture with any camera you have, whether it’s a phone or a another camera system. So let’s get started!