About
Hey, it is great to see you here! Thanks for visiting my 'About' Page...
I would like to tell you a bit about me...
Ocean Front Walk on Sunday, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, United States.
Travel Photography is, to say the least, a curious profession. Everybody begin photography as a hobby, without formal studies... so if you have a small camera and are nuts about the pictures you see everyday, welcome to the club! Every photographer you see published today has been at a specific moment in his life...
As you can see, English is not my first language, but if you forgive any language mistake you may find in these lines and take some time to read my ideas, you will get a snapshot about what took me to leave an engineering work in a huge company (IBM) office to become full time professional photographer and Influencer on Social Media with hundreds of thousands of followers.
I can tell you briefly my story. I began as everyone, studying to get a University career (in my case it was engineering) and applying to get a job in an office as any other normal person. I was hired by a huge American company to get a job as Technology Specialist. I was going to spend the rest of my life working everyday in front of a computer… I believe that position is wonderful for much people to develop professionally, but after working there for three years I realized that that was not MY place. It was the place for many, but not for me, so I left and became freelance travel photographer, an occupation I knew little about at the moment.
I began to work in building a photographic file and selling my pictures to different publications after my journeys. Soon I realized that shooting pictures had very little to do with owning an expensive gear, a little more with developing your technical skills, and A LOT to do with SPENDING ENOUGH TIME ON DESTINATION so that local people stopped seeing you as a tourist that is going to leave the day after.
If you asked me my opinion about the difference why professional photographers pictures manage to convey more than other people who visit the same city with DSLR cameras and do not get so powerful images, I would have to say that the main factor is TIME, TIME SPENT ON LOCATION. When I visit a foreign country I try to spend as much as possible to know the hidden corners and alleys, to be there when children go out of school, when the pagodas are full of praying men and women praying (usually at sunrise), to go to a high point at sunrise or sunset when the light reveals shapes and textures.
The Opera of Paris, France.
Being a photographer is about developing a MENTAL MODEL, not about having the last DSLR (as camera manufacturers want to try to convince us). You have to distinguish what situations can produce a good photograph, what picture will yield a good black and white… what will make the difference is a change inside your brain, not inside your pocket. Internet is overcrowded with empty pictures taken with a 7000€ DSLR; no more empty pictures are needed, but PERSONAL VISION is scarce, and developing your vision has to be your main aim.
"Being a photographer is about developing a MENTAL MODEL, not about having the last DSLR."
While travelling during the last years many things have happened to me, some of them were funny or pleasant, others not as much. I have ridden a taxi in Cairo that lost a wheel when we were in motion; I have been stopped by London Metropolitan Police, being requested information and being given a paper where it was written: “Reason of the request: Terrorism” (my crime was having a backpack full of cameras and lenses); one of my cameras has been jerked in Vietnam…
I have travelled in a ‘Matatu’ in Kenya, in a ‘Matola’ in Tanzania, in those green and yellow Indian ‘Rickshaws’ and in a ‘Movilidad’ in Bolivia. I’be been called ‘Mzungu’ in Africa and ‘Gringo’ in South America... I’ve been cheated in Nepal, Argentina and Egypt… and the fact that I have realized after these years is that you always have some histories to tell when you go back home. That is one of the reasons I begun this blog: I would like to share them with the readers of this blog along with my philosophy of travel and technical tips for all those who want to know how to photograph people and landscapes all around the world.
I will try to share in this blog my philosophy about travel, my ideas about how to choose YOUR path in life and all the technical tips that will help you to take your photography to the next level, prepare yourself mentally or emotionally for a long trip to a remote location or be ready to initiate a career in professional photography.
If you are an amateur photographer who wants to improve her skills to photograph the world around, follow me. I will share my pictures and what is behind them: how were they taken (did I look or a gesture or to transmit a feeling? Or just simply sat and waited to see what happened), if I succeeded or not, how could have I improved a picture…)
If you want to know the tricks to be a professional photographer, follow me. Internet has brought many new opportunities for all those who want to be a photographer. Blogs have given the power to the individual photographer, relegating agents and big companies to the oblivion they deserve. Be ready to make the most of your opportunities and you will succeed.
If you want to see different travel destinations around the world, follow me. I will try to show you tips to get around the most popular destinations to the ones that are not as easy to reach and to photograph people who live different than you. Being there is half of the picture.
If you simply want to read something while commuting early in the morning, follow me and spend some enjoyable time with me and my work. I will be very happy to share it with you!
Motorbike ride in Saigon (Ho Chi Mihn City), Vietnam.
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