We are excited to share our conversation with the amazing photographer Dave Kai-Piper. Dave was a guest judge for the Black and White Textures Photo contest, check out his top selections.

You can follow Dave's work on ViewBug, visit his profile!

Hi Dave, we are excited to learn more about you - tell us a bit about yourself, how do you describe your photography style?

Well, I am a UK based photographer who likes to photograph people in with a fashion style. Over the recent years Landscape photography has started to take my interest too. To put it simple, I take photographs of people and places. On my portfolio page this is how I broken up the two galleries. Over the years my interest in photographing people has been growing, I think I started out as a photographer wanting to be like Lara Jade shooting a very fashion style image, but I have moved more into the idea of photographing the person and not the clothing is more suited to my style of thinking and photography. You can see my portfolio here. 

When did you start taking photos and what inspired you to get started?
I can remember all the way back to being a young boy (only 32 at the moment) and being told to take more photographs to remember the places I had been to as child. I guess back then we never had Instagram or Facebook or even MySpace, so a camera was the only way to really record where I had traveled as a youngster. It was a small blue camera from Fuji I think, I was given the odd roll of 35mm film to play with. I guess at some point it might be nice to scan those images and upload them to my blog or something. There was no 'moment of inspiration', none of my childhood heroes were photographers, in fact, until to about age 23 or 24 could not name a photographer. I liked music and films, but had a very dry upbringing in terms of art or fashion culture. Testino, Bailey, Rankin, were among the first superstar photographers with photographers like Lara Jade being someone to watch grow over years. It was a long time of drifting about to find out what I liked... In the early days I spent of of my time earning money in the wedding world, so people like Damien Lovegrove & Brett Harkness were early to catch my eye.

That's a great story! Do you have any influencers?
Very much so, and many of them. All for different reasons though. People like Thomas Woland & Sylvie Blum for style and flair, People like Lara Jade & Joey L for energy drive, people like Tim Burton & Helmut Newton for vision. Being influenced by a vast number of things, people and places can only be a good thing in my eyes, but does tend to lead to an eclectic style but maybe a less focused overall style.

What has been your favorite shoot and why?
That is a hard question to answer. Some of my personal highlights have not given the best images, some of the toughest shoots have proved to be career changing. Overall, I would have to say the 'Flying Horse' image is personal favorite, but the shoot was super hard work and maybe not that fun. My time in Cyprus was pretty amazing. It gave me some amazing image, and I had an amazing time while shooting.

Do you remember a difficult photo shoot session? What happened?
Many, in fact, I do find it very difficult to shoot. I still feel very under prepared or most shoots, I have much to learn and always get worried before a shoot. There is one story that is quite interesting, where I had a big family occasion on the same day as a massive photoshoot. Trying to workout if the shoot was more important than a once in a life time family engagement. Personal life and work are hard to balance at times and seeming harder for photographers !! When do what you love, and get paid to do what you love the lines between work and play get a bit blurred, the problem with that is that it life gets quite complex and more often than not, personal life get squeezed aside with the people in your personal life getting caught up with that too.

What do you carry in your camera bag?
At the moment I have a Peli 1510 case, a set of Billingham's and Domke bags. Overall I am a Nikon & Fuji Photographer. On the Nikon only use Sigma lenses. I use Lexar CF & SD cards and I use a full Adobe workflow.
Nikon D800
35mm F1.4 A Sigma
50mm F1.4 A Sigma
105mm F2.8 Sigma
Fuji X-T1 & X-Pro
35mm,
18mm,
60mm
18-55mm
I am very lucky to be looked after by 3 Legged Thing who have been so amazing over the years. They do make the most amazing tripods.

What are you currently working on?
Personally , I have a fun and interesting portrait project on the go. It is all about stripping back photography and portraiture to it's raw basic elements. There are some video projects on the go, some projects with aerial drones and lots of normal photography too. We have just put out the video from a trip in Israel that has the wonderful Benjiman Von Wong going head to head with the amazing Rebecca Litchfield.

Can you share a couple of tips with your fellow photographers?
Photograph what you want to photograph. Your work will always be better and more engaging when you yourself are engaged in the subject. Learn about who you are and try and bring that into your work too, it will give you more of an idea of what you story you are trying to communicate.

 

Thank you Dave! Want to see more of Dave's photos? Follow Dave on ViewBug, visit his profile!