Do you, as an artist and photographer, ever feel trapped when you have a customer who pays for the photos you need to create? How you sometimes worry about what the clients want, and cannot let your artistic, creative mind work for itself a hundred percent? Do you ever feel that? Our community member Vitonas (SHOTBYViT) says he feel trapped and that it usually âends up with a satisfied customer, and an unsatisfied artistâ. Vitonas photography style can be describes as cinematic since he works as a film director in Athens, Greece. We wanted to know more about his thoughts about photography and struggle with pleasing his artistic self versus his clients.
Tell us a bit about yourself, how do you describe your photography style?
I love all kinds of photography. If I had to pick my favorite subject or style, it has to be street photography, and photo journalism. Iâm often described as a portrait photographer which is another kind of photography which I like a lot. However, I work as a film director and not as a photographer. I think this has a big impact in my style as a photographer, as many say that my images have a cinematic style.
In one sentence what has photography done for you in your life?
It has taught me another way of expressing myself.
When did you start taking photos and what inspired you to get started?
The first time I asked my parents to buy me a camera, was when I was 8 or 9 years old. I wanted a camera because we were going on a field trip with school, and for some reason I wanted to take pictures. I was the only kid with a camera during that trip. I mostly shot my classmates and took a few landscape shots. I donât know what inspired me, it seemed natural to me to take pictures of the field trip in general. My first camera was a plastic Kodak Ektra Point and Shoot camera.
What has been your favorite shoot and why?
I canât really pick a favorite shoot. Street photography is hard and you need a lot of luck, technical knowledge, intelligence and dexterity to get that perfect shot. For me, it's a very rare feeling to feel super satisfied with a photo shoot and feel that I have great photos in my camera. The satisfaction from a good street photo is always higher compared to any good posed fixed and directed image.
Do you remember a difficult photo shoot session? What happened?
Every time I get paid for shooting is a difficult photo session for me. That I get paid for taking photos is something that blocks my photography instinct and I often start to worry about âwhat the clientâ wants. Usually this ends up with a satisfied customer, and an unsatisfied artist.
What do you carry in your camera bag?
Thatâs a hard question to answer. I still shoot a lot of film, and enjoy my collection of film cameras. My digital equipment is a Canon 5dII, and the lenses to go with are mostly my 70-200/2.8 for portraits, a 90mm/2.8 for macro (and portraits if I want to travel light), the 24-105/4 for street and travels, and a 35/1.4.
You can also add some old lenses I use with an adaptor often, as my Helios 85/1.5 which is a favorite, also my Smc Takumar 50/1.4 light and brilliant, plus a few others. If I had to pick my favorite camera, that would be my medium format Pentax 67, with the 105/2.4 Takumar lens, and Ilford hp5 film. I also used to shoot some polaroids with my crown graphic, and my Land 100 Camera, but Fujifilm announced that they stopped the production of my favorite (and only) peel-apart film, which means I canât carry those around anymore after my stock is finished.
Do you have a favorite location and time of the day to shoot?
The streets is my favorite location, during the day. I rarely shoot at night. I would however shoot at night if I lived, for example, in New York.
For portraits my favorite time of day has to be those couple of hours before sunset, because I mostly shoot with sunlight, and rarely use flashes (because I donât have an assistant and Iâm bored to carry them around).
Can you share three tips with your fellow photographers?
1. Study a lot (history of art, photographers, etc.)
2. Shoot a lot â¨3. Shoot film, develop your film, print your film
(Actually print your digitals, if you donât print, itâs not photography. Trust me)
Please share one of your favorite photos with us with a short tutorial:
This photo ("mustard-ketchup") was shot in Vienna, Austria during a rainy day. I used my Canon 5dll, and Samyang 35/1.4 lens. As I was walking I saw a mother and child wearing these colorful raincoats. It was a dull, gray and rainy day and these fun raincoats just popped out. I had to run and catch them, because they were pretty far from where I was. I caught them just before they were walking down to the metro station - which, fortunately, was perfect for the photo. The only post-processing I did was to adjust the contrast a little.
Please share some thoughts on your ViewBug experience as a photographer!
Itâs a great photography community. I like the fact that it has a lot of challenges and photo contests. The voting system is fair, which is rare! I hate the competitions that are judged by your friendsâ likes and shares. The personal pagesâ portfolios are great. The thing that I would like to be added (which is a weird omission) is a âstreet photographyâ category. PLEASE ADD THAT!
For more great photos by the Greek photographer visit his profile, website, Instagram and Facebook.
