Setup

Body

I am a person who enjoys minimalism. I prefer a tool that excels at the requirements I need, over being average at a plethora of functionalities I would sparsely use. Therefore, my setup reflects just that: I use my digital camera as I would a use film one. I want to concentrate on composition and message, rather than using superfluous tricks that would make my photographs artificial, and not something someone could take even with a pocket point-and-shoot. For that purpose, the camera I have went with is a Sony Alpha6000 mirror-less camera.

This body carries a sensor with solid performance (as with all Sony cameras), a decent amount of resolution (24.3 MPixels) and a quick autofocus; all of this in a small, portable package. Furthermore, the lenses are interchangeable. The only downside is the cropped sensor size.

Lenses

I am a pixel-peeper, and am interested in quality photos! Even though I started with the zoom lens that was originally packaged with my a6000, and this was great for learning the grips of photography (allowing me to see which focal lengths work better in each situation, and which ones yield the perspective that is most aesthetically pleasing for me), I soon realized that the lens quality was not good enough. Furthermore, despite its superior quality, I believe that a Prime Lens (i.e. fixed focal length, no "zoom" capability) helps you improve your framing and compositions skills (no zoom to help you "cram" everything you want on the picture), so I went for one that had the focal length I have learnt to prefer after trying around with my Zoom.

I realized that something around 25-35mm would be the focal length at which I shot around 95% of all my photographs. After doing my research, I decided to go for the Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary. A Japanese lens, so that my Sony camera has a fellow countryman for a partner! This lens has a low f-number, and it still stays relatively sharp all the way down to f2.0 which means it allows me to thrive in low-light environments without having to crank up the ISO. At 30mm (~45mm equivalent in my cropped sensor), I can shoot portraits, landscapes.. mostly anything. I rarely need to resort to my zoom lens.

Furthermore, this camera renders a simply beautiful bokeh pattern. At least, perfect according to my taste.

Photography Style

A photograph is, in essence, freezing a fraction of a second of existence. In my opinion, it should remain faithful to the original photograph subject, and only very minimal processing effects should be applied. My goal in post-processing is simply to make it look more faithful to reality, apart from compulsory retouches, like lens geometry, purple fringing suppression and possibly increase the clarity a little bit (if I did not use polarizing filter with the lens, but should have).

Therefore, almost all of my post-processing is done in a RAW editor, and is mostly based in light balance adjustments, contrast, saturation and noise removal. Very rarely I use a more sophisticated photo editor, mostly to perform HDR stacking, or to remove an unwanted object that was impossible to exclude from the photograph composition at the time of shooting.

Themes

Most of my photograph compositions are landscapes (natural and urban) and scenes of everyday life. I also have training in Studio Photography and Astrophotography. I have also done some boudoir shootings with models.

Selected Portfolio