Peter has only been an Alamy contributor since 2022, yet he has already amassed an impressive collection with over 2000 visually stunning images, capturing locations around the world. His most recent passion has led him to capture new perspectives of his travels using drone technology.
Carry on reading to find out his insight into the world of travel photography.
CG: How did you find your passion for travel photography?
PO: I’ve always been interested in travelling and always looked for ways to expand my horizon. When I got the opportunity to do an internship abroad, I tried to go as far away as possible and ended up in Bali, Indonesia. It was my first flight and my first real travel experience. Someone in my family asked me how I planned to capture this trip, and I had no idea yet. Just a couple of days before departure I decided to invest in a camera to bring it on my trip. Ever since, I’ve taken my camera everywhere I went, and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I enjoyed it a lot!
Afterwards, I started to look at some of my favorite creators and I tried to understand how others created their images. Using foreground elements to create an extra depth of field was a game-changer. It felt like I levelled up my photography with one little trick. After that, I started to look for more and more ways to gain new skills. There are countless tutorials online and whenever I need a certain skill, I deep dive into all the information I can find and make it my own!
Since I share my work on Instagram, I’m in touch with a great community of travel photographers. I get inspired by them and meeting up with them really brought me to higher levels. Right now I’m getting into videography too, and I’m approaching it in the same way I learned photography!
CG: Where is your favourite location to shoot?
PO: That must be the Italian Dolomites. I’ve been a couple of times and I keep going back. I took a lot of photos of the ‘standard’ spots, but I’ve also been trying to be creative and get new perspectives of places that have been captured millions of times before.
CG: Your images have a beautiful natural colour palette, do you edit them in any way?
PO: I edit all of my photos in Lightroom, sometimes doing some final adjustments in Photoshop. I always try to keep them real and I don’t like to add extra elements in photos. If there’s a distracting element in frame, I remove it, to draw attention on the things I want people to focus on.
The biggest trick to get the perfect colors, is to shoot during the best light of the day. If I’m travelling to a place for photography, I will always try to shoot it at sunrise as I love the light so much! It’s also just amazing to have a place for yourself, to see the day come to life and to have achieved something before the day even started.
Autumn colours of Lake Lago d'Antorno and bridge in Dolomites Italy
CG: Your images showcase an impressive perspective, does this take much preparation?
PO: Honestly, not that much! I try to look at the places I visit with the final image in mind. I ask myself: What do I want to make my photo look like and how am I going to achieve that? I move a lot at locations and I usually overshoot, which means that I take way more photos than I actually planned to. Afterwards I have a hard time deleting files, so you can imagine what my hard drives look like… one of the reasons why I started sharing work on a platform like Alamy.
I also love drone photography, especially because I get to find new perspectives of places. Drone photography is way more than just flying and taking a photo from the sky. It asks for preparation in terms of laws, weather conditions and having to deal with photography settings and drone settings at the same time. It took me a while to practice this skill, but right now it’s one of my favorite ways to showcase a place!
CG: What would your advice be for someone just starting their journey in photography?
PO: Go out and create! You won’t gain any new skills by leaving your camera at home, so take it with you wherever you go as you don’t have to visit cool places to shoot cool photos. If you don’t have a camera, go and use your phone. Check if it has a RAW functionality and try some photo editing apps on your phone. There are countless tutorials online and I give some information about getting into photography and finding nice spots on my website too.
Also, try to find people who inspire you and find out how someone created a certain photo. Try to recreate it and as soon as you feel comfortable with it, try and find out what you like to shoot to find your own passion in photography.
If you’re struggling to get started, feel free to send me a message through my website or Instagram, I love to help others and to share my knowledge!
Check out the rest of Peter’s collection here.
Don’t forget to check in next month to see who will be in the spotlight! 