About
At the age of 14 I properly held a camera for the first time. It was my grandfather's Fujifilm X-T30 with a Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4.0 kit lens attached. Grandpa bought it in April 2020 during COVID lockdown, as he wanted to film stars and pick up a new hobby during an incredibly isolated time. I spent a lot of time at their house and honestly never cared about that camera, although I did like taking photos of plants in their garden on my iPhone 7 Plus. My grandpa would softly insist I try the Fuji out, but I didn't until the 2nd of May 2020.
The evening before, on May 1st, we were taking photos of the night sky. No other gear than camera, lens and a tripod. Looking at it now it was a terrible, terrible photo, but it got me interested. I was impressed by the level of intricate settings available to get the perfect shot you wanted, and after seeing how much you could edit a RAW file, I was sold. The next sunny day I got up, took the camera and started photographing the garden flowers. I remember zooming into a photo of miniature pink roses and I was blown away by how sharp the image was and how many details it had.
Since then I was taking photos of the most random things and posting them on my incredibly cringe Instagram profile. The camera would stay at my grandpa's as I didn't use it that often, but by the end of autumn that same year I pretty much owned it. I remember watching numerous YouTube guides on the camera's technicals. I was dedicated to shooting everything in manual and RAW right from the very beginning. Time passed and in August 2021 I tried out plane spotting for the first time, combining my passion for aviation and relatively new hobby – photography.
Since then I’ve taken more than a hundred thousand photos both on my Fujifilm X-T30 and my current Fujifilm X-T5.
Special credits to my mum for taking the photo of me in Aral Sea.
3rd of April 2025, 07:06.