Michael Pranger
@pranger_michael
Landscape photographer based in Austria
My name is Michael Pranger, I am 27 years old and come from the heart of the Austrian Alps, Tirol. I am a trained chef and have worked since 12 years in the kitchen – this is how I got interested in photography. I loved seeing photos of beautifully plated dishes of high quality, but only bought my first camera 7 years ago after my four month trip through Asia. I was an exchange worker on that trip and met many photographers who showed me their impressive pictures.
"When I got back home it was clear that I needed a camera to capture such moments to be able to immortalize them and relive them."
Although I enjoyed food photography, I never got into that myself because I always worked 6-7 days a week and had no time to shoot my dishes. What I did though was venture out on my free days and shoot landscapes, which at the end really caught my interest. As I am a cook and am a very creative person by nature; I see the structure of food and cooking methods very similar to the creation of a beautiful picture.
At the beginning I found it very difficult to take good photos because I only had a telephoto lens 24-240 g master from Sony; this meant that I could only capture things that were far away. I began to learn everything about photography and what I would need in terms of techniques, lenses and cameras to create something special. At some point, I decided to buy more equipment and invested a lot of money to get myself a Samyang 14mm f2.8 / 35mm Sony Zeus / 16mm sigma lens and a Laowa macro lens so that I am prepared for every situation – at least when talking about gear.
"Now that I'd gotten into it, I felt like I didn't want to miss any opportunity to capture the stunning nature."
"A little later I discovered my love for film. I used to produce music for many years and also made beats with sounds from nature that I recorded myself."
When someone asked me if I would like to set his film to music, it was clear to me that I should also start producing my own videos. Again I invested a lot of money, this time to buy a low light camera and drone, a gimbal, field monitor, slider, more tripods, a GoPro etc. I tried for so many months to get a feel for camera angle alignment, frame rate as well as cut and color grading. Meanwhile, I film in the mountains very often, create cooking videos, and the best of all, making cooking videos in nature. I film most of the videos with my a7sii and my 16mm sigma or 35mm from Sony. It just all perfectly comes together, I love to be outside, to cook and take photos and/or film.
"To be able to earn money by doing those things I adore is something I am not taking for granted!"
I think about this often and would like to do more projects like that in the future. I have decided to represent the beauty of the mountains at home and not chase after commercial spots because there are a million pictures of each of those. I traveled a lot and of course visited hotspots, but I have changed my approach. I love to lose myself deep in nature, just hiking and being surrounded by mountain peaks. I value quality over quantity and will stay true to my style and live the motto “be yourself!”
"There is still so much to discover and showcase through my photography, also here in Austria, the place where my heart beats."
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