
Without a doubt, I can say that 2021 has been my best year on Instagram. I had decided to try something new for this year: Creating video content for reels on Instagram. Actually, at first, I was not interested at all in reels because I thought I would only pursue photography, not videography. One day, some of my friends and followers on Instagram suggested uploading a reel and I did it. In the beginning, the videos I uploaded went just fine – until one of my video reels reached 1.5 million plays. Since then, my growth on social media has increased rapidly.
So, one thing that I learned this year is to never be afraid to try something new and to stay consistent because we never know when the content we create goes viral and will be seen by many people.
I went with my new DJI Mavic air to Almsee, Austria. It was a spontaneous trip that I took with my friends Kristin and Josef. We decided to drive to Almsee because at night it had been snowing heavily. I had seen so many drone shots on Instagram that inspired me and I knew it was the perfect moment to head out and fly my drone for the first time. It was one of the most beautiful days I’ve ever had. It was very cold and still snowing. To be honest, I’m not even a fan of winter. As a person who was born and grew up in Indonesia, winter is very cold for me. Nevertheless, this day was breathtaking and I felt energized. I had been waiting a long time to get such a moment where all circumstances come together in favor of the shot I had in mind, and so although I was hesitant to fly the drone in the given weather conditions, I decided to bring the drone up in the air and kept flying until I got the shot I wanted. When I pressed the shutter and knew I got it, I felt intensely happy – getting up early in the cold winter pays off! This is exactly what I wanted to create; a photo that shows how beautiful winter is from a bird’s perspective.
When I take pictures I always take composition into account. I believe that composition is one of the most important things in photography. With different compositions, we can produce a wide variety of photos even in the same place. And as I prefer to edit my photos just slightly, I really pay attention to raw pictures. I will make sure that the raw photo is good in terms of composition and exposure. I almost always take photos underexposed because it makes the editing process easier for me. I always edit in Lightroom and Photoshop and actually never start from scratch. I generally use my personal presets because it saves me time. Nevertheless, each photo needs some attention and adjustments. Usually, I crop photos to 5×4 for Instagram. Then, the most important tools in Lightroom for me are the white balance, curves, and color grading. After I’m done with Lightroom, I export the photo to Photoshop for a final touch like removing unnecessary things using the spot healing brush, the most important tool in Photoshop for me.
With editing, I can simply enhance the mood of a photo and provoke emotion. For the winning photo, I wanted to share a cool and icy atmosphere, so I added blue into the photo. My aim was to make it moody and realistic. It always makes me very happy when people say that they can feel cold, quiet, and peaceful by contemplating my photo, whether on social media or in print.
What I have learned over the past year is that whatever trend arises (drones, reels, NFT…), you don’t join to be part of the club – but to give yourself new tools to grow, step out of your comfort zone and see how you can use what’s new to innovate yourself and your work.
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