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Michele Discardi
@michelediscardi
Landscape photographer based in Italy
I started photography a long time ago, with film. It was during my university year that I joined a photography class and since day one I’ve fallen in love with this medium. At that time it was already digital but film helps you think before you shoot, so it’s very formative.
Moving forward some years, I began to bring my camera to my travels and record my adventure… At first it wasn’t very funny because I was very worried about my gear and in addition, we were partying a lot so there were not many usable photos in the end.
"However, then my travel started changing and I discovered road trips, which is still my favourite way of travelling."
Photography is nowadays part of my life, I rarely go out without a camera and I’m always searching for some visual point of view when walking around. Though I still love film, changing my camera to a mirrorless, more compact system, was really a game-changer for me. I’m a graphic designer and so far graphic design and photography have worked in separate ways for me, but I’m trying to search for new projects that involve both of my worlds. I believe the change in my career happened because of some people around me that believed in my skills and persuaded me to go for this life. Especially my first clients who believed in my skill even with a small portfolio of work motivates me. These first clients were obviously friends and colleagues of friends, but I never approached a job easily; I’m always predisposed to deliver the best I can offer. I have a very professional approach with a personal touch; formal but letting my calm and funny side slide through. I am not a corporation and the relationship I want to have with my clients needs to be human.
"That’s the most important lesson I’ve learned for myself, that clients are always human and kindness will always be rewarded somehow."
My first jobs with non-familiar clients were shooting for a small industrial business (still regularly shooting for them) and an architecture firm that loves the look I give to images. I’m a former architect so while I do a lot of travel photography, I value and remember a place for its architecture first and then for the people living in this architecture, which makes shooting portraits another of my favourite genres.
I believe travel photography is a weird/unknown genre as it’s really subjective and hard to explain as everyone travels for a different reason: for the food, for soul experience, or just to sunbathe. I’m always trying to record my travels with my style, adding some fun tips and a complete overview of the place where I am… That’s how landscape, portrait and architecture photography come together for me.
There are two specific but distinct moments where photography for me is really satisfying. The first is where I shoot pure landscapes (my personal favourite genre, but really hard to sell), where you wake up at 4 am and drive 1 hour to reach a spot where you can be alone with just the noise of the wind and the sound of nature waking up with the sunrise. The second is getting the perfect moment during a shooting, which could be a beam of light on the subject or a perfect smile of a woman or even a well-balanced composition that doesn’t need any post-production.
That doesn’t mean you need to be greedy or super economy; it means that you need to really know what the market is looking for and how to reach it. Sometimes I do pro-bono and sometimes it’s just an exchange for me but that’s because I consciously decided it.
There’s a technical explanation and there’s a more reasonable answer to research and define your value in money. The technical reason would simply be the amount of money you need monthly divided by the hours you want to work, that’s how you calculate what you need on the baseline. The more reasonable option is obtaining some market insight about where your clients will search to get an average price for your products and then decide where and how you want to position yourself. There’s also a lot of forums/groups and resources around to find a good value for your products, just beware of the location: often they’re from the US or Australia where the market is completely different.
"I’ve taken a business course during the pandemic and I’m always learning more about this, it’s a never-ending task."
Every project makes me learn something new, from reaching the client to final delivery, I’m always improving from job to job. I need to say though that my very first workshop at university with some great photographers was really important to me as it showed me what it means to be a photographer and what it takes to create great photos.
There’s no one definition for how a great photo would look as every photo or project has different ideas and goals behind it. In general, I could say that I love using colours and tend not to exaggerate with post-production. For me, wrinkles and scars are a very important part of a person and I detest when I get a request to erase them. At the same time, as an architect, I dislike to see electric plugs and wires in my photos, so I tend to remove them, as well as poles and ugly street signs in landscapes.
Movies and visual stuff such as blogs/Instagram/YouTube help me keep improving my shooting and editing. Also comics; I read a lot of manga because Asian culture is really much visual-centric. I’m also always researching new ways of editing and sometimes a different approach to a photo can lead you to something new.
I live by visuals and I can remember almost every photo I’ve made with the memories attached. Just to mention one example, I’ve one travel shot from the Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse (Denmark); I was with my best friend and we drove all day along the coast to arrive at the lighthouse at the perfect hour for sunset. The place was amazing, sand dunes almost covered in snow, beautiful clouds with the orange sky, and an endless coastline. Dream location without anyone around, what’s also really nice about the experience is that now it’s impossible to shoot the same photos as the lighthouse was moved to prevent it from falling over the cliff.
Just as photos have memories attached, they also have lessons connected to them. What I’ve realised through travel and nature is that we’re here just for a small fraction of time, but do we really try to make the best of the time we have? And what kind of footprint are we leaving for the other generation and all the other creatures? Travelling has always made me think about these questions and helped me be more aware of the choice we made living in a very consumeristic world.
Being so conscious, I’m always afraid of taking a flight because I know how much impact they have. However, it’s nearly impossible to substitute them for further-away destinations if you have limited time. To compensate, I don’t own a car, I’m trying to reduce my meat consumption, I’m always shopping with attention to sustainability, and I avoid plastic whenever possible. That said, I’m not limiting myself in certain things either and find solutions to do what I love with better care for the environment.
It is important in life, I believe, to chase what you like the most but don’t drown in it. This applies to basically everything, a simple task, a photo composition, a client, investing in something… Follow your instinct but don’t “fall in love” and get stuck forever in something. There always needs to be a balance and this can change over time. No need to stick to what you used to love or do in the past.
"When it’s time you need to learn to let things go and move on, we don’t have control on everything."
"Starting my business enabled me to decide about the jobs I'd like to do and create my time schedule. In turn, I can work at my best when in focus and leave a lot of time for my side projects or training."
This also allows me to be based between Portugal and Italy. I followed my beloved one to Portugal for work just after the first wave of covid, it was really weird and because of restrictions, it took us almost a year to get some knowledge of the country and meet some new friends. Portugal is a small but beautiful country and while the mainland is amazing (the Algarve is probably my favourite location) my heart stopped in the Azores Islands. Flores and São Miguel are places of incredible beauty. Italy doesn’t need any explanation but for me, the Dolomites is the most mesmerising spot with its incredible peaks and the valley; if you’re around there do not miss the sunrise from a refuge.
"I can't wait to continue to get better at living my life, balancing professional and personal projects and never neglecting doing what I love whatever that may be year after year."
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