Meet Maud, a passionate traveler and photographer driven by a profound love for nature. From childhood, Maud has fostered a deep connection with every facet of the natural world, finding beauty from the smallest plants to the tallest mountains. In 2021, she ventured into photography, recognizing the powerful combination of her love for nature and the art of capturing emotions through images.
My passion for travel and photography comes from my deep love for nature. Since childhood, I’ve felt a deep connection with every element of nature, from the tiny plant to the tallest mountain. As I’m naturally curious, I’ve always wanted to travel to discover what the world could offer us. I started photography in 2021 when I bought my first camera, and the possibility of linking my love for nature with photography just made it bigger in my mind. I understood I could transpose my emotion in my heart on a simple photo. Since that moment, I’ve been obsessed with photography, especially in the great outdoors!
The moment I started camping in the mountains changed everything. I grew up in the hills but quite lost myself in the rush of life and re-discovered my former environment later when I felt I needed to reconnect to myself. It’s the place that gave me the most peace to make decisions, opened my eyes to the essentials, and made me want to discover more places like that. At the same time, I fell in love with the night skies that are so clear in the mountains! It was the first thing that made me want to start photography, and then I opened myself to landscape photography in general.
First, until you haven’t experienced everything, you cannot know what’s made for you. I didn’t grow up in a photographer’s family, and I had to meet people and go outside to understand that it was definitely for me. That’s why it’s important to open yourself to people and the world because you’ll certainly find something that makes you echo. Some people and experiences may make you discover a part of yourself that you didn’t even know!
Then in addition to that, it’s important to accept new experiences to improve your skills and your vision of your work. Challenging yourself is important to grow. You don’t know how to do something? Perfect, learn it! There’s no reason to be afraid of the unknown if you adopt that kind of perspective.
Also, trust in yourself and the process of learning. You’ll be afraid of not being good enough at first, especially when comparing yourself to others. But remember that everything takes time. You don’t expect to have big muscles the day after you start the gym, so it’s the same for photography. Be patient and allow yourself to explore new fields without fearing doing wrong. Mistakes will make you learn, so take it as a positive thing.
Last but not least, you can’t please everybody, so don’t take anything personally and do what makes sense for you without the need to justify yourself for what you do. Listen to your heart and do what fulfills it with joy at the end of the day. That’s all that matters.
The photo you see below was the first one I visited in Madeira, and I was quite impressed by the dramatic mood of the site. The cliffs, the sea, and the general tones of it inspired me for this shot.
It was like the meeting of the elements, so pure and so harsh at the same time. I wanted to put that emotion in my edit; that’s why I desaturated the tones and used masks to give a more dramatic mood to the shot. The idea was to make the viewer feel the powerful vibe of the place. It’s deeply linked to how I feel in front of nature.
I follow my heart and my sensibility when I edit my photos. I need to edit it in a way that touches me.
Little by little, I understood that in every shot I liked from the other photographers, the cold tones and moody scenery were the ones that touched me the most. It guided me to understand how I wanted my work to look, and it’s how I started developing my own style. I particularly love working on greens, blues, and oranges and am still learning to improve my editing.
Understanding how the colors work together is important. It will give the mood of your shot, and it helps to have consistency in your style.
Also, understanding how and why masks are used is a big step to improving your shot since it can easily drive the eye to your subject and make the image more powerful.
1) Don’t think that it’s unreachable. Go out of your comfort zone and trust yourself. Focusing on all the good things that could happen helps more than thinking about the worst scenarios.
2) Never stop learning. From the internet, from others, from yourself, it’s important never to take things for granted. There’s always something to understand and improve, which may lead you to something new you didn’t expect!
3) Be patient, and don’t be too hard on yourself. Everything takes time, and good things don’t happen in a snap of the fingers. Take time to rest if needed so you don’t lose your taste for creation by rushing into everyday life.
4) Create something that makes sense to you. If this journey is about art, you must remember that creation comes from your heart. It must feed your soul.
1) First, I’d say that the weather conditions and the light, in general, are the start because they will guide the mood and the editing of your shot. Little by little, I learned that sunrise and sunset were the best conditions for the photos I liked. Overcast days are also nice to avoid too many shadows that will be hard to edit.
2) Secondly, the subject must guide the eye and convey emotion. Even if sometimes the landscape offers an issue that is enough by itself, just adding someone can give the impression of a huge scale, but it can also provide a « not that interesting » shot to another dimension. You don’t always need spectacular places to have good photos if you bring an interesting subject yourself! Playing on leading lines can also be nice to make your shot interesting.
3) Thirdly, the composition and the dimension you’ll give the shot are important. It’s linked to the lenses you use and the angle you choose. Shooting with a wide-angle lens will give an impression of immensity while shooting with a tele will create a compression to the background that will make it look bigger/closer. In the same way, sometimes it can be nice not to shoot at eye level. If you move your camera down low, you’ll find new perspectives with a reflection in water or create a nice blurred foreground with grass or flowers.
4) Last, the place where you’re shooting must inspire you. Taking time to research and maybe scouting a bit before to find nice places or different angles can help to have a shot that makes the difference. Also, bringing accessories and outfits and maybe camping in your shooting area can help you create storytelling.
As I’m quite « new in the game, ” it’s hard to say, but I think it’s when a brand asked me to work together for a paid contract when I wasn’t even prospecting. I started photography and tried to do a portfolio, so it gave me more confidence in what I was doing and helped me to reach more easily.
Also, I just did my first exhibition in a small city in France, and I was honored that someone came to me to ask me to expose my photos. In the same way, it helped me to trust in all the good things that could come to me and to put all my energy into it.
Ten years from now, I envision owning a production company dedicated to creating video and photography content for distinctive brands. I also plan to focus on projects that are personally meaningful to me, whether they involve capturing the unique landscapes of the Middle East or documenting extreme sports expeditions in the Arctic. To help me achieve these goals, I will employ certain strategies.
Firstly, I recognize the importance of consistency in my work. Consistency is a key component of success. It provides a solid foundation and structure upon which to build. This consistency can manifest through various means, whether maintaining a consistent presence on social media or ensuring that my work exhibits cohesiveness in alignment with the creative style of photography I aim to produce.
Additionally, I intend to contact more businesses and brands for collaboration proactively. This strategy not only helps in gaining exposure but also in establishing strong, lasting relationships that can lead to unique partnerships. Such associations can be instrumental in achieving my long-term aspirations in photography and videography.
There is always something new to learn, and I want to see how my career will evolve while I put in the effort.
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