Martin Nußbaumer

@_martinnussbaumer

Nature photographer based in Austria

Traveling was my passion already for a long time before I got into photography. I grew up with nature and mountains around me and later I was often traveling for work. I’ve been a chef cook in the tourism industry and therefore I’ve worked in different countries. Working in the tourism industry as a cook is quite stressful: You work the whole day and every day is busy. At some point I went to Ireland for holidays and decided to go back to work there. I was working as a chef a few hours a day and after work I was exploring the country… I fell in love with this beautiful Island. It didn’t take long until I decided to replace my camera with a DSLR and started watching YouTube tutorials the whole night to learn how to capture the beautiful landscapes.

"I was outside everyday and got totally obsessed in this photography game."

I got back to Austria and since photography became a bigger hobby over the years, I decided to change job. I am still a chef, but now I work as a chef cook at an institute for children. I enjoy my work and in the afternoon I can dedicate time to my other passion, photography. For me, that is the best thing; I can combine photography with so many other things that I love… Cooking, hiking, traveling, and so on. 

"I love to discover new places and different cultures but most of all, I enjoy to be on top of a mountain, of which I have a lot of in my backyard."

 I especially love it when it’s dark and foggy, grey clouds moving above my head and seeing the fog rolling in when I look down. That is the moment I am taking out my camera. There is so much happening! Compare that to a clear blue sky and a shiny sun… It’s beautiful, but it doesn’t get me excited. Often I go shooting together with my brother, who shares the passion for photography, so even if the weather conditions are not in our favor, I am always enjoying it.

"Nature always changes its face anyway, so there are often unexpected conditions you have to react upon."

Sometimes you have just a few seconds to make the right decision to get the shot or not. The more you do that, the better you get and that is the way for me to push my photography. I try to see photography not too technically, but letting me inspire by the location, the conditions and doing what feels good in the particular circumstances. At the end, I want that the results makes me happy. That moment when you check your shot for the 100th time and you know that it’s done and that it looks dope; the smile I get at that moment is the result I try to achieve when I start editing a picture. Of course I really enjoy it when people like my photo as well or when others share my work, but that is not my everyday mission.

"If I get that smile, I know I did good and I enjoyed doing it."
"After all, I guess that I continue to look for new things to feed my creativity."

 I am musician (like my parents), cook and photographer and in each of them I keep looking for something new to learn or to create. I would say that traveling and exploring new places makes me more open minded and brings me on as a human. I learned what’s important in life for me and I focus on the things that makes me feel good. Photography is one of these things; it’s a way to express myself, as is music. Whether it’s hobby or work, I try to enjoy every moment, captured or not captured in a photograph. We often take or share photographs of ‘special moments’, to make memories of places and relive them, but for me that is separate from photography.

"It are the moments I spend together with my love that are special, and I see her every day so each day is another special moment for me."