Our guest, better known in Instagram as @dreamingandwandering, is a true fighter and an example of someone who chases her dreams no matter what. The best of all is that along the way she is collecting invaluable memories and some of them have been immortalized for the joy of the viewer. You can find Martina roaming around the most beautiful lakes in Banff National Park with the first sun light of the day, or looking to the stars and contemplating the aurora in one of those epic nights where she becomes one with the wild.
When Martina is not with her camera, she is busy working in her projects. She has many! Her hard work and devotion to her community is allowing her, little by little, to become financially independent and make a living doing what she loves the most, to take photographs.
There is so much we can learn from Martina that asking her just 14 questions seemed too little. However, she decided to be an excellent guest and what you are about to read will not leave you indifferent!
Welcome Martina! Your first picture on Instagram was posted the 29th of September 2015. Three years later you are an inspiration and role model for thousands of people! What a trip! Where does your passion for travel comes from and when was the first time you captured a photo with a DSLR camera?
Hello Alex, thanks a lot for the opportunity to be part of such an inspiring project. My passion for traveling was always there. But more than a passion for traveling it was longing for an adventure. Longing for unknown places and situations. Longing to do things differently. Since I was a child, the most I enjoyed was watching travel/nature/adventure documentaries and reading encyclopedias. I have never wanted to work as an accountant, doctor, teacher, or to have a “normal job”… First, I remember I wanted to be a biologist to search for unknown species in Amazonia jungle. Then I wanted to be a geologist (but I didn’t actually know what that would mean for me, haha, I guess I hoped it could take me on some researching expeditions). Surprisingly film making won. Although deep down I wanted to create documentaries and capture the fragile beauty of the world and share it with those who can’t go and see it by themselves, somehow I ended up on movie sets and worked on feature movies or advertisements.
It took me a while to realize that I didn’t believe in that job and I certainly didn’t find joy doing it (and I am even more aware of this nowadays).
Right after university I got a full time job in a movie production office in Prague. Having a job like that just didn’t make any sense to me. I took a vacation to go on a road trip to US with my best friend. It was in 2010 and that’s where all the changes started. During the road trip I felt completely free for the very very first time in my life. I decided where did I want to go, when and how. It was an incredibly uplifting feeling. Since the first days of the trip I knew right away that there’s no way I can come back to the office. I quit my job as a Creative Researcher and Director’s Representative pretty much right after I returned from US. In two months and with less than 200 dollars in my pocket I flew to New Zealand with my Working Holiday visa. I never looked back.
You have been to more than 80 countries so far! Wow! Which country was the biggest surprise to you?
Every country I visited had some surprises for me. I didn’t expect such an excellent diving and snorkeling in the Philippines, I didn’t expect to love Laos so much even though they don’t have big mountains nor the ocean. But my biggest surprise was probably Canada. I didn’t know anything about this country when I was moving here in 2014. I had no idea there were such beautiful mountains and lakes, and the rain forests, orcas, eagles, northern lights… Yet I have explored only a fraction of this diverse country and I am excited to keep exploring and finding more surprises.
Your photography has a strong and well defined style, really colorful and full of mysticism. I believe this is part of who you are as an artist nowadays. Can you explain to us how did you develop your current style?
Happy to hear that Alex, thanks a lot! I am a Big Dreamer and that it’s probably reflected in my editing style. It’s also fun to watch how my style is changing each year or rather every couple of months. When I look back at some photos I posted six months ago, I am like, I would edit this totally differently today! Also, I feel like I incline to natural and raw looks more than ever before. I appreciate someone’s natural style photography more and more. Absolutely loving @alexstrohl @taylormichaelburk or @reneeroaming with her husband @matthewhahnel. Most of my photos are edited just in Lightroom and occasionally I use Photoshop, if I need to clean the photo a little bit for instance. In Lightroom I love to play with radial filters and also with the color of the shadows. But that’s right now and let’s see what I will say in the next six months 
I know you are a voracious traveler! Can you share with us some tips and tricks to sustain a life full of travels?
Since the last year I had a small passive income thanks to my travel blog Dreaming and Wandering (www.dreamingandwandering.com). There I do affiliate marketing (especially hotel bookings, tours and car rentals). I also run a photo workshop in the Canadian Rockies with guys from Bohemian Journeys (www.bohemianjourneys.com). On top of that I have always had some seasonal and temporary jobs, like cherry picking in Canada for the last three summer seasons. There I was able to make over 8.000 Canadian dollars in seven weeks and that lasted me for the most of the year. Yes, I live quite frugally, big part of the year I live in my little van. Sometimes I do Workaway volunteering (www.workaway.info), I don’t quite buy new things, eat out or drink alcohol. That saves lots of money. Some of my trips were sponsored and I made a few hundreds of dollars last year by running several ad campaigns on IG.
All of this is quite an adventure, which is not for everyone. It comes at a cost. Sometimes I feel really insecure, I mean freaking-out-insecure, specially when I don’t know what am I doing, if I will have enough money, or if I am on the right life path for instance. It’s a life full of insecurities, but I can’t complain and would never change it for a 9 to 5 office job.
What is your approach when it comes to planning your trip and finding your ideal locations?
I usually start with google and search for phrases like “best things/places to visit in…” It’s just to have a brief idea what’s going on. In fact I am very often avoiding the places I googled and I prefer to find less known, remote spots. I find the inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest, but recently I am using Google Earth the most to find little lakes, waterfalls, or secluded beaches. I love going on multiday hikes and visit places that I can’t reach with a vehicle. That’s usually where I find the most special spots.
There are many landscape photographers sharing real value in terms of visual content as well as written content in Instagram. Yet, they are not able to grow as “influencers”. What are the three strategies that in your opinion allowed you to grow in Instagram?
There are so many landscape photographers and travelers nowadays and I guess it’s harder and harder to stand out with your art. I feel like there are three categories of creators that are having a success on instagram:
(1) Those who started an account in early stages of IG. In times when it was much easier to grow the audience due to lack of competition. However, although many of those accounts have big followings they have a lack of engagement nowadays (lots of their followers are not active anymore).
(2) Those extremely special and talented – like @elizabethgadd or @bejamin. They don’t have to post a photo every single day or comment on hundreds of photos each day to get attention of others. Despite they still grow their audience, because big hubs (IG accounts) share their wonderful art.
(3) Talented and proactive – those really good photographers who spend 5+ hours a day on Instagram, sharing a photo each day, tons of IG stories, engaging with their audience, running shoutout groups and giveaways or using other marketing tools to grow their audience fast. They are good marketers. They know what their audience desires and they supply such demand.
(4) Proactive with a good story/topic to share – you don’t have to be the greatest photographer to have a success on IG, but if you have a story or a good niche that resonates with lots of people (vegan life, yoga, vanlife, fashion, dog, …) with the proactive attitude (commenting, networking, IG stories,… every day), you can grow your account really well.
In my case, I was lucky that several of my photos went viral and that’s where most of my followers found me. I share lots of photos from the polar places or mountains and it seems like there is something that my audience really likes… Sometimes I use hashtags of smaller hubs (under 50k followers). There one has a bigger chance to be seen and featured. I’ve heard from some of my friends, that several times they’ve sent a private message to big accounts if they would like to share their photos. I have never done that, but some of my friends succeeded with this strategy.
When I have time I love to genuinely engage with my followers, I really care for them and I want to help them. I want to hear their stories and support them in their dreams. I know that anything is possible if you really want it, but lots of people need a friendly push and I am here to give them that nice poke. I know that the rule is to reply every single comment, but I just can’t keep up. To feel good about what I am doing I need to do things that I feel are coming from within me. I don’t want to do that for sake of any rule or gaining more followers.
From “regular” Instagram user to “influencer”. What is the one thing that people don’t see along this process?
Being successful in Instagram means having a full time job. Sometimes two full times jobs! It can be really time consuming and It’s a lot about networking and creating relationship between you and your audience, but also between other creators. Sometimes you are under pressure when you don’t have any new content to share with your audience and it can feel sometimes like you are on a treadmill. When I started Instagram back in 2015 I had no idea what I was doing, I had no idea how to use hashtags, I did not reply almost any comments and for months I didn’t even know, that there is a message inbox! Then I had times when I was spending in Instagram around three to four hours a day. I am taking it easy now, trying not to spend in Instagram more than one hour a day. Although I can definitely see that my engagement drops always when I devote less time to IG.
As a traveler and photographer I am sure that you have more than one SD memory card full of amazing moments and experiences. It can be quite hard to delete a picture sometimes, even if the quality is not excellent…We can feel really attached to all our photos. However, if you had to choose, which picture would you say is your favorite?
That’s a tough one Alex! But I have a few photos that are precious to me. One of those is ‘Frozen Rainbow’ from Northwest Territories in Canada.
I spent over two months as a volunteer 500 km from the Arctic Circle, living in the tent with a little wood stove while outside the temperature was oscillating between -30 and -46 Celsius. The northern lights were out there on most of the nights! It was an incredible experience to live in such a wilderness environment. The night I took this photo, some magic could be found on the sky! I lit up the igloo and spent about half an hour shooting all that spectacular show. Afterwards I sat down and contemplate the sky without my hand being glued to the camera. I had butterflies in my stomach and tears in my eyes. I am convinced that our world is a miracle.
What is the most beautiful thing that travel has allowed you to do?
It probably allowed me to figure out faster what I want to do in my life (but believe me, it’s still quite foggy). Specially, to travel was useful to understand what I don’t want to do as well. It allowed me to be alone with nature, to be in places where you and the world can feel in unity, inseparable. I love to travel to places with great diving spots. I enjoy moments in blue, with manta rays, sharks, whales and all those floating creatures which are in the end some of the highlights of my journeys.
What are the three most valuable personal lessons you have learned traveling?
I am living on the edge of my comfort zone pretty much all the time and stepping out to the unknown territory quite often. But, while it’s not the most comforting feeling ever to be out there, it has challenged me and I believe all those challenges and hardships were worth it. I realized that I am a far more capable human being than I thought I was. And that realization was a total game changer. None of my dreams seem to be unreachable anymore and the only reason why I am not probably doing what have always wished to do, is me. It is just me who is between my me and reaching my dreams. And I know I probably don’t work hard enough to reach that dream. To realize this is very freeing and relieving and you will never be the same.
When I first started to travel, I wanted to see everything and I was packing and unpacking almost on a day basis. I almost started to hate traveling because of that. OK, hate is a too harsh word, but I definitely reached a phase where I wasn’t enjoying the journey anymore. So I slowed down. And I started to enjoy traveling again. Now I only take it easy, if I feel like staying in the hotel the whole day and watch movies, I will do that without feeling guilty. Before I do something I ask myself if I really want to do that or if I would do that just because I planned it or someone expected me to do that.
I confess, I thought that I could be happy only if I had enough money, if I could travel, if I find the true love, if I reach 10.000 followers on IG, if I…… Those two words “if I” will never do good for us. Even though it’s good to have some goals and work towards them, we shouldn’t rely on “if I” to make us happy. Be present and content with whatever you have available in the moment, enjoy little things and people who love you. That’s the happiness. It’s created within you and not to be find anywhere out there in the world.
Imagine yourself at the beginning of your professional career as a photographer. What four pieces of advice would you give to yourself?
(1) Go and spend those extra xxx dollars on a decent lens. Because to have at least one great lens, preferably a prime lens, will motivate you so much to create.
(2) Don’t shut down that alarm clock (oh how many gorgeous sunrises I have probably missed! But the warmth of my sleeping bag was so hard to leave!)
(3)Create the Instagram account finally!
(4) There will never be the right time, so do that thing right now (approach brands, start to sell prints, offer photo courses, etc.). There’s no reason to wait my dears.
Is there any artist/photographer who has inspired your art? Can you name three?
I mention her very often and Lizzy must be really thinking that I am obsessed with her work. But the truth is that, in fact, I am. Haha. I met Elizabeth Gadd @elizabethgadd in person and she is such a lovely and gentle human being. Her art is eatheric and outstanding and she was one of the biggest reasons why I started to take photography more seriously.
Another great artist out there is @bejamin. I love the way he sees the world and I think he’s one the most creative photographers out there. Everything he publishes is incredible and leaves you speechless. I am always spending a good minute or two staring at his new photos. He’s a great reminder that we can always be even more creative.
One of my favourite photographers out there is also Jarrad Seng (@jarradseng) from Australia. He’s not following crowds but bringing new creative approaches. His photographs have so much life in them and everything about Jarrad seems to be very genuine.
But frankly I could write here another hundred of pages to name all the photographers and friends who are amazing photographers.
Any new projects coming up or countries you will be visiting soon?
I finally created my photography web portfolio www.martinagebarovska.com and I will soon launch an eshop with the prints. In a couple of weeks I will be exploring Sunshine Coast in British Columbia and fly to Madeira soon. Then I will hop on the plane to visit my family in Czech Republic and will be coming back to North America to explore Alaska and Yukon during summer. But nothing is sure and everything can change quickly. I like it that way. There’s also a new travel app launching and I am one of their contributors, so let’s see where they will send me. Nepal is a hot candidate
Can you fix the world in one sentence?
I personally don’t think that the world needs to be fixed, and I like to think that slowly we are awakening. To change or fix things we have to start with ourselves. We need to feel content and present to do good things. To spread love and kindness unconditionally. I love thoughts of Eckhart Tolle and this one is one of my favourites: “Most humans are never fully present in the now, because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.” (hint: time in nature, yoga and meditation helps to achieve that).
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