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Patryk
@patman_photography
Landscape photographer based in the UK
It is the freedom that I feel when I am out in the field that fed – and continues to feed – my passion for photography. When you’re doing photography you push yourself a lot more than the normal tourist does on a holiday. You go that extra mile and take the longer route just to see things other people don’t. And every time you’d be discovering places that motivate you even more to keep going and plan your next escape to the outdoors. Photography makes me want to explore all the hidden gems of this world. To be honest, I used to sleep till mid-day before I took photos.
"Now I wake up early to get to awesome locations before the sunrise. I never thought that I would be able to do this but photography makes it easy."
Actually, it all started with car photography. A friend of mine posted super clean photos of his car and that triggered my interest. Back then I was involved in the car scene and was attending a lot of car shows around England. I wanted to take better photos of my own car and eventually the cars on shows. He helped me pick the first camera and it all went off from there. When I took the camera with me on my first holiday I realized I enjoyed shooting landscapes just as much as cars, but the results were not quite satisfying. I started watching tutorials on landscape photography and practicing in the field.
"After my first trip to Madeira I was happy with what I had produced and wanted to keep improving."
I realized that the amount of work that goes behind each photo is real. It’s hard work but it’s all worth it in the end. As someone who was used to sleeping until noon, I had another challenge to overcome when I just started shooting landscapes. It was not easy to wake early, drive all day around the island looking for the perfect spot and walking 20k steps with all the gear on your back. Now, I rather get up early and enjoy all the beautiful views with perfect light than stay in an all inclusive hotel by the pool and sleep until late.
"If it wasn't for photography I wouldn't have seen half of the places I saw."
One of the places I keep coming back to is Portugal. I’ve been there three times now, twice in Madeira and once in Sao Miguel, Azores. After my first visit in Madeira the love for landscape photography really started; that place is just full of amazing locations, wherever you go there’s something picture worthy. I love to get lost and find places that people don’t know about or have never seen (at least the average tourist). My opinion about Madeira can be described with one word: Beautiful. You know some places have one thing or another to offer. Madeira has everything that you need for a good photo. If you love waterfalls, Madeira has it. If you’re looking for mountains, Madeira has it. Ocean views, rocks, beaches, amazing coastline, flowers…
"Madeira has it all. The roads are awesome too, lots of curves and tunnels and there are lots of hikes; you can find them pretty much every couple of meters."
"After my first visit to Madeira I wanted to see another island and found out about Azores. We've booked a holiday to Sao Miguel and it was just as awesome as Madeira."
One day, I went out early in the morning to take photos of the sunrise. The weather was kind of bad, the clouds had covered the sun and there wasn’t much going on in the sky. I was patiently waiting while an older guy approached me. I don’t speak Portuguese and he didn’t speak much English so we had a hard time communicating. I know I’ve missed out on a lot of information from this guy, I just understood that he lived on the island for 45 years and randomly gestured to a bird and pointed at a small island in front of us. At that point I didn’t really know what he was on about until he walked up a bit closer to it and started clapping his hands and imitating bird noises. Next thing I saw was hundreds if not thousands of swallow birds (I assume) flying around the island.
"I think this was an amazing experience. It taught me that - how hard or inconvenient it may seem, connecting in any possible way with locals is worth it."
It can add some much value to your trip and experience, and it’s always something unexpected and surprising you couldn’t have imagined or figured out yourself.
From what I’ve seen so far, it just makes me want to explore the rest of Portugal. The plan is to see Lisbon and the Algarve coast next. It is not just for nature, but there are many other factors that make Portugal such a great travel destination. The people are all super friendly, they treat you like you’re one of them and are always willing to help with whatever you need. It’s also super affordable, not far from the UK and alot of people speak English which makes it easy to travel around. When I am home, I’m trying to see as much of it as I can in my spare time. I’ve been positively surprised by the landscape you can find here. When you hear UK people often think of rainy days and London but there’s much more and you don’t have to spend loads of money to see it. You’d have a hard time guessing some of the photos are from UK if they didn’t have a location stated.
Being above the clouds is breathtaking, what normally everyone sees above their head is now below you. You feel like on top of the world, floating on marshmallows. The view of the setting sun which makes the clouds glow all shades of orange is just an amazing experience. If you’re fast enough you can still get down and watch the sun setting behind the horizon. I mean how often can you see sunset twice in one day? You know when you’re by the ocean, the waves crush and you feel the breeze touching your skin? That’s pretty much how it feels when a cloud is surrounding you and gently stroking your face.
"One of the best feelings when you're hiking and get cooled down with a cloud."
"With my photography I would like to pass on these feelings."
I want people to feel as if they’re there with me, to feel the warmth of the sunset, the cold breeze of the clouds, the wind by the ocean, the freedom of mind when you’re surrounded by nothing but nature. I hope to provoke the desire to go out and explore. I edit all my photos individually and try to give a true image of what the place actually looked like and what I felt being there. For me personally, it’s because of landscape photography that I want to travel the world. Not only to hop through countries and claim I’ve seen them all but to appreciate and re visit different parts of each country.
"Document it with photos, share the locations and hopefully inspire people to go and see it too."
So far it’s just a hobby which I do in my free time but I’d love some day to turn it into my profession. I just love taking photos and the whole process of it; travelling to different locations, getting to know (for me) unknown cultures and meeting people from across the world is just amazing. Seeing people do that and get paid for it seems like the perfect career. You know they say if you love what you do you won’t ever have to work a day in your life. If I could ever help businesses with my photos, it would be the best job ever.
"So I try to improve as much as I can and maybe one day my dream will become reality."
Nevertheless, doing photography provides much more profound and meaningful value than only the monetary value it could generate. After travelling to different places and seeing all the beautiful landscapes I’ve realized how big of a problem us humans are. Even the prettiest places are being ruined by people throwing rubbish and not taking any care of what the world has to offer and how grateful we should be for that. We need it, we depend on it; it allows us to live. Nature photography really changed the way I think now. Before I didn’t really care about what’s going on and now I do my best to help as much as I can.
"From feeding stranded animals to picking up rubbish and just being a better version of myself. Photography had a big impact on who I am now."
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