Interview with Photographer Dominic Kamp
Dominic Kamp is a passionate photographer originally from Germany,Dominic studied finance in London and is now a banker in Switzerland. His wide range of inspiring photography makes him one of my favorite photographers and one of the best to hold a camera. I had the chance to interview Dominic Kamp and we talked about topics from photography to James Bond movies. Here is what we talked about. Enjoy!
2dots-Can you please tell readers a bit about yourself?
DK-Thanks for inviting me for this interview Aaron. My name is Dominic Kamp, I was born in Germany and i am 28 years old. Until recently I have been studying finance in London and will soon be working for a bank in Zurich, Switzerland. I discovered photography in 2007 as a hobby when I purchased my first DSLR and continued it passionately until today.
2dots-Discovering photography in 2007 as a photographer how have you evolved or grown professionally?
DK-It is not like I never had a camera before 2007, but I never had a professional one. The reason I wanted to evolve my photography skills went hand in hand with my discovery of Flickr in 2007. The photographer “Insert name” has been one of the early initiators of HDR photography and having been absolutely stunned by his works, I decided to purchase the same camera and lens he used. A Nikon D80 and a Sigma 10-20mm.
As apposed to discovering photography in 2007, I started using Photoshop when I was 13years old. Back then I found it to be a great tool for creating birthday cards, rebuilding movie posters or creating $1bn bank notes. But with digital photography becoming more and more present, I also started adjusting photos. At first I only edited jpg files and adjusted contrast, colours and a couple of small details. Soon enough however, I learned about the advantages of RAW editing and found it to be superior to the often surreal looking HDR technique, especially when it comes to landscape photography.
DK-It’s a variety of different factors that makes the perfect picture for me but good preparation is certainly the most important one for me. Whenever I go somewhere special, I check out Flickr and Google Maps to find the perfect spot. Although I don’t specifically use HDR technique, I still often shoot a bracketing series of 5 to 7 images in order to compose differently exposed shots. This gives me a maximum of variety to create the perfect image.
2dots-From being a finance student to photography and film-making, how do you enlighten yourself to carry on different projects? Any specific inspirations?
DK-When I actively started photography, I enjoyed it so much that I seriously considered quitting my studies and pursuing a career in photography. But leaving behind years of education for a newly discovered passion didn’t seem very clever. Today, Photography gives me the opportunity to relax and forget about a stressful working day. Sometimes I see an inspirational image in a movie or on the Internet and use this as a new project to create a similar image. This was the case for “The lovely bones”. The scenes in this movie were simply stunning!
2dots-What is your favorite gadget now?
DK- (laughs) Frankly, I’m a bit obsessed with gadgets and there’s one item, I’m taking with me everywhere. That’s my iPhone, the best invention ever made.
DK-I would say, my trip to the U.S. was by far the most amazing one, because there’s no country that has so many different sceneries.
DK-Finance can be very dry which is why photography is the perfect hobby for me to get balance from a stressful day
DK- In terms of Photoshop compositions, I gotta say "Maligne Starry Sky" because I created the whole picture from scratch. Everything you see, apart from the mountains and the lakeshore, has been created in Photoshop. The creation was very challenging since merging the individual parts of the image needed to fit together in terms of lighting, contrast and coloring.
2dots-You have made James Bond fan made films, how did that come up about and what was the experience like?
DK- I have always been thrilled about James Bond – every time a Bond movie was on TV, I had to watch it. No matter how many times i have watched it already. When I discovered Adobe Premiere and After Effects, the possibilities seemed endless and I shot the first James Bond movie to get familiar with these two programs. The other two followed in my summer breaks in the years after. Unfortunately, they never really kicked off. Must be my German accent (smiles)
Click here to watch Dominic Kamp's fan made James Bond movies
2dots-How do you go about with film-making compared to photography?
DK-Film-making is certainly the more advanced profession. However, my passion is photography. This will probably never change.
2dots-I am a huge fan of James Bond myself, what do you think of the state of the James Bond movies?
DK-Although I really like the new James Bond movies, especially Casino Royale, Sean Connery was still the best!
2dots-Travelling around the world, how has that helped you as an individual and a photographer?
DK-Inspiration and curiosity are two very important elements that drive me to discover new places. I was lucky enough to have seen quite a few places already but my “To-Do” list is still very long!
2dots-They say a picture is worth a thousand words, what message/ information do your pictures say?
DK-Serenity, tranquility and vivacity.
2dots- Top 3 visually inspiring movies.
DK-Star Trek (2009), Transformers and The lovely bones
2dots- In your opinion how will you define creativity and how do you apply it in your everyday life ?
2dots-Aside from photography and film making what else are you passionate about?
DK-I’m very passionate about movies. Science fiction movies are my favourite genre.
2dots-Any current projects you are working on? and any unfulfilled dreams you want to share ?
DK-I just started a job in Switzerland, which will limit my spare time in the future, but my dream is to do a trip through America and Asia.
2dots-What do you like most about what you do?
DK-Freedom of creativity
Dominic Kamp's Official website- http://www.dominickamp.de/
Dominic Kamp's Flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dominic_kamp/
