The Instagram Interviews: Sylvia Matzkowiak
1. Could you share a little bit about yourself and how you got started in photography?
I started about 4 years ago just with doing some random pics on instagram. I started to follow people with beautiful Landscape images and discovered the first HDR pics. My goal was to one day create a HDR picture like I saw before.
I bought a DSLR and started to practice and improve my skills ins photography by watching tutorials, asking real photographers and practicing every day. I was fascinated by the results and this is how I started with Landscape photography.
2. Could you share a little bit about your shooting/editing style as a photographer and how it’s evolved over time?
My style is just simple : Nature & Landscape & Lifestyle, its all about the colors in the world and fantastic places.
I take pics with different Cameras – DSLR, Compact or sometimes Gopro – it’s all about the situation and the light conditions. I love to do long exposure, HDR and action pics too. I don’t think about what to capture, I just take a look around me and always find a special place to capture. The world always gives you many chances to capture something beautiful. It’s not about complaining you missed something, its about capturing the beauty you see forever. I don’t edit that much as I use either Lightroom or Snapped just to brighten up the images and add some colors.
I don’t like faded colors as they look sad to me – that is why my pics will be colorful – that means happiness to me.
3. What has your social media journey been like since you started taking photos?
You should focus on one main platform and use this to create add-ons – you can’t be on 2 journeys at the same time.
I started with Instagram and the reach is very big right now, but I put a lot of work and effort into this. After a certain time I created my fanpage on Facebook to show my images uncorked. And least and def. the last (for a long time) is my Blog, where you find all behind the scenes pics from all my journey.
I will focus on Instagram and my Blog in the future, as I think that this is the best composition to show my travel experiences. The choice of a platform is related to a goal that everyone has and a special vertical (Fashion, Food, Travel, Automotive).
4. Speaking of social media, what advice would you give to someone looking to reach more people with their photos?
It’s always the same and will stay the same: focus on one thing and do it regularly with PASSION. You can’t be successful without living and loving what you do. If you are not passionate about what you do, you will stay average , even if you put in more effort than others.
You have to love what you do 🙂
5. What one thing has made the biggest impact on you as a photographer?
There are different impacts, but the biggest impact is, to see what spectacular images other photographers made – that’s my goal. When I think I can achieve the same one day – I will try it!
6. Anything else you’d like to add?
Just believe you can – and you are halfway there.