Meet Mondi Dauti - The Portrait Photographer from London
A film beginning - My passion for photography started properly about a year ago when I got my first film camera (Nikon F3), before that I was using a basic Canon digital camera. my main reason for taking a step back in technology and going into film photography was that at the time, I felt like with a digital camera I didn't care about photography and what I was capturing because of one main reason (memory cards!).
I felt like a mindless robot pointing and shooting at anything and everything without a thought of what was the reason for taking the photo in the first place, because of that the photo just remained in my memory cards/hard drives to never be seen again. because of that reason, I decided to go back to film photography.
After all, I felt that for me it would slow me down and get me thinking about the photo I was about to take because I only had 24/36 exposures and it also brought an element of excitement because you didn't know what the photo would look like at the end until you got it developed and printed.
Never ending journey - I still consider my self an amateur photographer because I am still learning and still developing my photography style, my photography style I feel is all over the place at the moment but I had to describe my style, I would say it's moody that's my I add a particular tune to each photo on my story to hopefully reflect the photo I’ve taken.
I have changed as a photographer from last year, now I'm always looking for good composition, lights, shadows, depth of field, etc. During this pandemic, because I was not able to get my photos developed due to my developing shop being closed, I had to choose to get back into digital photography and after 3 weeks of research on what camera to get that was as close to film photography I came across one of the best cameras digital camera in my opinion of all time, I used this particular camera though out my quarantine with an adapter that I was able to mount on my Nikon F3 lens and get that vintage look to my photography. this is the fuji x-pro 2 camera that has changed my mind about digital photography and its capabilities. I have also developed in the use of Lightroom to get my photo to look amazingly moody in my opinion. like I said I'm still quite new at this and still learning but one of the main habits that iv picked up during my short time as a photographer is trying to see the world in black and white when I loom through the viewfinder because for me it eliminates all the distractions and with the x-pro 2 that comes so much easier because i can set it to black and white and have the films in RAW so that I can still get the colour photos.
No excuses - I work as a train engineer and I work in a 5 on 5 off shift so for me it might be much easier to follow my passion then most people that are working a 9 to 5 but I think if you really put your mind to it and just continue shooting no matter what, it does not matter what you do for a living if this makes you happy you will find time for it, whether you're on the way to work or going home. I feel like I have some of my best ideas about photography when I'm at work so yes I feel like I have to always fulfil my passion.
Just one quote that i really like about photography "Photography is the story I fail to put into words."
Destin Sparks
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