WELCOME TO MY SITE!

I'm Yaroslav Staniec a self taught landscape photographer from West Sussex, England, born in Poland. I've been interested in photography since I can remember and it was by brother who introduced me to the magical world of photography and a wet darkroom.

It was in 1980 when he gave me my first camera. It was a simple, made in the USSR camera called Smena 8. Nothing was automatic in it, all manual setups only, so one had to learn and experiment a lot to get results. My first SLR camera was Zenith TTL which I still own but just as a nostalgic memoralia rather than a working tool.


INSPIRATION:
When I was just a little boy i liked to observe my father a landscape painter,painting in his worksop. I used to admire beautiful landscapes in oils emerging under his brush onto the canvas. It was like an alchemy to me. I liked it so much so I also tried to paint some pictures under his guidance. But I gave it up, not because I couldn't paint, but because it was taking a long time to paint one picture, sometimes even several days. I was unpatient to wait so long time to see the results.

On the other hand while observing my brother taking pictures and working in his little darkroom I realised that I could 'paint' much more images and much quick using a camera as my brush and light as my paint. And so my adventure with this fascinating art which is photography begun in early eighties.

Eight years ago I started to think of it more seriously, considering it to become my way to make a living. I started reading lots of books and magazines and intensively studying works of such masters of landscape photography as: Ansel Adams, Carr Clifton, Tom Till, Charlie Waite, Joe Cornish and others great photographers and also visiting a lot Art Galleries and Museums.

I found internet to be a priceless source of information and knowledge. I can tell of myself that I am 100% self taught photographer who draws his knowledge and inspiration from experiences of some great photographers and authors - no art classes and no art training classes.I am not opposed to it, but I have never gone...


What inspires me to the greatest extend is beauty of the world and nature and seeing it beautifully captured in my photos brings me great joy and satisfaction.


PHILOSOPHY, VISION, AND PASSION:
I believe that the core of a good landscape shot comprises of the three main elements: composition, best selection of timing and light.Light is the most important ingredient of good photography,the quality light which is available maybe a couple dozens of minutes during the day. The light which with its tone, contrast puts the dot above ' i ' in ideally created landscape photo.

My favourite type of light is the golden light which for a brief moment of time appeares through ochre,dark blue clouds that we can sometimes observe during sunsets or sunrises. As the result where foreground is deeply saturated with golden colour and deep contrast of the ochre clouds in the background,the landscape view shocks with its richness of colours and tones.Such lighting conditions are 'manna from heaven' for a landscape photographer. Unfortunately such conditions do not happen very often during the year and if so they usually do not last longer than minutes during a day before they fade away and turn into darkness of the night or brightness of the day.


I am deeply convinced that the light as the most important element with its colour, quality and strength has the greatest influence to the succes of the final image.

Beauty is all around us constantly, but there are short moments wchich can display its breathtaking,spectacular beauty in such a way that it amazes us and moves our filings. And whoever will be lucky enough to wittness such a magnificent performance of the beautiful landscape will always cherish and keep it in his/her mind and heart. The happiness of such a moment will be even greater if it happens that the person will be lucky enough to capture this beauty with a camera.


HARD WORK and GREAT PRIZE:
Most of the times, in order to be a wittness of such a display I walk miles and miles across the land with a bag of heavy equipment on my back. And quite ofthen when I finally find the right place there is some ingredient missig - most often it is a right light. Then I have to pack-up and try to come back again to the same place another time or rather 'times' before I finally find all the three elements being there all together.

So it requires endurance and lots of patience and persistance.. but this price pays back aboundantly when I can see somebody who can admire the landscape through my photography sometimes even to such an extent that he/she wants to go there and see it personally. And that's it!


EQUIPMENT:

I use Olympus cameras and lensens:
E-510
E-3
Lenses include:
ZD 11-22mm F2.8-3.5
ZD 35mm f3.5 Macro
ZD 14-42mm f3.5-5.6
ZD 40-150mm f4.0-5.6
ZD 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 ED SWD
Lee filter system.
Velbon Sherpa PRO CF 635 tripod with QHD-71Q Ball Head
Lowepro SlingShoot 300AW
Lowepro Vertex 200 AW


DIGITAL DARKROOM:

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Picture Window Pro 4.0



I hope you enjoy my work, if you wish to contact me you can use the form on CONTACT page or Mail me

Follow me on Flickr




Thanks for looking!
Yaroslav Staniec