He’s shoots and his images score, to use an old hockey standard, and appropriate as Yanik Chauvin, featured today on Photog Friday, is from Canada. Yanik isn’t content with taking great photographs, he also wants to share his knowledge. His website, Yanik’s Photo School, is full of video tutorials, software tips and tricks and lighting set-ups: A must-visit for all photographers. How did Yanik get started? What are his secrets? What does he have up his sleeve? Read on…
Name: Yanik Chauvin
Country of residence: Canada
Brief Bio: I’m a Montreal-based professional photographer specializing in stock photography and working with publishing houses and magazines. Teacher at heart, I’m also the owner and editor of Yanik’s Photo School giving free photography tutorials and tips.
How did you first get interested in photography?
I think it started when I was roughly 4 years old when my mom nick named me “kid Kodak”. I would waste film after film after film. She would have to hide the camera from me. 🙂 My love for photography was rekindled in 2002 when I purchased my first digital camera, the Nikon CoolPix 4500. Now I could waste pixels instead of film at a lesser cost!
What do you like to shoot?
At the moment, my passion is shooting with my iPhone. I shoot many photos a day of just about anything and I always upload at least one a day on Twitter and Facebook. Shooting every day pushes my creativity and I believe this makes me a better photographer an it reflects in my commercials jobs.
I have to admit though that I love to travel so travel photography is a big part of who I am also.
What’s your approach to photography, your philosophy? What do you look for? How do you set-up a shot?
Wow! That’s a mouth-full! 🙂 Well, my approach usually revolves around lighting. Lighting is what makes your photo great or just average, so once I have my concept, my mind starts thinking about how to light it the best way possible. I don’t really have a set signature style when it comes to lighting . I’m always experimenting, trying out new lighting styles. Sometimes happy mistakes happen!
What is the best photo you have taken? Why? Background and details, please…
Hmmmmmmm… that’s a toughy. If I had to choose just one I think it would be this canoe shot taken on the Malbaie river in the Haute Gorge Park in Quebec. I took this at a very important moment in my life. I was actually on a 2 week soul searching voyage trying to decide whether or not I was going to make the leap to be a full-time photographer. This shot represents who I am and symbolizes my life’s journey.
What gear are you using? What else do you want to buy?
I’m currently shooting with the Nikon D300s. For lenses, I have the Nikkor 17-55mm, Nikkor 18-200mm VR, Nikkor 80-400mm VR, Nikkor 50mm f1.4, Sigma 10-20mm and the Lensbaby 3G. For lights, I have 4 SB-800s and 4 Aurora Genesis studio strobes with tons of light modifiers.
Which area of photography would you like to explore further (macro, landscapes, portraits)
Story telling. I have yet to fully explore this area yet but I know it’s something in me that I want to explore. I have many stories to tell and I want to share them trough my photos. Being able to paint a story in one shot will stimulate my creative juices.
Where do you see your photography 5 years from now?
I don’t really think that far in advance. 🙂 What I can say is that as long as I wake up in the morning happy to be a photographer and always wanting to push my art, I’ll do what I do. I have many photography projects in my head and I hope to realize just a few of them in this lifetime!
What’s the best advice you would give to fellow photographers?
Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! The more you shoot, the better you’ll get. The more you shoot, the more you’ll discover what you love to shoot you most.
Where can we find your images?
You can find all of my Websites at IMAGE-Y.com.