This week we have with us Pablo Beglez, a wedding photographer based in a small Spanish island off the coast of Morocco. The island is Gran Canaria (also known as the Great Island of Dogs). Pablo travels worldwide for weddings and is into a sort of messy but insanely yummy looking food photography that you just want to reach into and eat. Thanks for sharing Pablo!
Editor’s Update: Pablo will be speaking at Choo Choo Camp this October, 10 - 13th 2016, in NYC! If you want to hear him speak, sign up here.
1. Why do you make images?
Photography has always been very present at home. My uncles and mom are big fans so I grew up smelling all the chemicals involved in the process of photography. That was magic for me.
Soon I realized that I was not a fan of letters and numbers. And I spent all my hours in class drawing pictures and traveling in my mind to incredible worlds where I had never been.
I stole my mom's Canon A1 every time it was possible to keep investigating between diaphragms and speeds. I remember laughing a lot when my mom brought home her rolls and found pictures she hadn't taken.
Taking pictures became the best way to understand the world and since then I always carry my camera around.
2. What is life to you? What it should be?
Life is an adventure that begins the moment you are born, a pretty exciting adventure.
It is like if you try to climb a mountain where you can never get to the top. You should never try to reach for the top because if you get there everything will be over, meaning that you have archive every goal you had. And what is life without a purpose? Every day is a new challenge, to learn, to experience, to make mistakes. Life is a constant improvement.
3. Where did you grow up and how did that play a part in your photography?
I was born on an island in the Atlantic Ocean (Gran Canaria). They call it the place of eternal spring. The weather is amazing and the average temperature throughout the year is 24 degrees. Due to the marvelous weather conditions I'm constantly outside enjoying the beautiful places this island hides. There are so many impressions I want to capture with my camera on this island.
4. There are a lot of professions out there - why be a photographer?
As I said before, I always used to have a close relationship with photography and I guess that is what led me to study it and to dedicate my life to it. My job came out of my passion and today I couldn't do anything else but take pictures, tell stories, eternalize moments and make them memories.
5. Do you have a “second profession” or passion?
I am dedicated exclusively to photography, that is my main passion. Other than that I enjoy surfing, skating and running.
6. What movie did you love recently?
I've been watching some of my favorite movies again for inspiration. The last one was The Shining. Years ago I used to rate movies based on their plot and now I rate and remember them because of their photography. I feel quite identified with Stanley Kubrick, he pretty much broke the rules shooting everything with the one point perspective. That is from where I get my inspiration. And also from Wes Anderson.
7. Is/Are there any project(s) you wish you could do - or might do?
Right now I'm working in a personal project that will see the light soon, it's a book about food photography.
8. Do you shoot with your left or right eye?
I'm left handed but despite that I shoot with my right eye, I never close the left eye, it allows me to see with more detail the things that are very small in the viewfinder.
9. Are there any unseen experimental images in your attic you’d like to show us now?
As I said before I'm experimenting right know with food photography, but not the kind where everything has to look perfect. I like when it looks real, messy and natural.
10. If you were to start all over again, is there anything you would do differently? Why?
When I started shooting I thought that my photos were amazing, as I improved my perception started changing. Today my pictures are somewhat better than when I started. However I'm never fully pleased with them. It is so important to keep always learning and forming yourself. The world moves so fast that everything changes in the speed of light, maybe that is what I would change, that trends wouldn't pass by so fast.
