My name is Maciej Duczynski, I’m Polish and currently live in Katowice, Poland
From the time I was sixteen, I’ve always carried a camera in my bag during my travels. For my first trip to the mountains I borrowed a Russian Zenit TTL camera from my friend. I put my heart in those pictures, only to discover upon my return that the shutter was broken… Not a single picture could be salvaged.
No, by education I’m an electrical engineer, and I work doing technical testing on passenger trains. Photography is “only” my hobby and great passion.
Unfortunately I’m still far from mastery of photography (smiles)! For about the last two years I’ve been closely associated with HDR technique, even though I don’t use it that much – at the moment about 30% of my pictures are done this way. One of the bigger problems in landscape photography is the very limited dynamic range of today’s digital SLR cameras. I manage this problem using either the HDR technique (combining several shots at differing exposure of the same scene) or ND grad filters. In my opinion theory of HDR is good, but real-life results are far from perfect so I use it as a last option – only when I’m using a lens without front thread.
My very first picture from Norway was made back in August 2005, so about three years ago. Since 2005 I went to Norway four times, for about 7 – 14 days and I took one fourteen day trip to Iceland. I actually was living in Sweden for 3 years so naturally I have a lot of photographs from that country.
I have to admit that mountain photography is my biggest passion. It’s probably a result of the fact that I used to spend every free moment in the mountains and they are closest to my heart. For me, the ideal combination is landscape where you can find both mountains and water together, hence my affinity for Scandinavia.
Well, like in every other discipline it requires great passion, sacrifice, a lot of work etc etc. Nowadays it is very important to develop oneself in two parallel areas: photography as such, and working with photo editing software. Preserving adequate proportions of each, of course.
The album is entitled ‘The Most beautiful Parts of Scandinavia’ and it should be released in the fall of this year. Unfortunately I cannot give you any more details – I’m still negotiating with the publisher.
Photography is just a hobby, unfortunately I cannot commit as much time to it as I’d like to. I haven’t had a camera in my hands since November 2007 (sighs). I hope that really soon I’ll get back on track, meaning three or four trips every year to places that will let me really bury myself in photography for a while.
At the moment it’s Canon EOS 5D with four lenses: Canon 24-70 f 2.8, Canon 100-400 f 4.5-5.6, Canon 15mm Fisheye and Sigma 12-24 f 4.5-5.6.
At the moment my exhibition ‘The Colors of Europe’ is on display thru September 4th in Krakow’s club ‘Pauza’ (‘Pause’), 18 Florianska street. The same exhibition will be held in October in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Celje, Slovenia; then later in January 2009 at ‘Ksiaznica Pomorska’ in Szczecin, Poland. In November this year I’ll present an exhibition of my black and white landscapes at B&B Gallery in Bielsko-Biala.
My plans are rather long-term. Next year I’d like to go to New Zealand or Canada. Later this year maybe Sardinia and Corsica. If I have a spare moment I’d love to visit Norway again.
Maciej Duczynski Official Website:
www.lonelywolf.pl