Editorial Team at WallMag Updated on Jul 9, 2019 5 min read

Featured Photographer of the Month: Sergey Vidusov

1) Tell us where it all began. How did you become a photographer?

I have been using all sorts of cameras, both film and digital, ever since I was a teenager back in Russia. It wasn't an artistic endeavour back then - just a few random snaps here and there - but even then I already had an eye for a nice composition and a sense of scene. Or was faking it convincingly, at least.

When I moved to Australia, I fell in love with the country's incredibly diverse scenery and started travelling around in my 4WD to try and see as much of it as I could. Then a very good friend of mine said one day: "Your photos are so good, you should make a calendar out of them!" I was somewhat dubious about it at first, because, I mean, does anyone even use calendars in 21st century? But I did do it in the end; and I'm forever grateful to my friend for this, because her words set me on a long path of me reevaluating my work from just a collection of travel snaps to something that could actually have some artistic value. And now, even though I'm not making a living out of photography just yet, I try to get out there as often as possible and shoot as much as I can, simply because I can't get enough of it anymore.

Oh, and I still make these calendars every year, by the way. Let me know if you want some.

2) How did you discover your style of photography? How would you describe your style?

Primarily, I'm fascinated by nature and landscapes, which comprises the most of my work. I even go as far as to try and exclude all people and man-made objects from most of my shots - unless I'm doing portraits or street photography, of course; but that is mostly for cleansing my palate, so to speak, rather than something I'd consider doing all the time.

In any case, my goal is to stay as true to what I see with my own eyes as possible. Which means no excessive editing, no unrealistic blending, and no long exposures (apart from the night sky shots, that is). I barely even use any filters. I think that nature is beautiful as it is, and I just don't see why I should try and "enhance" it. Of course, I do edit all my images (sometimes painstakingly so), but it's only to make them look more like the way I, as an artist, saw the scene, which is not necessarily the way my camera saw it by itself.

Neither of that is set in stone, by any means. My style evolved quite gradually, and as I work more and experience more, it will inevitably change. Because who wants to do the same thing the same way over and over again, right?

3) Who and/or what influences your work and why?

Pretty much everything, really. I look at other people's work constantly, because it always stimulates me and gives me ideas, and makes me strive to be better and better. My own work also influences me, in a way: I keep coming back to my photos to see what made them tick and what didn't, and I learn from my own (numerous) mistakes and (occasional) successes. And, of course, the nature itself influences me a great deal. There wouldn't be a good landscape photo without a good landscape, after all.

4) Is there a photographer or artist who you admire or think they are killing right now?

There's quite a few people whose work I admire. Rach Stewart does a wonderful job with her New Zealand landscapes, even though her style and philosophy are quite different from mine. Timothy Poulton is another great name that comes to mind. Ken Duncan, Kai Hornung, Dan Ballard... the list goes on and on. With the proliferation of available gear and software, there's so many people out there doing outstanding work these days!

5) Tell us through your photography process. How do you complete your work from start to finish?

It all starts with the scene, of course. Something catches my eye all of a sudden - an interesting arrangement of objects and lines, a particularly beautiful light, or simply something I've never seen before - and from there, my job is to try and actually figure out what it is that makes it so fetching. With landscapes, you usually have a fair bit of time to do that, so I try to "interrogate the scene" and see as many different angles and options there as I can, and try them all out.

Then, of course, there's the task of actually taking a photo. Time to pick the ISO, white balance, aperture and exposure, pay attention to focus and histogram - all the technical stuff. There's always something more to learn there, and each time I go out there and shoot, I learn something new about my camera and how it works. It can be a real pain sometimes; but more often than not, it's actually fun. And I always shoot and store all photos in RAW. Don't repeat my mistakes and never, ever destroy your RAWs, please.

And after that - you guessed it! - it's the editing. I do 99% of my editing in Lightroom, just because it's so powerful these days; however, sometimes my good old Photoshop also comes to help. I don't use presets, because I believe that each photo warrants an individual approach; however, these days my workflow is pretty streamlined and takes very little time for most part. And when I'm finally satisfied with how it all turned out, I export the image in JPEG (with slightly different settings, depending on the destination), and voila - it's available for all of you to see on the Instagram, Facebook, or (if it's particularly good) my own website. Pardon me this act of shameless self-promotion here, of course.