Biography

I was born in Italy in 1985 and I have always been fascinated by nature, travel, exploration. I got my first SLR, a Nikon N60 film camera, in 1999, so I begun taken photos of nature subjects. Initially photography wasn't my passion - I toke photos just to "record" the subject on film, but with time I have got more and more involved into photography, that now has become my great passion.

I switched to digital in 2004, and in 2005 I switched to Canon. At that time Canon had far better technology than Nikon, but nowadays things have changed a lot and both Canon and Nikon offers excellent lenses and cameras. Anyway, now I am a Canon CPS...CPS is Canon Professional Service, it means that I have some benefits from Canon (for example I can try for free lenses and cameras for some weeks), but it does not mean I am paid or sponsored by Canon :-)

Even tough I own only five lenses - 4 Canon and 1 Sigma - I take photos with tons of lenses and cameras from nearly every manufacturer...I often get lenses from Sigma and other brands both for reviewing and for field testing, and I really enjoy testing equipment. I am fascinated by technology, in particular by high end digital cameras and by lenses.

Nowadays, I am a full time professional nature photographer. I have read countless discussions about the definition of "nature photographer"; honestly, I don't care very much ;-) For me being a nature photographer means walking in grassfields at sunrise to take macro photos; being fascinated by the view of a little bug; watching with awe a sunset between the mountains, when the landscape is bathed into the golden light...

I have begun using Photoshop years ago and now I consider it an essential component of my work. Photoshop is an extraordinary tool and I highly recommend to everyone to spend some time learning how to post-process his photos: being able to careful post process a photo is almost as important as being able to master the techniques in the field! In my photos, I try to depict vivid, intense colors, rich contrast and great detail; post processing helps to materialize the vision I have in my mind when I take the photo...it is a way to give a personal style to the photos. A very important thing for me is to maintain a realistic look: I don't like the photos that show evident post-processing artefacts, as composites and many HDR photos; I believe that a well done post processing should be "transparent": the final photo should look great, but it must not look "artificial". 

Other than nature, I love travelling and exploring other countries. Until 2007, I had never been outside Italy, then one morning of August I tought about reaching North Cape with my car...it is just 11,000 km away :-) Two week after I left Italy for a long on-the-road trip between Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, until I reached North Cape. My only travelmate, a Canon 20D, allowed me to take photos of the raw beauty of Norway. 

After this first - fantastic - experience, I have done countless other trips all around the world. I have a good lens/camera lineup and I don't plan to change it until it breacks, so I invest all my photo budget for travels...the world is large and I want to see it all :-) In the image galleries of JuzaPhoto you can see all the best photos I have taken both in Italy and during my trips.

About JuzaPhoto

I have created this website in March 2004 to showcase a dozen of photos, and with time it has grown beyond every expectation! I enjoy writing articles about photography, equipment and travel, and when I have begun to publish these articles on JuzaPhoto, they have attracted great interest. Nowadays, the website contains countless photos, hundreds of articles, an active forum and much more!

A thing that makes JuzaPhoto different from all other popular photography websites is the lack of advertising. On my pages you will never see Google Ads, banners or other kind of ads. I hate advertising and I am glad to offer thousands of pages without a single ad!

I have created this website both in my native language, Italian, an in English, so every time I write an article I write it in both languages. Other than that, I create by myself every page of the website (except for the forum), using FrontPage for the HTML code and Photoshop for the layout. It takes a lot of time, but it is a work I love, and it is a great satisfaction to know that my work is appreciated and it has helped a lot of persons: today the website has about 2000 visits/day, and it keeps growing :-)

Equipment

Even the best equipment does not guarantee good photos; nevertheless, having the right tools helps a lot, in particular for the technical aspects of the photo. A camera with great AF helps to get more sharp photos; a long, high-quality lens helps to capture shy subjects, ect. I have carefully chosen each component of my equipment; nearly everything is described in the articles. Click here for the complete list of my equipment.

The photographer at work :-)