interview with isabel

two weeks ago, i managed to create a series of interviews concerning photography, with one common thread among all the lovely guests… all those five brilliant women were from south america. as i told before… there would be another series of interviews, this time focusing on european ladies. i am really excited about this upcoming week, because i believe that sharing is a wonderful thing among this community, and as a self-taught photographer (if i may call myself this…), i am learning so much with all these women. so, thank you… once again! here is the schedule for this week:

january 24th :: {isabel alcalá}

january 25th :: {elena ferrer}

january 26th :: {natalie french}

january 27th :: {christina greve}

january 28th :: {anna-maria}

isabel is the first guest. isabel, with which i share the name (my second name is isabel too!), is almost my neighbour, as she lives in alicante, spain. she shares her sensitiveness through her photography… as there is always a delicate point-of-view on everything she does, besides being really a sweet person!

“apasionada de la fotografía desde siempre. “es simple. trato de usar las fotografías como un compositor usa las notas. aquellas que encajan en la composición se toman, las otras se descartan” (stefan lorant)”

1. so, we are here to talk about {photography}… let’s start with a very important detail… where did you learn your way through {photography}? claudia, first of all i want to thank you for your kind invitation, it’s a pleasure for me being here sharing this wonderful place with you and all your readers. now, my answer to your first question: i personally think that with photography being an art learning is ongoing. but if i must mention someone who had an important influence on my photography this would be pedro ciudad. he is a great friend of mine, a person who taught me how light and colours work by spending hours together with our cameras. he´s an expert in light and i’ll never be able to thank him for everything he has taught me.

2. what camera+lens do you use the most? until very recently my camera was a canon 40d, but this christmas i got a beautiful canon 5d mark ii, as a gift.  my favourite lens now is the 24-70 2.8L which i got with my new camera. anyway i recognise the fact that a good camera helps a lot but creativity still plays a major role.

3. what is your camera’s best feature? i must mention two: one is that gives great exposures without any exposure compensation and the other is its iso behviour, even working on automatic iso, the camera detects the focal lenght of your lens and controls the light brilliantly.

4. three must-dos for you concerning {photography}! keep on shooting, keep on learning and keep on enjoying with my camera.

5. favourite subject to shoot? simple things and people.

6. after taking pictures, do you use any program to process them? yes, i use photoshop cs5.

7. in three words… how would you describe your {photography}? warm, serene and touching.

8. what inspires you to do what you do in {photography}? what really inspires me and what i really enjoy about my photography comes from my soul. i do enjoy creating my own scenes and settings. i have a notebook where i write down all the ideas that come to my head. unfortunately i don’t always have enough time to put them into practise.

9. when you wander in flickr… what drives you to write a comment? there must be something which appeals to me about a photo, even if it’s just a small detail. the more i like it, the more effusive my comment is. when talking about flickr you must be careful not to fall into the trap of “chain-commenting” which is very difficult to put an end to.

10. would you like to try anything different from what you do in {photography}? i hope the person who gave me that last camera will not be offended (!!), but if I could i would go back to film cameras. i just love the unique effect film cameras provide. as this is practically impossible i’ll go on working on edition trying to find a similar effect although it will never be the same.

claudia, i hope one day we could meet each other in one of your upcoming trips to spain. thanks a lot.

this was the first interview on {european ladies week} with the lovely isabel, which {stream} i hope you have the time to visit. muchas gracias isabel! fue un honor tenerte aquí! te deso una semana llena de momentos felices! y no poderia estar más de acuerdo acerca de las cameras de film! estoy enamorada por ellas! and with this i wish you a wonderful monday! i hope you rock this week!

images: isabel alcalá

{photography… by photographers} is a special edition of interviews to some well-known photographers, where they answer & share their insight on photography. you can find more {here}