HOW TO BECOME A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER
DANIEL KORDAN EXPERIENCE
Daniel Kordan has always been fascinated by the possibilities of photography since his early childhood. He grew up at beautiful lake region under Moscow exploring wild nature, spending most of his free time in the nature...
Ambassador profileMy name is Daniel Kordan, and Landscape photography is my true passion.
I would like to invite you to accompany me on my photographic journey, from the time when I was a very young man and until today.
I was born in a small town about 120 km from Moscow. It´s a wonderful region with lakes, forests and unspoiled nature all around. For that reason, many of my most memorable experiences, have centred on nature.
Way back to childhood, I was so eager to experience nature, that I often wandered around out at sunrises. Early mornings, I got to experience beautiful foggy lakes, and during winters I often enjoyed seeing trees covered with enchanting hoarfrost. Highlights like this, made a strong impression. To me it was like being in wonderland!
Moreover, I was reading lots of books about Arctic/Antarctic exploration which inspired my photography goals nowadays.
In my early years, I attended a painting school. I was a student at this school for six years. I learnt the techniques of painting, which undoubtedly extended my understanding of beautiful compositions and harmonious colour palettes. I also learned to understand that finding and presenting unique moments, depends on much more than pure technique. In addition my paint teacher told me to be bold with colours. He told me never to use black. I listened to him, so I actually never used black in paint at school. Instead, I learned to bring out hidden details, in dark parts of pictures.
I LEARNED TO UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF INTUITION. IT´S A CENTRAL KEY TO ACHIEVE UNIQUE RESULTS. THE PAINT SCHOOL REALLY HELPED ME TO EVOLVE THIS PROPERTY. I´M GRATEFUL FOR THIS.
About 10 years ago I started as a guide in a mountain club. This gave me the opportunity to travel to amazing places. Many of these guiding tours enabled me to experience wonderful sunrises (above the clouds). This made a great impact on me.
I had a desire to document and share these beautiful moments, with others. In addition, I met a lot of wonderful people and experienced different cultures. And that’s precisely what I love about it: your camera brings you to meet other people and new places.
Currently I have long lasting projects, like a yachting expedition called: “Two poles”. It´s a journey that goes from Saint-Petersburg to Antarctica, through Svalbard and Greenland, along with one week workshops where I teach photographers. When I teach others to develop their photographic skills, I tend to emphasize that each individual has its own point of view. Even when we’re in larger groups, each photographer brings unique images from a certain location. It´s exciting to see that we all have our personal perspectives. There are obviously many ways to achieve outstanding results.
Here are some facts about my equipment:
Mainly I use only three lenses in my photography (and I’m absolutely happy with these lenses). In addition I sometimes use my old 80-200 mm, because it contains few electronic parts (which is quite important to me in tough conditions).
It can be quite appropriate to use expensive equipment. But not at any cost or at any time. I often get surprised when I see people use top-notch gear just to publish main stream photos in social networks. If you use expensive gear, I think you clearly need to understand why. Print images, make albums – take most of processing.
For my own sake, I use top-notch gear to produce high quality prints in large formats. However, if you are a reporter and for instance only publish pictures in magazines or at your blog, then (I think) it´s more adequate to use a small mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The final result will be satisfactory.
For my choice of equipment, reliability is one of the most important criteria. That´s why I use Gitzo tripods in the toughest conditions around the world.
I CHOOSE PHOTOGRAPHING AND TRAVELING. IT BECOME WHAT I LOVED MOST IN MY LIFE. NOW THAT I'VE BECOME A FULL-TIME LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER (AND A NIKON / GITZO AMBASSADOR).
Camera bodies, lenses, filters, etc
Bodies: Nikon D850 and Z7
Lenses: Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, 200-500 mm, 400 mm f/2.8
Favourite lens
If I had to choose my most favourite lens would be a Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8
In my opinion this is a marvellous piece of photographic equipment.
Favourite filters
I like to use filters, which allow me to do a bit less work and participate in contests (which prohibit composite images (i.e. bracketing)). I use ND 3,6,10 stop and GND 4 stop soft, polarizer. For my 14-24 Nikkor, I use the Lucroit 165 mm system.
Other equipment
Gizto tripods and backpacks. In addition, I use a L-plate + nodal slide rail for my panoramic images (or panoramic head).
nature & wildlife solutions
Gitzo new, full line of nature and wildlife products are designed to integrate
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