Fotógrafo Samuel Virginie

—Você é fotogénica(o)?

—Hahaha...Part of the team is;)
Try to find which one;)

—Como se iniciou na indústria da fotografia?

—One day, we have decided to leave our country, 7 years ago now and go to New Zealand : need some fresh air, need a "new beginning" (what's better than Aotearoa for that), find yourself into a perfect lost in translation atmosphere and be into the wild.Our fascination for landscapes and wildlife was so satisfied in that place and our life so different from what we had in France, we decided to take the risk to do what we love: Photos, as our full-time job!Life drove us then in Moorea, Tahiti and Bora Bora when we stayed for 4 years and where we win our first International Awards for wedding and honeymoon photography.Now, we are based in Victoria, in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The West Coast is incredible, wild and changes constantly. We serve destination and of course all our island.

—Em sua opinião, quais são os componentes mais importantes para uma boa fotografia?

—Capture THE moment! The moment you can't create after, the real smile, real laugh, real tears, real emotion!:)
And to pass from a good photo to a beautiful photo we think the most important is the angle, the composition of the photo, find the original point of view, the nicer light or colors that's sort of things. We don't follow trends and Instagram new filters or buy new presets to be like others. We are first of all Artists, not businessman.

—Gosta de viajar?

—Of course, who doesn't like that!
More than just traveling a week or two, we like experimenting new areas by living there for a while. For now, we used to live in 5 different countries and islands over 4 continents. It's really interesting to cross different people, religions, ways to live.

—O que mais gosta na sua profissão?

—Meet new people! We love ear about how the couple met, what's they want to do in the future, and we begin friends every time!:) It's so great to be the witness of their special event!We love our work cause every time it's different: different people with different background from different countries, different styles, it gives a lot of inspiration. We also love to create these images that come on our mind and launch a new concept by talking to each other (my husband and I as we work together). No way to propose always same poses etc... We have to create.

—O que menos gosta na sua profissão?

—Hours behind my computer to communicate (not with people but with updating, social media, submit work on blogs...) We prefer to email my customer or chat with them directly and think about our shoot, be behind our camera;)
We hate the fact that Photography is not nowadays a work but a hobby. It's a hard job which requests a lot of time to understand what is photography.

—Qual será o futuro da fotografia?

—Hard to say! Nowadays, you can cover a wedding with a phone so...
For our part, we forget the idea to think about that and we focus on the present.

—O que há de especial para si, no género de fotografia em que se especializou?

—You can't miss the wedding and can't lose a piece of this event! That's a lot of pressure if you think like that, but it's that! We always think we want to offer to the bride and groom the perfect souvenir ever and some pieces they had not seen too. Wedding photos it's a lot of emotions too, you have to let your heart live the moment as well to provide emotional photos. Not thinking you are at work.

—Como lida com as críticas?

—Criticism, if it's from people who care about photos, is always good and permit to grow up!

—Existem tendências na fotografia?

—Of course there are. Light, compo, specific moment, we can really see some difference from a year to another. It's nice to get inspired by that and it's also important to stay as you are without to copy or imitate someone.

—Quais deveriam ser os critérios considerados pelo cliente na escolha de um fotógrafo?

—Two things : the style of photography (bride and groom need to be in love with photos of the photographers, they need to feel something, they need to laugh, to say omgthat'sacrazyamazingphoto etc) and the feeling with the photographer during chat and meetings. Cause they will spend the most memorable day of their life with him/her.

—O que não é permitido de todo ao fotografar?

—To have "paparazzis" all around you, constantly. That's not good for bride and groom who feel on stress cause they realize their Photographer can't work properly.

—Que detalhes passam habitualmente despercebidos mas nos quais um fotógrafo repara?

—Light, color, beauty of simple things (a detail on the dress, the hands of grand ma, the smile of a kid, ...)
Anticipate the moment.
The camera angle, not to be afraid to be wet or dirty and go on the ground or on the top of something to find the best angle.
Understand people, immediately find who they are and what people have more beautiful, how they are photogenic cause everybody is!

—O que influencia o valor da foto? Quais são os seus elementos?

—The authenticity (this includes emotion) and the composition (this include the part of Art)

—O quem pretende fotografar?

—People in love, again and again, from all around the World.

—Com que se preocupa e porquê?

—With new social media, we feel Photography begin to change a lot...

—Qual foi o momento mais impressionante na sua vida?

—You speak about personal life or work?Personal : was to swim in the middle of 200 wild dolphins in New Zealand.Work : obtain Permanent Residency in Canada thanks to our work and recognization.

—Quem o inspira na sua vida e porquê?

—People who live with the smile even if life is hard, people who don't need too much to be happy, people who don't envy nobody and nothing but just live their life. Artists who continue their passion even if it's hard.

—Como define o sucesso? Como o afere?

—The success is not necessarily to win lot of awards and be published in all magazines as this depends more of your communication ability than your skills but the success is to make all your customers happy and to comfort them on their choice! To received some news from them even after 2 or 3 years.

—Qual foi o maior erro que já cometeu a nível profissional?

—Said the truth about commission hotel asked for Photographer and fees entrance we have to pay to our clients...

—Quando vai viajar, o que leva consigo e porquê?

—Camera of course, a bag to hike, good shoes to walk, and travel as light as we can.

—Como aprende a tirar fotos melhores?

—We try to watch as much as we can photography on magazines, books, photography website but also go on exhibition, see different kind of Arts like painting, dansing.... . I'm not a big fan of Photoshop, we work with Lightroom of course but we don't want to become more illustrator than photographer. We prefer to find the good way behind my camera than behind my computer, don't want to create rain for example, I want the real rain, if there is no rain, it's not to me to do that. So we try to experimente by ourself new effect, with material, angle etc...Also as we work in team we like criticism the work of the other and it's helpful:)

—Que trabalho mais o influenciou como fotógrafo?

—I begin photos when I was 12 and more deeply when I was 16. It was not wedding photo and I worked alone. Nowadays, I can call friends some of the more famous Wedding Photographers of the World and they have an impact for sure on our way to see photography.

—O que pretende transmitir com as suas fotos?

—We want people feel something.

—O que o motiva a continuar a fotografar?

—It's our passion, how can I stop my passion?I don't need other motivation to continue photos!

—Se pudesse regredir no tempo, o que faria de diferente?

—Begin photos as full time work before.

—O que pensa da vida nos outros planetas?

—I'm curious, why not?
But I'm more concern about life in our planet we are going to completely lost...I prefer government put their money to save our planet before to explore other places...We have to find solution to fix our mess.

—Quem são os seus heróis?

—People who fight for a best world, against animal traffic, against starvation, against child abuse, sometimes alone...
Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey,Warris Diries...

—A quem é que não respeita?

—Racist, greed, extremist.

—O que faz nos seus tempos livres?

—Hiking, snorkeling, time with our dog – enjoy life with my husband!
And spending time with our friends. Laugh, eat and enjoy as much as we can.

—Qual é o seu lado que o público nunca vê?

—"The dark side" Sorry, I can't resist!

—Acredita nos papéis tradicionais reservados ao homem e à mulher?

—Traditional where? That's the first question!
We think people are free to do what they want in their own life, we will never judge.

—Faz amigos com facilidade?

—With humor I guess and our terrible French accent perhaps;)

—Onde gostaria de viver?

—We are good where we are. We are Permanent Resident of Canada now. We have just to explore this amazing country and continent but we are good staying there.

—Existe vida depois do casamento?

—Of course! It's just the beginning! And a good excuse to make anniversary! :)

—Tem uma anedota favorita? Conte-nos.

—I need to mummer, it's about a camel.... :)

—Gosta de cães e gatos?

—Ask to Matari our dog and our Duchesse (cat of course)

—A melhor coisa na vida é:

—The life.

—A coisa mais irritante na vida é:

—The dark side of humans, fact they need always more...and maybe now social media.

—O que gostaria de mudar no mundo?

—So many things....

—Pode dar algumas dicas para fotógrafos principiantes?

—Ask yourserlf why you want to do that?

—Caso os alienígenas viessem para a Terra, e fosse a primeira pessoa a encontrá-los, o que lhes diria?

—First of all : Why are you here guys?:) I will show you how beautiful is our earth! Let me come into your flight thing I'm sure we can go from France to Japan in only 2mn that's so cool! Hep, let's me try your laser, just once! The blue one!

—Se fosse chamado para fazer um filme, que género escolheria?

—A kung fu movie.

—Amanhã eu vou fazer...

—Be relax about the future