Astonishing hometown Lumia 1020 photography
Do you love your hometown? One thing the Nokia Lumia 1020 is amazing at, is finding beauty just about anywhere. This week, we speak to Idene Roozbayani, a self-taught, freelance photographer and one quarter of EDM/Metal cross-over band ‘Tooms’. Idene recently took a series of photographs of the unquestionably beautiful Newcastle in the UK and we caught up with him to talk photography, music and of course, the Nokia Lumia 1020.
Idene, you obviously love taking pictures – what was it that got you started as a freelance photographer?
I guess I’m just an addict for taking pictures and have been for a long time. I started off like most people, back in the day, shooting on a Minolta film camera and then, fast forward a few years to 2007, I bought my first digital SLR. My path was set from there. I got my first assignment shooting ravers at Club Habit in Newcastle and now I’m the resident photographer for Shindig which is one of the longest running club nights in the UK.
Amazing! Tell us about some of your photography highlights…
I’ve shot hundreds of bands and musicians over the last few years, everyone from obscure noise acts like Kylie Minoise to the likes of Grace Jones and Massive Attack. Being a musician for the last 15 years has definitely helped me with getting out there as I love shooting live music. I’ve also shot fashion events and work with NE1’s Newcastle Fashion Week once a year. My work is regularly featured in local music magazine Narc as well as online. I also shoot a lot of street photography as my own personal kind of project when I can. Photography is something that’s been a part of my life for so long now that I couldn’t tell you what it means to me. It’s just a part of me, something that happens so much that I think that life would be pretty boring without it.
Sounds like you’ve pretty much done it all – pretty incredible. The latest series of pictures you took on the Nokia Lumia 1020 are all of Newcastle. They’re absolutely stunning; tell us a little about them…
Well, I’ve always wanted to try long exposure shots and taking pictures that require a bit of technical knowledge and using the Lumia1020 has been ideal for that. Most, in fact pretty much all mobiles have limitations in how much of the cameras can actually be manually set. So, being in the city of Newcastle (which at night is stunning) I figured would be the ideal backdrop to test out the capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 1020. They look the way they do because of how long the shutter on the camera was open, combined with the cars that are moving around or the lights in the skylines. Most of the time, I am experimenting with different exposures and settings trying to get the look that I see in my mind, onto the screen.
And the result is absolutely beautiful! We have to ask – how did you find the Nokia Lumia 1020?
I found the Nokia Lumia 1020 to be very easy to use once I had learnt all of the controls and how best to quickly access what I wanted. Having manual controls at a slide of a button is great and it means you can jump from auto to manual very quickly without having to leave the camera app. I especially like the fact that it’s possible to leave some of the settings on ‘Auto’ whilst having other more important settings manually adjusted. It definitely allows for better photographs to be produced by the camera. The sensor takes really large photos, which makes post production very simple and it’s really easy to get great shots with the phone and from a photographer’s perspective this is really important.
Thanks Idene! I think we can all agree Idene’s efforts warrant a pretty vigorous high-five! If you want to see more of Idene’s work, head over here to check out his blog and follow him on Twitter. For more incredible work from our community, make sure you’re following us on Twitter. If you have any photography you want to share with us – please send us a tweet!