Rudolf Robert Patotics is fascinated by shooting images since he was a child. He graduated his first photography class in 1983,when he was 15 (you can see here his first professional certificate). It was the time of film photography, with dark rooms for processing photos, with chemical substances, with long impatience of hours or days waiting to see the results of your work. Digital photography was only a Science-fiction dream at that time. After 1989, when all changed in the Eastern side of Europe, the waves of life “divorced” Rudolf by his passion. He found it again 5 years ago, after the days when photography itself fundamentally changed. 9 months ago Rudolf joined GURUSHOTS and began to perfect his work challenging with other photographers from all over the world. He worked hard, participated in over 2100 challenges, obtained 27 GP, many TOP10 and TOP100 and finally, in the first days of 2020 became a GURU.He worked a lot for this and he wanted to do this. Because Rudolf Robert Patotics is a hard worker. And in a way his story is the story of all of us.

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Tell us something about you (where was you born, where do you live, what’s your basic occupation, what other passions you have except photography, … and any other things you believe there are relevant).
I was born in Timisoara / Romania, a city I love and where I lived all my life. I work in a company supplying auto parts and I always worked in the commercial area quite opposite to the artistic field. This probably generated the need for some creative activity and carrying on my childhood passion Photography after many years in which life and daily worries kept me away from it.
 

Please answer us to the next questions:

1. When (at what age) was your beginning in photography and what determined you to do this? From a very young age (about 11-12 years old) I felt the attraction to observe and record the world around me and I jumped on the first chance to learn something about it. A teacher from my school made a photo club for students in which I registered immediately .That was my first contact with photography. Of course I started with B&W photography on film at that time and soon I bought my first camera. It was a very simple Soviet device with just a few manual settings with a non-detachable lens called Smena8M, some will remember it.

2. Tell us the most important steps you made in photography. One important step for me was an much more serious photography course made a few years later at the age of 15.The second step was when I bought my second camera, a much better SLR camera, still Soviet Zenith E and a telephoto manual Pentacon lens and a flash. A big step for a 15 years old child in a world with little possibilities and empty shops.

3. What photo equipements do you use? Now I use a Nikon D3200 camera with a few budget but pretty good lenses like Sigma 17-50 f2,8 and Tamron 70-300 f4-5,6.I also have a Fujifilm S9200 with a great 50x optical zoom which is useful in certain situations.

4. More and more people nowadays use phone for shooting pictures. What’s your opinion on this subject? Phones are important, they have the advantage that we have them always with us and it is amazing the performance they have reached, but for a passionate photographer so far they cannot replace a good camera.

5. What is more important for a “wow” picture? Equipement or “photographer’s eye”? For a wow picture everything counts: equipment , light ,timing , but still the most important from my point of view is the ”eye”, the man behind the camera.

6. What is/are your favorite/s  photo genre/s (domain/s)?I like to take all kind of photos, but most I love landscape photography, cityscapes and still life.

7. Does your life partener share with you your passion for photography?:))No, unfortunately I could not “contaminate” her with this passion. She has tried to shoot a few times, she liked it a lot but it never became really an interest for her.

8. Photography is for you a job or just a hobby? I would love to be for me a job, but unfortunately it always remained just a great passion.

9. What is your opinion about post-processing images? I like a lot post-processing images but somehow I always remained at the minimal brightness, contrast, color, shadows or saturation processing.

10. Tell us the most funny moment that happened to you during taking pictures. Oh I had so many funny situations I could write pages and pages but the most funny and sad ones in the same time are when I went out a couple times to shoot something great and when I was about to start I realized I didn’t have the memory card in the camera…:))

11. What is your dream about your career  as a photographer? Oh, this is a subject that I dream a lot but never came true. Who knows maybe one day…..

12. Tell us your motto in photography I never thought about it…..Maybe: Do not try to learn photography from books!  Take the camera and go out and shoot!!!