In this article, I would like to introduce you a very inspiring photographer that produces a very nice work. Sam Gilling is a colorist living in Vancouver (Canada) passionated with photography, he has clearly a cinematographic oriented style. Let’s meet him with some pictures and his interview.

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Tell me one thing you would like us to know about you?

Sam : I work as a colourist in Vancouver, Canada. After a project has been edited I work with the director and cinematographer to colour grade the footage to enhance the quality of the image so that helps it tell the story as best as possible. A lot of the concepts are similar to editing still photographs in terms of adjusting colour temperature, contrast and vignetting, except we’re working with pictures moving at 24 frames a second.

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What were your initial sources of inspiration in photography?

Because I work with incredibly talented filmmakers I thought it would be important to be able to communicate with them in terms of lighting and composition, so I picked up a camera and started learning.

My photography is very cinematically-inspired, I’ve always been drawn to the wide frame of the cinemascope aspect ratio. I’m hoping to pick up a Hasselbad XPan camera sometime soon which shoots two 35mm frames side by side, giving you a 2.71:1 image.

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What is your secret to keep energy and inspiration on a daily/weekly basis?

I work a lot of long hours in my job, which is very creatively stimulating but can leave you burnt out after a long day. Instagram has been a great way to connect with and get quick bursts of inspiration from all kinds of people around the world you admire. My feed is a mix of filmmakers, photographers and other colourists, as well as just friends.

Do you follow technical evolution in photography? In other words, do you consider the technic as a fundamental pillar of photography?

I keep up but stopped obsessing over it a few years ago. I remember wanting a 5D Mark II for the longest time, but once I finally got one I began shooting less and less and it eventually just sat on my desk unused. It was too big and heavy for me to ever want to take out with me, so I sold all my Canon equipment and replaced it with a Fuji X100S a few years ago and haven’t looked back, I don’t regret it for a second.

Maybe if I shot more fast motion situations like sports I’d pay more attention to it, but my photography is based more around simple landscapes so I don’t need a high burst rate or fast autofocus performance etc. Of course I’d prefer it if my X100S had an extra stop on the lens or better low light performance, but I like using the camera so much that these things don’t bother me.

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Maybe when the X100T or F comes down in price I’ll look at upgrading, but I haven’t gone into the menus to change any settings on my camera in years, the only things I ever modify are the aperture or ISO, so I’m not desperate to get something with the newest technology or features etc.

Are you interested in new technics like 360° and VR ? And what do you think about them?

They’re not something I’ve experienced yet but people seem to be getting excited about VR so I’m interested in seeing where that goes. That said, I don’t think there’s currently a better way of looking at an image than a good print of it, it’s a very different experience to looking at it through your phone or computer screen.

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I want to start making prints of more of my images and once I have enough that I’m proud of I’d like to create a small book of them, and print enough copies to be able to give to a few family and friends.

Note from Panhobby:

A big thanks to Sam for his photographic work and for his confidence in the contribution for this article, a great source of inspiration! I would like to encourage you to discover more about Sam on his website and Instagram account.

 

Interview done by Panhobby in April 2017
Images presented in this article are the property of © Sam Gilling
They are reproduced here with his permission
The French version is under © panhobby
No use, even partial, is authorized without a written prior agreement