Who I Am: Time to Introduce Myself Properly

I am 27 years old and recently graduated from engineering school in Germany. Instead of diving into the standard nine-to-five job right away, I am trying to start something on my own. I am living between Asia and Germany now, spending most of my time on the Island of Gods, Bali.

I love playing football (soccer) and badminton, traveling and photography. I speak German, English, Indonesian and a little bit of French and Vietnamese.
During the last years, I spent a lot of time (between exams) traveling Southeast Asia and Central America.

Social Media: From Instagram to Steemit

I have been publishing my photography on Instagram for quite a while now and I have more than 21.000 people following my Instagram account.

In future, I hope I can make some of those people aware of the possibilities of Steemit and that way contribute to the growth of this awesome platform!

How I Came to Steemit

I recently started a tiny Ether mining operation with a friend. When researching Ether, we also bought some Altcoins and I came across Steem.

On my travels, I used to write a blog but instead of publishing it, I only sent it to friends and family. Steemit is the perfect opportunity to share my stories and photography with a wider audience. So here I am.

My Journey on Steemit so far

I have been on Steemit for about 1,5 months now and I love it. There have been ups and downs, obviously, but I think the concept of incentives for proper content is genius (even though it still has some childhood diseases...).

I have made some friends on the platform already and want to thank a few people specifically (there are definitely more I forget right now): @holm @germanlifestyle @xaero1 @liberosist @dexter-k @chrissymchavez @daveks @aburmeseabroad @hr1 @sean-king @nspart @venuspcs @cheeto.blue @canadian-coconut @trafalgar @myday @mailleemmerald @homeartpictures @chrissysworld.

Thanks a lot guys, some of you for having great talks with me, some for helping me out right at the beginning and some simply for upvoting my content and supporting me regularly, it is nice to be around you!

I also was able to start a new channel on steemit.chat called landscape-cityscape thanks to my man @firepower. I hope that there will be a lively exchange between photographers who do that kind of photography. So if you take landscape or cityscape pictures with some artistic value, post them in the channel and let's support each other! For more information, check my dedicated post about the channel!

However, the most inspiring experience so far was meeting @samstonehill, @jockey, @chron and their friends in Bali. It was quite an awful drive on a bike through the rain (my GPS didn’t work and I was somewhere between Balinese villages) but it was worth it. Not only did Sam help me with great advice quite a lot, they also made me realize Steemit’s potential to redistribute wealth more evenly and help the poorest in Indonesia. I will definitely go back to the Balinese Steemit HQ very soon and help Sam and the others with whatever they have planned.

What I post about

I generally post about my travel experiences and my photography. There are so many stories I have to tell about crazy places in the world. So far, I wrote about East Timor, San Blas and Bali. I also did a series of animal photos and am currently running two series called "Capturing the World" and "Women of the World".

In the future, I will keep posting my photography and start writing about Sumba, Lembongan, Komodo, Flores (Indonesia), Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Italy, New York and wherever life takes me next. There is a lot more to come!

Additionally, I want to take part in promoting steemit to more and more people and engage in @samstonehill 's projects as far as he let's me ;-).

My Photography: Landscapes

Somewhere in Costa Rica

My Photography: Cityscapes

Singapore Skyline

My Photography: People

Old man in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.

My Photography: Beauty/Lifestyle

Laura at the beach.

Personal Thoughts: How I Came to Taking Pictures

I began taking photography more seriously when I spent 10 months traveling in 2014/15. I had always known that my memory was very bad – my brother, who is four years younger than me, remembers so much more from our childhood than I do – and I was scared by the thought of losing all the intense moments I would live through on my trip. I was afraid of forgetting, plain and simple.

I somehow figured the better my photos were, the better they would help me bring back my memories later on.

I wanted to create something that would last to take home from my journey. Back then, photographs were not an end to themselves, they were a tool I used to help myself remember and to show others the beauty of this world and its people.

However, the more I became invested in trying to get the perfect shot, the more I started to appreciate the actual art of photography. I watched countless tutorial videos on youtube, read a lot about camera technology and traded second hand camera equipment. My own gear got better and better during that process and I tried various cameras and lenses.

Today, photography is an important part of my travels. Sometimes, I stay at one spot for hours and hours to shoot and blend moments in time. I get up early for sunrise or sometimes even go to certain places just to take that one special photo.

So yeah, photography has become very important to me and there is nothing better than seeing people who are moved or inspired by shots I took. However, I still don’t really see myself as an artist, there are thousands of photographers who know way better how to produce perfect images.


If I had to describe myself, I would say:

I am a wanderer and wonderer who knows how to use a camera and a tripod. And I would love to take you with me to beautiful, magical, and sometimes remote places in this world!

Till then,
keep wandering and wondering,

Love,

mr.wonderlust