While there is much to appreciate from a full time professional’s view on photography, there are serious photographers around who also have much to offer. Greg Brave is one such photographer and he is keen to share his journey as he strives to constantly improve his skill. His interest in photography was only piqued while on a trip to Thailand, Australia and New Zealand in 2007. With his point and shoot compact dying on him during his trip, he got himself an entry level DSLR and there was no turning back.

After about a year and a half into photography, Greg started to realize that he wanted his photographs to be more than just showing stuff that he saw. In order to show his point of view and do it well, he slowly started moving to more professional equipment and also dedicated more time to photography. Greg believes that one of the best ways to improve is to learn from his talented peers. With a large set of bookmarks of photographers that he likes, Greg would visit their sites and look for new ideas when he needs inspiration. His main inspirations are Peter Gasser, Edward Burtynsky, Vadim Gippenreiter, Elena Kalis and Robert Clark. He is quick to add that old school famous photographers such as Josef Sudek, Ansel Adams and Henry Cartier-Bresson were not mentioned as his inspirations because he firmly believes that they are whom “any photographer should learn from and be familiar with”.

Having started off shooting nature and landscapes, Greg has now ventured into still life as well as portraiture photography and slowly realising its full potential. Greg still shoots nature and landscapes and with these very different types of photography, he is able to constantly learn new things. Still in the midst of his photographic development, Greg is reluctant to concretely define what his style is like at the moment but rather opting for a more fluid work-in-progress attitude towards it. “One of the most exciting facts about photography is that it can be very different, and if I feel that I am tired of shooting landscapes for example, I can always go back home and shoot still life in my improvised home-made little studio.”

Considering that his first camera was a modest Canon PowerShot S2 IS, he has gone far in terms of gear considering that he now shoots with a Canon EOS 40D. He is no gear freak either. Instead, opting only for what he needs, have 4 lenses: the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L and the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro. He also have a Canon 430 EX flash, and two cheaper Yongnuo flash units. In fact, when Greg got his iPhone last year, he actually started an exercise in composition for himself where he had to take a photo a day with his iPhone. Given the technical limitations of the camera phone, it left him focused on compensating with better composition. Squarely putting the onus of beautiful photos on the photographer and not over-hyped gear.

“I just love to shoot seascapes at sunset with Canon 10-22mm lens. I just can't stop doing that.” Greg’s perseverance does pay off as his photo was given due recognition and was selected by National Geographic for print.



Greg is still on the lookout for interesting project ideas as he continues to hone his photographic skills. We expect to hear more from him and will share the tips that he has picked up along his path to photographic nirvana.

Greg Brave’s website is www.photopathway.com