It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Eric Van Nynatten!

A Bit About Me:
My name is Eric Van Nynatten and I am a photographer based in New York City.

I grew up in Brazil and frequently moved around across the country, which allowed me and my siblings to experience life in a way few others get the chance to.

We were accustomed to being transplanted every couple of months to a new city, a new neighborhood, being introduced to new people and new food. Looking back, I think that the constant change in scenery and environment I was exposed to while growing up contributed to my ongoing desire to explore and photograph new people and places.

The Gear I Use:
Nowadays I shoot primarily with Sony mirrorless cameras, which I chose for their lightweight design and full-frame sensors, my primary one being the A7rii with a 55mm Zeiss 1.8 lens.

I also shoot a lot using my iPhone. I find that if the camera is cumbersome, you will leave it at home more often and miss incredible photo opportunities, so the lighter the better.

A Bit About My Process:
One of my favorite pastimes as a kid was drawing and painting together with my siblings. I could spend hours trying to capture the mood of a scene that I had had imprinted in my mind from a new beach I had been to or a movie I had recently seen, trying very hard to perfect the colors and lighting on a single piece.

Even after picking up a camera, I continued to apply the same effort when photographing, always making sure I was capturing the best light and colors the scene had to offer, be it a cityscape or portrait.

In my photography I always like to approach the scene as if I were shooting a live-action film, always trying to capture a cinematic quality to it, from the composition of the scene to the actions of the people.

When shooting cityscapes or street scenes I’ll often wait quite a while for a shot to line up. Of course, most everything doesn’t align the way I want it, so patience and timing is essential, including being able to walk away from a scene to move on to another when it isn’t working.

I like to imagine the millions of beautiful scenes that go un-photographed every second all over the world. It gets me out and about to try to capture at least a couple of them.

I enjoy shooting the most during uncomfortable hours. It could be just before dawn, during a thunderstorm or blizzard.

To me, the experience of observing those moments in person, capturing a bit of the beauty and excitement on camera, and making sure the finished image transmits a small percentage of that magic to the viewer on the other side is probably the best part about what I do. In fact, It’s probably the sole reason why I do it.

You can see more of Eric’s work at EricVanNynatten.com, and follow him on Instagram and Behance.