2. What do you think of photography these days?
Things have changed for the better. I guess Dynamic Range will greatly improve in the future.

3. What did you want to be when you were younger?
Competitive Athlete.

4. Tell us about the time when you first got started in photography.
I was around 10 years of age and bought my first Nikon snappy from the pocket money I saved over time. I'm not sure, but I think I had a good start with film, because I learned to value every single shot. Later when I started shooting professionally I still remember traveling with 2 cameras and 65 rolls of film in tropical climates - always fearing that the film might get damaged by the heat and everything was in vain.


5. In your opinion, what does it take to become successful in this industry?
Creativity and consistency. If you have both, nothing and nobody can stop you.


6. What was your biggest challenge coming into this industry?
Understanding that landscapes don't sell too well ;-)


7. What are the best perks as a Photographer?
Getting paid for what you love to do. Especially with stock photography: working without having an assignment, no need for customer acquisition.


8. How do you plan for your shooting sessions?
Waking up in the morning with new ideas - write it down get what is needed and start shooting as soon as I have gathered a few ideas and time to frame them.


9. How would you describe your work to first time viewers?
Diverse and straight to the point. I don't like to specialize too much on anything. There are so many things out there...


10. Do you shoot to what your heart tells you or do you go through a complex check list in your mind when you produce your work? Describe the feeling/check list.
I always see the exact picture I want to take in my mind - quite a few times I fail to achieve it. So I rather shoot what my heart tells me, occasionally I make a checklist though.


11. From your experience, what subjects gives you the greatest satisfaction? Any examples?
Perfectly captured landscapes, that show the world the same way as you see it looking through polarized sunglasses.


12. From your experience, what subjects are the hardest to work with? Any examples?
Landscapes with very high contrast. For almost everything else there is a solution, reduce light with softeners, add light with flash or reflectors. But what do you do when you stand on bright white beach with dark palm trees in the back? It's frustrating sometimes. Post production adds too much noise, HDR looks a little unnatural sometimes, so all I can do is hope that technology will catch up to the human eye soon.


13. What is your philosophy when it comes to your work?
Do what you love to do and don't do it at the expense of others.


14. Describe who/what inspires you, tell us why?
Every other photographer that uses his brain before he/she presses the shutter. Everybody has their own ideas and looking at these images you get new ideas... looking at those you get new ideas and new ideas and.... (Editor: yeah, getting new ideas from ideas.. OK).


15. What do you do when those creative juices just seems to evade you. How do you "get creative"?
One can't force it - some days it works, on other days it doesn't. Fortunately when there are these less creative times - hey, you need to conduct your post production and keywording too!


16. Tell us about a time when inspiration just hits you, and you felt the insatiable urge to create. What did you do with that energy?
Wow, I love that feeling (I always think those ideas will make me filthy rich, and that's a good feeling) - but unfortunately it doesn't always come at the right time and it didn't make me rich yet. You can't store it. If the time is right, I just set everything up and shoot immediately trying to match the images that I have in mind.


17. What have you discovered about yourself through photography?
Nothing I didn't already know before.


18. Whose work do you admire the most? Why?
Karlheinz Böhm - not a photographer though. He quit his comfortable life as an actor and helps poor people in Ethiopia. http://en.menschenfuermenschen.com.


19. Do you have any advice for those who are just getting in to stock photography?
Try to look at other people's work - download some of the images you like most and that sell well - look close. Remember: you want other people to spend money for your work - so you want to become a professional. Value your customers by investing money in your equipment. You don't have to buy the most expensive equipment but you can't be a pro with a point and shoot camera. Even though the photographer makes the composition - the customer expects a well focused image (down to the corners) free of artifacts, and at the moment there are very very few point & shoot cameras that are able to deliver that quality.