Photography. What is for me?

Photography, what’s really for me? I’m Isabella Tabacchi, a landscape photographer based in northern Italy. I’ll tell you my experience and how did I started.

I just used to post my works on my website and social media and feel that so many people are happy about admiring them. They represent my emotions. But what about sharing something more about myself, my works, my inspiration and photo tips? 

I feel a certain emptiness in the social media world recently.

I mean, I like to share my last works and I’m glad when people love them.

But, besides that, I want to tell you the stories behind my pictures , sharing with you my thoughts about various topics. I’ll also share reviews, tips, experience that can be useful for everyone of you.

This is the purpose of the blog! 

For everyone who landed here and doesn’t know my work, I think that knowing what photography is for me it’s a good starting point.

MY BEGINNING IN PHOTOGRAPHY

I will get deeper into why I chose landscape photography in a future blog post. But I’ll write how photography became a fundamental part of my life. 

In every interview, podcast, video and webinar I often say that the period in which I started a deep learning and focus into photography is after high school. However, his doesn’t mean I had never used a camera before.

I WAS BORN BETWEEN TWO PHOTOGRAPHY AGES

When I was a child, I lived through the transition period between analog and digital cameras. 

I was born in a small city near Modena and I still remember the amount of photography shops where people asked for a development of their films (now most of them don’t exist anymore). My father had some analog cameras, even if he didn’t take so many pictures. I also remember when a professional photographer taught me to use the dark room in an elementary school lab. 

When I could own my first digital camera, I loved to go around my countryside house, capturing nature elements or skies and I was so proud of my images.

Somehow, I felt like photography was my goal in life. Despite this, my biggest passion of my childhood was drawings. 

I spent most of my days drawing comics, especially during school holidays! I had built my own world, with a lot of different stories, adventures and dreams. My lifetime goal, when I was a child, was not to become a landscape photographer, but a cartoonist. It’s really strange to see how my lifetime goal has totally changed today.

MY TRUE BEGINNING 

During my teenage years I completely changed and abandoned drawing. But I started to get more into photography. I had always loved art in all its forms though, even during the high school period.

After high school I studied pharmacy, even if it was totally a different subject from my artistic bent. Several people now ask me why I studied something completely different. Well, it’s really long and complicated to explain. I think somehow, when I was still a teenager, I liked scientific subjects (just math not at all). And I loved challenging myself in something which is not my element.

Then I bought my first professional camera and I discovered a new age in my life. The more I practiced photography and learnt something new, the more I was less interested in working as a pharmacist. So, in my last years as an University student I focused also on improving my skills in photography. I told myself that I would have made a decision about my future. 

Then, in 2017 I started to work full time as a photographer and started to give coaching, lessons and workshops to make my income. And here I am, now, almost in 2022. I’ve never looked back.

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY

Everything. From the shooting phase, to the editing, to the sharing with so many people with my same passion for nature. For me photography is life. Not only because I decided to make it a job. Well, actually I made photography a job because it’s my life. I just could not dedicate myself to photography just a few hours after another job or go shooting just during the weekend. Landscape photography makes me express myself totally. In each picture I find something of me. 

Photography makes me travel, explore new places. Each journey is a different adventure with all its tricks and problems but also powerful emotions.

Some people think traveling itself doesn’t need photography. But I think: how can I express my feelings during the journey? How can I share the best moments I lived with a future myself or with other people? Photography is the key.

CHALLENGES I FACED IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Most of the other photographers think the real challenge in photography is finding a style. For me this was quite spontaneous. At the beginning, of course, I had to practice a lot and discover what I wanted to communicate with my pictures. Before I was sure about my way in landscape photography, I tried other genres. But then I felt just with landscape photography I was able to tell something great. It was something really spontaneous.

THE FIRST CHALLENGE IN PHOTOGRAPHY 

One of the biggest challenges is making photography a job, especially landscape photography.

Even if I will dedicate an entire post about it in the future. Shortly, the reason why it is not so easy to live with photography is because it needs some time to find the strategy to monetize it.

Besides, everything depends on you, your choices, how much time you dedicate to the chosen business, your determination. I had to revise new ways to live thanks to my biggest passion several times and understand really what kind of business I like to do.

THE SECOND CHALLENGE IN PHOTOGRAPHY 

Another challenge I had to face is the inspiration. Sometimes in my career I had a lack of inspiration.

This always happens when I need to visit new landscapes and not always the same environments. During the pandemic this challenge was really hard.

And this period is not yet ended, but I overcame the lack of inspiration by visiting new kinds of landscapes in Europe such as the Azores Islands, for instance. 

MY FUTURE IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Who knows! My blog is already something I see in my future as a photographer. I want to share with you more of my photography, my behind the scenes but especially my knowledge about photography and editing.

Besides this new adventure, my purpose for the future is to travel more and bring home much more experiences and pictures. I want to end my life saying:”Well, I saw most of the countries and landscapes in the World and captured them. Life is about exploring for me.