Christopher Wesser 1

I don’t even remenber how I came to discover Christopher’s work. It was pure luck, no doubt. From followed link to followed link. But this is the kind of discovery that stops you regreting those long hours wasted on the internet (or not that wasted after all).

Christopher is what they call a « young photographer ». Not only is he really young, but he is also a late bloomer (because of his late start in photography). There is no family tradition for him, no such thing as « my grand dad owned an old camera… ». Just passion. And talent. Talent for catching, creating and showing all sorts of light. Talent for creating bright and colorful pictures.
A genuine breath of fresh air, of sheer inspiration for us

-Who are you?
My name is Christopher Wesser, 24, i live in a town called Ingolstadt, near Munich in Bavaria. I’m a passionate photographer since 1 ½ years and also a passionate musician since nearly ten years now. I’m an uncle, a brother, a son, a daydreamer and Apple-fanboy (some say, i’m a hipster too ). Oh, and i’m working in the financial department of a big and famous german car manufacturer.

-Your personal history as a photographer?
I believe in love at first sight. I experienced it already two times in my life. The first time when i was 15 and when i started to play guitar. It was a fire that started to burn inside my sould and i knew, that i found a passion.
The second time in the middle of 2010. I started to look throught the photo-communities and i felt like i would love to try such photos myself. A second fire started to burn and i bought my first camera, a Canon EOS 1000D with the kit-lens. After messing around with this equipment, i soon knew that i need prime lenses to get the results, i wanted so i bought my first 50mm lens. And i also swapped the 1000D for the 550D soon.
Oh and i spent hours and hours to search for processing techniques and photoshop tutorials on the internet. I was nearly freaking out because i couldn’t understand, how the other photographers could achieve these nice tones in their photos. But it was worth the effort, i soon got better results and i’m still trying to improve my processing.

-The room you give photography in your life?
Photography… it changed (and maybe saved) my whole life. It helped me, to express my creativity in a completely new way. It made a new person out of me and it helped me to find my self-confidence, that I was never able to find before. It helped me to define myself and to get in contact with some amazing people.
I learned to look closer, to catch the essence of the things, to see the world with new eyes, to appreciate the small things, to look at a person and to see more than only a face and a body. But the most important thing, I’ve learned through photography: Everything’s magic.

Well, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today without photography and it’s one of the best and most important things in my life and the very important things in my life are getting as much room as necessary… and a little bit more.

-Photo Material:
Canon EOS 550D, Canon 50mm 1.4, Sigma 30mm 1.4 (prime lenses FTW!)
Film-Equipment: Bronica ETRS, Canon 3000N
And some flash-equipment that i can’t name.
Photoshop and Lighroom for Post-Processing.

-If you had to choose only one lense?
Definitely the Canon 50mm 1.4. It might be a bit long on a crop but i’m switching to full frame soon anyway. It’s a very sharp lens, creates a great dof and that bokeh is just… mmmmhhhh… And the fixed focal length forces you to stay creative.

-Mac or PC?
I’m the biggest Apple-fanboy that i know, so … think different!

-Some photographers you want us to know about?

Christian Plochacki.
He was one of my biggest inspirations from the beginning on. His 52 weeks project is soooo yummy. And he just started a 365 project.

Hien Luong.
A girl from Australia who sees the world in a beautiful and very special way. She switched from digital to film (medium format) not long ago and she works film so nice.

Kelven Ng.
He also has a very special sight at the small things in life and his 365 project is so inspiring.

Daniel Weisser.
I simply love his people photos and his diptychs. I was never really a fan of diptychs because I couldn’t understand why people where doing this but when I saw his diptychs, suddenly everything made sense.

-The kind of photos you don’t usualy do but you’d like to try?
I’d like to try some freelensing-stuff. Maybe some macro too. And i would also like to try some landscape photography without any bokeh in the future.

-The way you get inspired for your conposition?
You’re asking about my inspiration for my compositions? Wow, I’m proud. I always knew, that composition was my weak point in the beginning phase so I tried to work on it very hard and now that you’re asking this question, it seems like it was worth it
Well… I try to trust my intuition these days. In the beginning, I was thinking about it very much, maybe too much but now I simply let the situation grow and then I compose the photo the way, I think it’s aesthetic and the way my intuition tells me, it’s right.

But sure, inspiration is a very big point. You need to be inspired, otherwise there will be no good photos. The most important thing is to look at many photos, every day. I try to find out, what’s the special point about the photos and how they are composed. If you look at enough photos, you will soon know how to do it right. But you should also have some other inspiring things around you, when shooting a photo, just like music, some special light, a special train of thoughts or a special person. All these things are a very good inspiration and there is no good photo without good inspiration.

-Post-processing in your work?
I’d say, processing is a very important thing in my photography. I always try to change the colors to my likes. I love soft and creamy colors with milky shadows and muted highlights maybe. I think the color-grading is really important for a photo, it can make it something outstanding but I can also make it something awful and I’m always trying to do my best with the color grading.

Before I start to write a long story about processing, I’d rather like to say, that there are some tutorials on my blog in which I revealed some of my techniques. I’m getting messages nearly every day, from people, asking about my color-grading and i’m not the person, who makes a big secret out of it so I wrote some tutorials and i’m also giving away my original PSDs (Photoshop-files) for better understanding.

-Photography is forbidden. Choose another “artistic expression” form.
As i’m a musician since 10 years, i would definitely choose „making music“. I found my creative side, when i started to play the guitar and i think i couldn’t live anymore without being creative.

-Favorite drink?
Vanilla Coke (simply because it seems like i’m the only person who likes this )

-What can’t you get enough of…
Good music, good food, good people. Oh, and coffee!

-Last movie you’ve seen?
Sherlock Holmes

-Your City in three words.
Quiet and familiar

-Last destination?
A park near my house, for a nightwalk.

-How many glasses before you start telling things you will have regrets about the day after?
I don’t drink alcohol, if i can avoid it (is he serious?). But if i have to drink, i don’t need may glasses to get drunk, maybe three glasses of Martini are enough (my favourite drink when it comes to alcohol).

-Last book you’ve read?
Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs

-Your favorite fictional character?
Alice (in wonderland)

-A present for you under 10€.
A coffee and a Muffin (Blueberry).

-You feel ashamed about it…but you’re actually doing it:
umm… watching Grey’s Anatomy, maybe? Haha, there are many things, just like singing while taking a shower or putting some tissues into my new shoes because they hurt my feet but they look too cool to leave them at home

-You can’t bear it…but you bear it:
The „i’m such an important business-person“-persons

-Three photos from yours.

Meet me in October