Nature Photography Andreas Schmitz

My name is Andreas Schmitz and I am an enthusiastic nature photographer. I was born in 1986 in Mechernich, in the Eifel region, and have been living in Aachen for a few years now. I was always enthusiastic about nature and spent a lot of time in meadows and forests in my childhood and youth.

 

I first got into photography in 2009, when I took a friend's camera out into the garden at home in search of exciting details. A short time later I bought my first SLR camera and lens, the Canon EOS 450D and the EF 18-55mm kit lens. I started taking pictures with it and tried to get everything interesting onto the memory card. Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge about camera settings soon brought me to my limits. So I started to read up on topics like aperture, shutter speed, depth of field and other things on the internet and wanted to put my newly acquired knowledge into practice. However, the kit lens quickly showed me my limits again in terms of macro photography, so something new was needed! After some time of saving money, I was finally able to afford the Sigma 150 mm f/2.8 macro and the first, from my point of view, successful shots did not take long.

 

I read more and more in various forums and visited the websites of nature photographers to get inspired and to improve my own photographs. Besides great macro photos of insects, plants and mushrooms, I also came across impressive photos of wild animals such as birds of prey, roe deer, red deer or foxes, which I not only marvelled at, but also wanted to take myself. So I first acquired the Canon EF 100-400 mm lens suitable for this project, and a short time later also the EOS 7D Mark II as a new camera with suitable continuous shooting, which I used from that point on to "hunt" for new motifs.

 

I tried to use various trips to the wonderful bird island of Texel as well as regular excursions to the forests and meadows in Aachen and the Eifel to constantly develop myself in the field of wildlife photography as well. In the meantime, my equipment has grown a little, so that I can fully focus on the search for suitable motifs. I always attempt to find new approaches and capture the animals and plants in their natural environment. Even if no photos are taken, I still want to enjoy the time in nature and take something positive with me.

 

I hope you like my photos and I am happy about any constructive criticism.

 

With best regards

Andreas Schmitz

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