All about me. My story and biography. My hobbies and passions.

About me

As you can probably guess, I love life and admire the world around us a lot. As a child, I’ve had my own universe, spending time alone, day dreaming most of the time and watching documentaries on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. I could not stop admiring nature and the Earth’s beauties, hoping that one day I will be that explorer from Animal Planet going on the adventure. Even though things didn’t go quite like that, I am seeing all my dreams coming true, one by one. Along the years I’ve discovered other passions and hobbies as well, just more ways of blessing and cherishing life.
Anything that implies nature, animals, outdoos, arts, ways of expression, feelings, connection, balance, I will be there, happy to be part of it or present in it, acknowledging and, probably taking a picture.
I created this website firstly for me, to keep track and have a database for my many albums of all the trips and events I’ve been to. Having a programmer mind, I designed the filtering mechanism and the whole site just the way I wanted, to be easy to see the data that I want.
I don’t wish to be a travel photographer blogger or instagrammer or content creator.. There are many out there that are doing an amazing thing but, I don’t find myself in that, at least for now. I just have a huge hunger to explore the world and see it from every angle.
Passion for photography came so naturally to me during my younger years that I had never paid attention to this growing hobby that today has become such an important part of my life. There are some concrete reasons why photography conquered my heart. While I see this world so beautiful and mysterious, I’ve also had a desire to share my admiration and show others what I feel about everything that surrounds us. Since I’ve always had a struggle with writing or putting into words what I think and feel, in photography I found a way of expression. Something simpler and more natural to me. Later on, dancing came into my life, which became another amazing magical way of expression.
I remember I was using my first camera on film, the family camera, when I was 13 years old, taking photos of my dog. In 2004, at 14 years old, I had my first digital camera, which to me was a miracle. From having only 24 or 36 shots per film, to being able to take 200-300 digital photos only to copy them to the computer and start again without paying for another film… was overwhelming. At 17 I upgraded to a semi-professional camera, since 2009 I’ve owned DSLRs and in 2018 I added mirrorless to my collection!
From nature, animals, wildlife, dog shows, pets to traveling, dancing, hiking, winter sports, exploring new places, I’ve managed to combine them all very well during the years with my passion for photography. Between 14 and 18 I used to be a photographer at dog shows in Romania and other countries nearby, taking pictures of dogs for breeders.
Later, after I started working and had my own money, I went traveling with other landscape photographers to stunning places in the middle of nature, catching unforgettable sunsets, dreamy mornings with fog above villages, capturing the rural life of Romania and the whole nature across the country.
In 2010 I discovered dancing, another huge passion that stayed with me till present. Today I go to Brazilian Zouk dance events around Europe as a photographer and dancer. Thank to this hobby I've met an amazing community that I’ve been seeing at different festivals everywhere around the world. I feel truly blessed I found this passion and dance.. But my words will never be enough to describe the feelings and intensity of the moment I get to experience through dancing. I can only hope the photos show a glimpse of the heaven we’ve found..
Besides dancing events, I love traveling on every occasion, either if it’s for visiting friends abroad, to see a place I read about or organize trips and hikes in the middle of the nature to catch those perfect moments of the day in pictures. Or… as I am preparing now, to leave home for a while and just ‘go’ nomad.
Some links with my profiles and portofolio:
Articles where my photos had been published:
Special mention about my awesome dog.. a Golden Retriever girl, Geena , that I feel so blessed to have. She is actually a real star, since a lot of people know her from all over the world. She was popular at my college, at my dance school, dog shows - she’s an International Show Champion and my travel companion in many of my adventures in Romania.
A facebook page dedicated to her:
Some old youtube videos with her:   Link1  Link2
Her pedigree in case by any chance you are a breeder and are interested in her ancestry:
If you want to see more photos from my life follow the album below:
Plane
Photo Camera
           
FacebookInstagram
Flickr500px
ShutterstockAdobe Stock
Golden Retriever
Mountain
© Ioana Catalina E.