Hello Sara

Let's start from the beginning. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Where are you from?

 Hi, my name is Sara Jazbar and I live in the northeastern part of Italy, in a city called Trieste, on the border with Slovenia. I work at the University of Trieste assisting our researchers and professors with new inventions and patents. I’m a non-professional photographer but I love taking pictures so I dedicate a lot of my free time to this passion. I’m also a perfectionist, so I always strive to learn more and get better.

Do you have additional passions beyond photography?

I do 😊 I airbrush (paintings but also helmets, cars, etc), and I love reading and writing. I’m actually working on a novel right now if I’ll ever be able to finish it. I have a passion for chess, although it is very time-consuming if you want to do it well so I had to let that one go a little bit. I love travelling and my travels are usually organized according to how much a place can offer on a photographic level.

Your favorite food?

Ice cream and pizza… I guess that’s the child in me 😊

Your favorite movie or film genre? Do you enjoy reading?

Among my favorite movies are The Shawshank Redemption, Green Fried Tomatoes, the Star Wars and Star Trek movies, Pitch Black, and The Chronicles of Riddick.

What is your favorite type of reading?

My favorite author is Stephen King. I have all his books and haven’t missed one. My favorite genre is, let’s say, paranormal thriller. I also like Peter Straub a great deal and I lately discovered the books of Laini Taylor who is a fabulous writer.

Are you a sports person?

I like keeping fit, I used to go jogging every morning, but I have a lot of problems with my back so this has become exceedingly difficult in the last few years. I had to resort to a diet ☹

And now let’s focus on photography… How did you get started in photography?

I always like to take pictures. I have hundreds of photographs from the analogical times, but I never had thought that you can actually study and get better at it, doing it in a more self-conscious way. This change happened to me in 2015. I divorced and started looking at what I really like doing and bought my first digital camera. I went to a beginners course and didn’t understand a thing… So I started watching videos on the internet and little by little this exposure triangle started to make sense. I almost immediately developed a passion for macro photography and shortly after for infrared photography as well. Analyzing this later on I think I like taking pictures of things that are difficult or impossible to see with our naked eye.

How do you think your life experience affects the photographs you take?

I’m a controversial person. I consider myself an artist and at the same time I’m also very rational and practical and as I already said, a perfectionist. I like truth but I also like dreams. I think that often shows in my photographs. I came to think, and I guess you could say that it is now my philosophy, that you snap a picture with your eyes and your heart, but post-production often gives it its soul. Often times you shoot a picture and the simple shot is unable to convey what you really felt in front of that scene, that subject. I think this is where post-production kicks in and brings out the feelings. I don’t like boundaries and I don’t like being limited. I want to be free to do the things I like, how I like them.

How did other photographers influence your work?

I like looking at fellow photographers' works and trying to understand how they achieved their images. And I’m not speaking only about editing. Just an example. In January I went to Milan. It wasn't a pleasure trip but I didn't have any contemporary architecture shots so I thought I would give it a try and make the best of it. Finding a good way to photograph architecture, I found out, is not easy. At least not for me, a novice in the genre. So I found inspiration in a fellow photographer, Marco Tagliarino, looking at his gorgeous pictures and trying to understand how he took them, what was he looking for, trying to understand his way of thinking, and in some cases, trying to reproduce his work, with just little tweaks. I must say it has been a challenge to follow his footsteps around Milan but I did learn a lot! When I got in touch with him after the trip and told him he had been an unwitting teacher and inspiration, he said something that resonated with me: "Photography brings together. In some way, even though we don't know each other personally, for four days we roamed Milan together, arm in arm".

So I watch and I learn, then I get what I have learned and make it mine.

How would you define your style in photography?

I have no idea! I started out with macro and infrared. Now I do some portraiture, some landscapes, architecture, flowers, wildlife, still life, etc. I like photographing everything, and in everything I do I find something that attracts me to that genre. I like experimenting, and trying new things so I am in constant evolution.

Are you a fisherman or a hunter, photographically speaking? Do you start from a predefined idea or does photography suddenly appear?

It really depends on what I’m photographing. In macro, I’m a planner when I decide to go with traditional macro. I go out in the evening, I see if there are subjects in my garden or in the nearby fields that have stopped sleeping there. If I find anything interesting I put the alarm clock at 4 am the next morning. I start thinking of how I want my pictures to be. What sort of background, what flower do I want the butterflies on, etc. If I take my camera in the garden during the day, I just sit there and wait to see if I see anything interesting. Usually, after I have sat in the garden for a few minutes I start noticing things I hadn’t noticed before. There are all sorts of insects around me and now I can’t unsee them 😊 Generally I try to plan things but I’m then open to whatever experience presents itself.

What equipment do you use - cameras, lenses...?

My “normal” camera is a Nikon D500. I then have a Nikon D600 converted to infrared 720nm and a Nikon D700 converted to full spectrum. I have (and I use them all!) a Sigma 150mm macro lens, a Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8, a Nikon 24-120mm f/4, a Sigma 35mm Art f/1.4, a Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary (for wildlife), a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, a Sigma 15mm f/2.8 diagonal fish eye, a Nikon 10,5mm f/2.8 fisheye, a vintage Oreston 50mm f/1.8, a vintage Trioplan 100mm f/2.8, a Lensbaby Velvet 56.

What software do you use to process your photographs?

I start in Adobe Bridge. I select my pictures and I bring them In Adobe Camera Raw. The to photoshop where I usually use a Topaz plugin (DeNoise or Sharpen AI). Depending on the pictures I might also use the Aurora HDR plugin.

What is your favourite photo and why?

This is a very difficult question… I have a folder on my computer named “New to publish” and it contains about 700 photographs. If I may tell you just one of my favorites then it could be this one:

It’s called “Different Priorities”

I know, it might be weird that it’s neither a macro nor an infrared image, and yet… This is one of my very first street photos. In this version, I removed a lamppost from behind the head of the girl, because it looked like it was sticking out from her and it wasn’t very appealing. I was taking long exposures to get most of the people blurred. I liked that there was a mild rain and there were some reflections on the square floor. Then I saw this girl and her dog approaching. She was very intent on her phone and the dog was all over the place. I swiftly changed my settings and I waited for them to pass in front of me and right there the dog stopped to smell something on the ground and the girl was pulling it to move on while never taking her eyes from the phone. In that instant, I saw a story and I clicked. I loved this picture even before seeing what came out.

What turns an image into a good image? What does make it stand out?

The picture must be a good one from the start. You can adjust a lot in post-production, but if the picture is meh, then it probably will never make it extraordinary. So light, composition mostly, for me, and on a good picture, post-production can really make it sing.

What are your tips for beginner photographers?

I think the most important thing is being open-minded and critical, especially of your own pictures. A little anecdote. One day I was looking for a picture of a bee someone asked me to use for a tattoo. I told them I had a really good one and I started looking through all my bees and I just couldn’t find it. I perfectly remembered taking it and thinking what a gorgeous macro it was. So I keep going back to this one picture that looks so much like the one I remembered and I look at it closely and.. snap! It was that one! But it was all but gorgeous… very noisy, the focus a little off, the post-production approximate at most. I was baffled I had such a good memory of such a mediocre photo. The point is when we start we have a perception of our photography, and when someone criticizes one of our pictures it sucks and often our feelings get hurt and we don’t believe that critique. You are allowed 5 minutes of self-pity, then you must go back to the picture in question and look at it objectively, with different eyes. And maybe compare it with pictures of the same genre and see if the critique was actually meant to teach you something to make you better. Once you get used to this you can become your most severe critic and recognize when your pictures are not all they can and should be.

What are your plans and ideas for the next projects?

I would like to tap into Fine Art photography. I followed some courses by Brooke Shaden and I love her work.

Why did you decide to join 100ASA?

I joined to find inspiration, learn, and follow good photographers. When I was asked to become part of the staff, I couldn’t believe it but it made me so happy. I like it that we are all from different backgrounds, that we are all open-minded and there is a constant exchange of views and we always still learn from each other and from many of the 100asa members. I think it’s a great community!

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