
Interviewing *jonniedee
Whereabouts are you from?
I'm from a lot of places in the Midwest of the United States, but I have spent the majority of my life in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

How long have you been using your current form of art?
My current form of art is digital photography. I have only been seriously involved in it since June of 2010.
What are the necessities for you to achieve the effects that you have achieved so far within your work?
The necessities that allow me to work are my friends (online and offline), family, strangers I pass by on the street, my roommate's camera and Photoshop CS5. Oddly enough I am just about to buy my first "real" DSLR

What prompted you to begin to embrace the subjects that you mainly work with?
What prompted me to embrace photography was boredom and curiosity. Work was a bit slow this past summer and I had many opportunities to walk around the city of Chicago, where I currently reside. Being from a very small town, I wanted to become familiar with my surroundings. To me there was no better way than to go out and start photographing my environment and the people in it.

What kind of in camera techniques and manipulations do you use and can you recommend to achieve Abstract and (or) Surreal Photography?
"My favorite camera techniques are bokeh and macro. For Bokeh photography one needs three things. These are pin point highlights, a large aperture and a short focal distance. For Macro photography, most cameras have a Macro function and you can shoot your subject a few inches from the lens."
What advice do you have for beginners in your field? What first inspired you and is there any strong advice you had when you first started out that you could share?
"My advice to beginners in photography is to get out and shoot as much as possible. When you take a shot, shoot it again 2 or 3 more times. There is nothing wrong with having too many photos. It's better than not having enough. Also, think about the composition and the lighting. The more practice you have, the better you will get. And honestly, not every photo is going to be great or even good."
What is your favourite image of yours, and why? How did you achieve it?
My favorite photograph has to be "Unter dem Deckmantel"

because it's is such an odd angle and the people in the shot had no idea that I was there. I achieved this shot from a high floor of the Hard Rock Hotel in downtown Chicago, IL USA.







