LASZLO PODOR
Artist Statement
My photographic art is a journey of discovery and self-expression. During the process of photographing my surroundings, I explore the subjects and try to show them in a way how I see them.
My subjects vary from sports, nature, landscapes to wildlife. My favourite genre is macro photography - photographing tiny subjects with lenses that can help seeing the beauty in the small world around us at life size to five times magnification. We usually see our garden from 5-6 feet above the plants. When I get down on my stomach and view the plants and insects with a magnifier, like my high magnification macro lens, I see a different world and I enjoy capturing that world with my camera.
I believe my images are successful if they show a fleeting moment worth remembering or if they show something that you might see every day but in a unique way you have not seen before.
Background
I picked up my first camera in my teens and became passionate about photography after graduating from university. I had my own Black and White darkroom and was a member of the local photo club in my hometown in Hungary. Family and work limited my time with photography for many years.
In 2004 I purchased my first digital camera. At that time, my passion surfaced again. I took courses, and learned from photography books to master the techniques needed to capture the subjects I was interested in. I completed the Professional Photography course at New York Institute of Photography in 2007 and joined the Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia (PGNS) the same year. I have taken courses from Freeman Patterson, Sherman Hines, Stephen Scott Patterson, sports photographer Dave Black, National Geographic photographers Bill Hatcher and Gordon Wiltsie.
I became an individual member of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA) in 2015 and received MCAPA distinction in 2016. I joined the Photographic Society of America (PSA) in 2015, and I was awarded the BPSA distinction in 2024. During the years I took the CAPA Judging Course and several PSA courses.
I am an online instructor for PSA, and I am a member of the CAPA Education Team.
Competitions locally at PGNS, nationally and internationally have improved my photographic seeing and received over 50 trophies and many ribbons.
