Interviewing a Photographer: Maria Tzika

We’ve been following each other in Instagram for years. Her account is definitely one of my ultimate favorites in that platform. However we’ve never really talked before. One day, I decided to take a step forward and ask her if she’d be interested to answer a few questions of mine for my blog. As you can see her answer was clearly positive.

Hello Maria, I'm really glad to have you at my blog. Can you tell us a few things about yourself?
Hi Katerina, thanks a lot for having me! I am 18 years old and currently studying biology in Newcastle upon Tyne. I am originally from Larissa, Greece.

How did it all start? How did you develop an interest in photography?
Well, to be honest, I’ve always been attracted to the idea of capturing moments and beauty and “freezing time”, so it was probably a matter of time until I started developing an actual interest in photography!

When did you start taking your own photographs?
The story goes back to my junior high school years, when me and my friends would take photos of each other using our shitty phones or our parents’ digital cameras. However, as wrong as it may sound, photography became an actual hobby of mine about 4 years ago, when I got my DSLR camera.

What’s the main idea behind your photographs?
I wouldn’t say there’s a specific idea or theme behind them. I just capture whatever I find beautiful at each given moment.

Name 5 things you can not picture your life without.
Hand soap, deodorant, good music, earrings and my sunglasses.

Can you show us your favorite photograph of yours and share with us the story behind it? Why do you love it so much?
If I were to show you my favorite one, the person in it would kill me so I’ll go for the next best thing.This following picture was taken on a very hot summer day last year. We were at the beach with my family and my sister was just being weird and I was like “HOLD THIS ONE!”. Then I just ran, grabbed my camera and took the photo! I really love this one because it reminds me of summertime and relaxation.

Describe your photography style in a few words.
All over the place.

What advice would you give to a new aspiring photographer?
Despite not being an expert and not by any means considering myself a photographer, what I would say to someone that wants to start doing photography would be to try not to be a perfectionist with your shots and just go with the flow (cliché, but it works for me!).

Is there anything you wish you knew when you started taking photographs?
That it’s not all about the equipment. Of course it gets much easier if you have a good camera but it’s definitely not the main thing.

What kind of camera / equipment do you use?
I mainly use a canon 1100D with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses, but also different analog cameras from time to time and a Fujifilm instax 210.

What are your plans for the future? Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Hopefully in a lab doing research in neurobiology!

If you could only pick one thing to photograph for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Since inanimate objects don’t inspire me as much anymore, I would say my sister. She may not be very willing to cooperate but it’s always fun to take photos of her.

What's the best thing that happened to you today?
I had some really good falafel.

Lastly, tell us something most people don’t know about you.
I love broccoli.

You can quickly find Maria's amazing work of art by clicking here. 

Thank you so much Maria for answering to all of my questions. I really hope to meet you in person one day. Wishing you the best!

Don’t forget to smile,
xoxo MacQueen98. 

ask for her;

Inspired by my attempts to adobt

a positive attitude, mindset and lifestyle

I wrote something small but yet very special to me.

I don't know if you can call this a poem

or if the word quote would be a better fit for it,

all I know is that it is something

that means a lot to me,

so I really hope you enojoy this.

//

I've changed a lot lately.

I've tried to focus on the positive things

in life instead of the negative ones.

Now that I don't even see the negative anymore

I'm starting to value a lot something

that a lot of people are saying,

it really is just the way you see things

or as I say the way you wanna see things.

Happiness comes to the ones

that are calling for her to come on their way

and not the ones that are

constantly doing everything to push her" away.

Ask for her and she'll come.

Treat her kindly and she will never walk away.

//

Don't forget to smile,

xoxo MacQueen98. 

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

Some of us would say nothing, others would probably say everything. I asked people of different ages, genders, religions and cultures this very simple but yet interesting following question; If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? Here are their answers:

"Probably stop overthinking everything." -D, 19 years old

"My nose." -EK, 17 years old

"If I could change one thing about myself it would probably be saying "no" more frequently. I would love to think about myself first and then about the others. I would also like to workout daily but I don't really see that happening any time soon. " -E, 31 years old

"If I could change one thing about myself, it would be to be more confident in myself." -M, 22 years old

"This is a tricky question, because you are who you are for a reason, and the way you are is unique and special. But if I were to choose, it will be the way I act around others. I feel if I'd let myself be who I really am, I'd like to be more like the person I am when I'm with my friends, with other people (such as my coworkers and classmates) too. That would make my life so much easier and fun. Also more opportunities would have been open for my future. As for physical appearance, I'd LOVE to have green eyes." -E, 19 years old

"I'd love to be a bit more productive." -A, 20 years old

"I don't think that I would change anything about myself now. It wasn't easy to reach that point though. I think that every teenager wants to change something about themselves. Either because we don't like something or because we think that other people don't like us. This could be something on our physical appearance or even personality wise. The truth is that when I was younger I wanted to change a lot of things about myself because I thought that I wasn't "good enough" to be accepted by others. When you grow up your whole mindset changes because you realize what's truly important in life and which people deserve to be around you. Under all this pressure of wanted to change myself I understood that the most important thing in someone's life is their health. So I learned to love myself for what it is and that's enough for me." - EV, 17 years old

"My anxiety! I'd love to stop worrying about everything". -D, 17 years old

"Well to be honest, I want to accept myself for both the positive and the negative traits that I have. Yes, I’m always trying to be better than the person I was yesterday, but I‘m also someone who can’t change easily. No one is perfect. Everyone has flaws and something they wish they could change about themselves, but sometimes the things we think as flaws are actually the things that build up our character and help us develop to the best version of ourselves. But of course there are a lot of things I want to change about myself… For example, I am a bit lazy (lol) and impatient. I really hope I can turn my flaws into merits one day." -M, 20 years old

"I would like to be a bit tougher with other people." -S, 59 years old

"If I could change one thing about myself it would be the way I act around others. I would like to not be so tolerant with some people." -M, 49 years old

As for myself; If I could change anything about myself it would be my perspective, the way I see things. I somewhere read that a positive attitude changes everything. This is something that I'm currently working on and I've realized that even the slightest change towards positivity can have a huge impact in your life. There a lot of things that we don't like about ourselves based on a stupid ideal body or even a life image that the media have successfully created. There's no such a thing as beauty or life standards. Just like everyone's different so is their body, mind and attitude. Instead of looking at the things you hate about yourself as your flaws and picturing something negative about them, learn to embrace and love them because they're the things that diverse you from the others and make you unique, different and beautiful in your own way.

That was it for today's post, but before I go I wanted to say a huge thank you to all These Kind people that answered my question, I really appreciated. What about you? If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

Don't forget to smile,
xoxo MacQueen98.