Marian Sterea is an international award-winning wedding and portrait photographer who shares our passion not only for excellent photography, but for the art of the printed album. See more of his work, along with the incredible custom boxes he creates for each of his clients.
What was your first love? How did fate lead you to photography?
I began to photograph in 2009, playing with a camera that was a gift from my wife. Then at an event where we were simply invited I asked the photographer of the wedding what he thought about my camera and he said “Mmm it’s a toy.” This created some ambition for me, and my next camera was a Nikon D90. After, came the Nikon D700, which was a revelation to me, it is and will remain my favorite, although is outdated, I worked very well with that camera. In fact, that means to be a photographer you don’t need to have tuned technique, but feel the light!
When I started, a friend of mine taught me about photography and always pissed me off with lessons, such as photographing a tree or an egg in different perspectives. Even now I don’t have the pictures with the egg but the tree just became “my life” and therefore I have it on my logo.
In my case valid words from Anabella Wiliams, “Photography is only 90% psychology and 10% technical.” I learned a lot looking at various tutorials on YouTube and practicing after. The first workshop I attended was the one held by me, then came many other workshops, but the real revelation for me was Adam Alex who convinced me that every photographer can be the single most important, that inspired me to do what I feel, not what I need.
I also love contests. Not for awards, but that beautiful state that I have when I see people I respect as professionals give me their vote of confidence. It’s always nice when customers appreciate my work, but always the subjectivity of the character in the story is bigger than the objective professional, who critically scrutinizes the work of another professional. That’s why I participate in competitions, they represent an objective measure of my work. Over these years I have won many national and international awards including the photo of 2012 – Nikon Romania with wedding photography and in 2013 I was in top 50 Fearless Photographers, and a few prizes from IPSWP.
What do you love most about shooting weddings?
I am a wedding photographer because I love people and the mix of emotions on the wedding day.
What do you find to be the most effective marketing tools?
I think the best tool for marketing is my own image, which is created by my public appearance – my website, my videos and every product that I sell.
How has Fundy Designer helped your workflow or business?
How did Fundy Software helped me on my business? Oh that’s simple! I proved at my workshops that you can make a wedding album in 12 minutes – everybody was amazed.
Why do you think albums are so important to offer to clients? Tell us about creating your custom albums.
Mostly of my albums are produced in Romania but the wood boxes are made by me. One day, me and my wife, we were thinking about doing something special with our albums, and so we made the wooden box, and we added many other things just as a detail so that our clients felt special.
For more information on Marian Sterea, visit his website or follow him on Facebook or Instagram.
