Today we’d like to introduce you to Jean-Marc Buytaert.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jean-Marc. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Originally from France, I’ve been a proud Houstonian since my family moved to this beautiful city in ’95. I’ve spent most of life in Houston, where I’ve had the privilege to meet and work with hard-working, dedicated, talented, and amazing people.
After developing and designing websites for 15 years, I advanced in software development three years ago, and while I’ve always had a desk job that required logical thinking, I’ve constantly found a way to keep my creative side alive, whether it was learning to play a musical instrument, writing songs, or experiment with design software, but the one passion that kept on coming back was photography.
Having been fascinated with astronomy and anything space-related since I was a kid, I finally bought a telescope a few years ago and seeing the Moon, Saturn and its rings, and Jupiter up so close made me want to photograph them. This lead me to buying new camera equipment, which in turn lead to me taking my camera everywhere I went, and photograph just about anything.
Other than experience and better pictures, I’m pretty much at the same spot today as I was when I started: a passionate photographer who just wants to share what I capture with the World. Sure, I know more about photography in general, I’m quicker at composing pictures, and I’m better at experimenting with lighting and composition, but that’s just practice making me better at it.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
As an amateur photographer, getting my name out there organically has been and still is the most challenging. With Instagram being my main social platform, it can be quite difficult to grow an audience without paying to promote your work, but I’d rather let it take its time and do my own thing at my own pace. If one day I get noticed and go big, awesome; if not, no big deal, I’ll still keep on shooting.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
@jmbuytaert is my Instagram handle, which displays a collection of photos I’ve taken since I got back into photography (and a few personal posts as well).
One of the compliments I get the most from my IG followers is that I take “real” pictures: the content of my photography is usually un-staged and ranges from macro close-ups of plants and insects to landscapes, architecture, wildlife, the Moon, cars and planes, to pretty much anything that catches my eye.
The fact that I don’t specialize in a specific type of photography, but instead take pictures of things that are around us that we tend to forget, is what sets me apart from others. As much as I enjoy Photoshop and the work that I see out there, it’s not what photography is about to me. I want my pictures to have and reveal real human emotions, I want people to look at my pictures and actually feel mesmerized as if they’ve never seen anything like it, except they already have, they’ve just never really paid attention. I believe there’s beauty in almost anything, you just have to find it, and I hope my pictures help others see it as well.
I also take pride in limiting the editing of my images to a minimum; I usually tweak my images in Lightroom then IG to make it look as authentic as the way I saw it, lightly modifying lighting and contrast, and I very rarely experiment with filters or pre-defined settings.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Most people tend to associate success with money, the type of house you live in, the type of car you drive, the clothes you wear, and so forth… To me, success is only about achieving a personal goal. The only criterion I have is to aim high: if I’m going to take a picture, I’m going to make it a good one, otherwise, what’s the point?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jmbuytaert.com (under construction)
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jmbuytaert
Image Credit:
Jean-Marc Buytaert
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