I have been taking pictures since childhood, with the camera next to me and sharing in every adventure and passion of my life. I was a professional windsurfer and snowboarder before graduating with a degree in economics and undertaking a successful career in management consulting in Rome, London, and New York. After seven years in the “serious” business world, and while being a vice-president for a famous branding and design firm in New York City, I decided I was finally ready to leave the tie in the closet and go back to my roots. With many pictures in my portfolio already, transitioning to professional photography was an easy step. I started with a portrait exhibition in New York, and currently I’m a Nikon Pro with more than twelve magazine covers worldwide.

I am just simply in love with photography. My specialization is lifestyle and portraits, combined with a great love and passion for extreme sports, which I shoot whenever possible. I live between upstate New York (where I have my own photo studio and spend most of the year) and Italy (my home in the summer months), and I travel the world for assignments. My clients include Lavazza USA, RRD International, Montecristo, RealBeDifferent, and Plastik.

I got started in photography by shooting skateboarding. For the first eight years I shot skateboarding in my hometown of Ulvila, Finland. After I finished school I moved to Helsinki to get a job. For three years, I was an IT specialist - you know, coding programs and being a real nerd. From that nerd job I got enough money to buy some nice camera equipment and almost immediately started to shoot snowboarding.

Three years was enough to be a nerd so I started working with a skate and snowboard distributor in Finland. With that job I got more time to shoot. After shooting two to three years almost full time, I decided to take charge and became a full-time photographer.

In the winter, I make my living from shooting snowboarding and the rest of the year I shoot stuff for corporate communications, events, products, people, and anything else to get money to live.

I take my job seriously. When it comes to photos, I am a perfectionist. I’ll sometimes use six to eight flashes to fill light where I want that light to be. From looking at my photos, you can easily see that I like to play with flashes.

I was born and raised in Northern Ireland and first discovered photography at the age of 16 after I took a few photos with a camera from my friend’s dad. I never had the money to buy a camera of my own until I turned 19. As soon as that happened, I was terminally hooked.

I was attracted to the immediacy of photography, I was always good at art and painted a bit at school, but found the painting process too slow. I've always been a collector of things: records, books, magazines – so taking photos is sort of an extension of this.

Being from a hardcore BMX/punk background myself, I began to shoot photographs of friends in the different scenes that I was involved with and made regular contributions to DIG BMX Magazine who are based in Belfast. The mag has a passion for stylistic BMX riding alongside a D.I.Y. punk ethic, so I could really tune into the magazine’s vision. These days, I’m the staff photographer, editor and janitor at their office in Belfast.

I'm lucky enough to be able to travel the world with fellow weirdos, documenting the many unique aspects of BMX life. What I’ve learned is that if you have a real passion for photography or anything else, follow your heart and believe in what you do. It’s 2010, let's keep the energy going. It's all about what's happening today, now.

I was born on May 23, 1973, in the Czech Republic. I got started in photography at age 10 with a camera that was a gift from my grandfather. At 14, I started rock climbing and always had a camera around my neck. After I finished technical engineering school, I left for a surfing trip to Hawaii where I discovered the magic of landscape photography.

I got seriously into photography on a trip to Mt. McKinley in 1996. My work was first published in 1997 and in the same year, I founded Sharp Pictures, a multimedia agency specializing in the international sport industry. Since then, I have been working as a freelance photographer. I shoot catalogs and ads for clients such as Rip Curl, Quiksilver, Fomei, Tamron, and Sensor. I also make and collaborate on movies, including Goosneck and Real Night in Prague (mountain biking) and Just One Day (snowboarding). A trip to photo-shoot and film life and backcountry snowboarding in forgotten Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Romania resulted in another movie as well as stories and photos in magazines. In 2002, I attended the Vancouver Film School and although I still live in the Czech Republic, Whistler is my second home.

In 1998, I started to work for the Polish magazine Slizg (music, skateboarding, graffiti, etc.). At first, I was a journalist, but then I started to take an interest in photography. I was shooting music events and some portraits, and finally I started to work with skateboarders as I had always been fascinated by skateboarding. I spent a lot of time on my board, but — to be honest — I wasn't very talented.

At the moment, I'm based in Warsaw and am focused on sport photography. Skateboarding, snowboarding, and freeskiing are my favorite subjects. I really love what I'm doing: working with friends, meeting new people, traveling and visiting new spots and new places, trying to "catch the moments" with my camera, and learning everyday. Sometimes it's not easy to make a living from it, but the most important thing is that it gives me so much satisfaction. I would like to thank all my friends and all the athletes I have worked with since without them, I couldn't do what I'm doing – lots of love!