I didn’t know Nico until he applied through our FB fanpage. He sent a message asking how he can become part of the club. I asked him a few questions on why he wanted to join, his gear system and his level of proficiency.

Nico says he started shooting back in high school with a DSLR. He lost interest somehere along college but gained it back after he got married, became a dog dad, and eventually a real dad. He says he was really interested to be a part of Zone V. With the pandemic, he felt very limited with what he could do in terms of improving his photography. So he thought that joining a club would be good solution.

After I checked out his impressive IG B&W account, I realized he has good potential and Zone V may turn out to be the community he is looking for. Here is what Nico wrote when I requested him for his background:

“My photography journey began back in 2006. I was in high school then and my classmate, who brought his DSLR to school caught my attention. The moment I first tried shooting with his camera, I was hooked. There wasn’t a lot of material online yet at the time so the camera manual was my best resource on understanding the basic photography concepts like shutter speed and aperture. I got the general idea of the exposure triangle through the manual but only really understood it through trial and error. I started playing around with my classmate’s camera during school events and challenged myself to shoot in manual mode. Eventually, my dad upgraded to a DSLR too and I found myself bringing his camera to other social events like family reunions, sports events, and after-school socials.

After high-school, I stopped shooting since none of my college friends were really into photography. I lost the love for photography right up to the time I started working and had the time and money to start traveling. At the same time, my girlfriend (now wife) and I got

the most beautiful Golden Retriever named Charlie Girl. We put up an Instagram account for her and would post all about her with photos I took with my phone.

In 2018, a few months before my first child was born, I invested in my own mirrorless system. Since then, I haven’t stopped watching the many photography videos I never had at my disposal before to help me further improve my photography skills.

Since my main reason for photography today is to document my family, my interest is mainly in documentary style photography and photojournalism. Other fields I’m interested in learning also include surf photography, real estate photography, and astrophotography.

– By Arlene Donaire