Backstage | Petr Jan Juračka

1998, Buky u Vysokého Chvojna, © Taťka

My photography begun in 1996 with Praktika L (completely manual) with Carl Zeiss 50 mm f / 1.4 lens. Later on, my parents bought me Zenit Es (very special Russian photo police set) with “photosniper” and Tair 300 mm f / 4 a Helios 58 mm f/ 2 lenses. Some extension tubes & filters. Moreover, my father bought very old & big wood tripod for 3 beers in the pub. I still love this equipment, despite the fact I do not use it anymore. We had really good times with that in nature for couple of years, until 2006 (but later with better tripods). Then, I have switched to the digital arena, with dream camera Nikon D70. This one walked with me, lived with me & slept with me for three years.

2008, Mexiko, © Iva Vaníčková

If interested, recent equipment is here. I prefer fixed focal lens to zooms, I like work with them more.

Nikon D300
Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED DX Fisheye
Nikon 12-24 mm F4 G IF-ED AF-S DX
Nikon 50 mm F1,8 AF NIKKOR D
Sigma 105 mm f / 2.8 EX DG MACRO
Nikon 180 mm F2,8 AF NIKKOR D IF-ED

Lens I have used in the past (or nowadays, but rarely):

Sigma 10 - 20 mm f / 4 - 5.6 EX DC HSM
Nikon 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G
Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G

2008, České Švýcarsko, © Michal Votápka

Tripod: Manfrotto 190XPROB with mounted GITZO GH1781QR head. Flash: Metz MB 48 AF-1. I also use GPS - Nikon GP-1. Lens I transport in LowePro and neoprene cases. For the underwater photography I am using Ewa Marine pack U-BXP100.

2009, Orlické hory, © Michal Votápka

Software
The main part of my workflow is usually done in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom & Adobe Photoshop. For High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography I am using a great Photomatix Pro developed by HDRsoft, who is my sponsor. Thank you very much! You can see some of my shots on the Photomatix site here. Slideshows I do in PicturesToExe developed by WNSOFT, who are also my sponsors. I am grateful to both, and I can honestly recommend all software mentioned above. For microphotography I use also Nikon Camera Control Pro & Helicon Focus.

Prints
All my prints has been done exclusively by Thalia Picta (in Prague) with LightJet. They are simply the best ;-)