STEFAN DANIEL KOTZE – Who am I?
Hello, I’m Stefan Daniël Kotzé and I’m a Johannesburg based Fujifilm photographer and videographer.
I started my photography journey 11 years ago, catching the end of the film era just before it started to fade out almost completely. I’m very happy that I could start my career on film, as it was such an experience being able to develop my own photos in the darkroom and teaching myself to be very much in tune with the technical side of photography, whereas the more creative side of me followed a bit later.
I have done almost any type of photography that you can think of over the years, but my favourite types of photos that have stuck with me the most have definitely been cars and people. I currently run a successful wedding and lifestyle photography business called Salt ‘n Pepper Photography on the one side, while my automotive, advertising and fashion work falls under Stefan Kotzé Photography.
I moved over to Fujifilm when the X-T1 was just released in South Africa, in 2014 and I’ve never regretted it for a single day in my life. Lots of people move to mirrorless because of the weight and size factor compared to DSLR systems and although this was a factor for me when moving over, it was a very small part of the move. Using my old camera system, it always felt like so much effort and work when using it and I never had the same confidence and trust that I have grown to have in my Fuji system over the 4 years that I’ve been using it.
I currently have the Fuji X-H1 and X-T2 and a whole bunch of Fuji primes. I moved straight to primes when I switched systems and it’s immensely improved the way I shoot and made me much less lazy. What I mean by that is that now I actually have to think about my shots and what lens I want to and need to use for each situation. I can’t just slap on a zoom and make it easy for myself.
With me shooting so many cars and people, I just love how I can always see what I’m going to get out of my shots immediately with the EVF and the autofocus is so good for when I’m doing shots around the racetrack or tracking shots from another car. The colours the camera reproduces are also so perfect, that I really need to do minimal editing on most of my shots and I know that when there are times that I need to give clients shots straight from the camera, I’m super confident to do so.
For me, Fuji is not just a camera system I use, but it’s an extension of myself, an extension of my own eye and the best investment I’ve ever made.
If you’d like to keep up with my work you can do so here:
Instagram: Stefan Kotze Photography
Instagram: Salt ‘n Pepper Photography
Website: https://www.stefankotze.com/
Website: http://www.saltnpepperphotography.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StefanKotzePhoto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaltnPepperPhotography
