Jiri Siftar

Jiri Siftar is one of the UK's leading Instagramers. He's a Senior Interaction Designer, whose work outside the office sees him create images for Editorial and Creative brand assignments as well as for the love of photography, notably with the London Instagramers community. His work with brands has seen him travel the world for many household names, including Samsung (promoting the Galaxy), O2 (for the O2 RoadTrip) and RedBull.
Born in the Czech Republic, he moved to London in 2012 (via Poole, Dorset) and has embraced the city - being one of the key Instagramers capturing it (his was recently named as one of the key Instagram accounts to follow if you miss London).

Your work capturing London, gives a beautiful insight in to the city, how much has the mobile photography and Instagram community of London played a part in inspiring your work and growing as a mobile photographer?

London gave me a great opportunity to meet with avid Instagramers from around the world. It is always a delightful time spent on photowalks with my Instafriends or on events organised by Instagramers London. I believe we greatly inspire each other and I would recommend for any keen Instagramer to meet other Instagramers and share experience.

Which fellow mobile photographer do you most admire?

It’s impossible to name just one, I get lots of inspiration from and have admiration for many of my fellow Instagramers. For example my friend Ollie (@shollie) took a break from work for three months to go around the World and visit some of Instagramers he follows and likes, see the places he knew from their shots and spent some good time with those good people. I love that!

”London gave me a great opportunity to meet with avid Instagramers from around the world.”

If you could pick just 2 of your own favourite mobile images, which would you choose?

Another mission impossible. Ok, I still love one of my first shots of London for all those layers (in various senses) on Bishopsgate and then I’d probably pick the shot of the Bournemouth air balloon. It reminds me of the Jules Verne’s novels I loved as a kid and I also keep wandering – ‘how did I take this shot?’ as it seems like being photographed from another higher spot.

You’ve recently been blogging about ‘How to take perfect Instagram photos’, looking at mobile photography as a whole. If you could give 3 tips to a new mobile photographer, what would it be?

• The world looks differently through the lens, so keep shooting and have your eyes open.
• Talented photographers will take a great shot with rubbish camera. Be creative with composition, learn from your shots and be methodical with editing.
• Avoid obvious, but if you can’t, do it better than others.

”I never hesitate to draw my iphone to catch something on the go.”

It's the question everyone asks, but we'd love to know – what kit do you take out most regularly for shoots both personally and on brand assignments?

My main gear is Nikon D600 with 24-70mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8, which is quite expensive and big stuff. But I went through different stages of my photography enthusiasm and now I simply have this “fancy-techie-lenses full frame” time.

It also gives me certainty on brand assignments that I’ll have broad variety of shooting options. For occasions requiring something more subtle I’m using Fujifilm X100s. But I never hesitate to draw my iPhone to catch something on the go.

The list of brands you’ve worked with is quite impressive! Which has been your most memorable brand-commission and where do you see the mobile photography-brand industry heading in the next year?

Again hard to choose, weekend trips with O2 are great little holidays, having a super sports car from Jaguar for the weekend was once in a lifetime experience, but what keeps sending shivers through my spine is the memory of Tom Jones singing 2 meters from me while I was shooting on Guinness’ Arthur’s Day in London last year. I’m kinda old school, perhaps, but my mom wept when I told her ;)