SAM RUSU

Whether he’s in his own garden or a quiet woodland, Sam Rusu is interested in all creatures bright and beautiful, great and small. He tells Lauren Scott why photography is a release and escape from everyday life

- Lauren Scott

01 A TUFTED DUCK ON A MIRRORED SURFACE

Sam uses Manual exposure mode for greater control, and here used exposure compensation to brighten the image and capture details in the duck’s feathers

Lens Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM

Exposure 1/1000 sec, f/4, ISO500

FOR SOME wildlife photographers, the thrill of travelling to exotic, far-flung locations and tracking down rare species is what keeps the magic alive. But for Sam Rusu, who moved to the UK in 2015, magical moments can be found in the everyday, the commonplace, the closer to home, the unexpected and unplanned; a robin perching in the garden, or a chance encounter in a London park with a kestrel. “I focus on representing scenes that are usually hard to reproduce, capturing those ethereal moments. The technological tools are the brushes that I use to illuminate the surreal elements of nature,” he says. Sam uses the creative and mindful act of photography to relax and escape from what he calls “The madness of adulthood”. He loves to revisit species regularly to improve his images, and for the last year, he has been teaching others how to hone their skills and style when photographing nature. 

Hey, Sam. Where did photography all start for you?