Lomo Amigo Johannes Pistrol Shoots With the Horizon Perfekt

Ready for an extreme mountain-adventure? Hop on with Johannes Pistrol, his bike, and the Horizon Perfekt!

REAL NAME: Johannes Pistrol
COMMUNITY NAME: johannes
CITY: Moedling
COUNTRY: Austria
LINKS: http://www.bikewithpassion.com and http://www.johannespistrol.com (still under
construction, but will be my photography-blog)
CAMERA: Horizon Perfekt

Please, tell the community a bit about yourself and what you do.
I’m 23 years old, studying civil engineering at the Vienna University of Technology and working as a geotechnician a few hours a week. Besides studying and work I try to spend as much time as I can in the mountains, riding my bike or taking
pictures. Recently I found my interests going into music and editorial photography.

How long have you been a Lomographer (or are you new to this whole thing)?
I’m totally new to this whole thing and already love it.

Looks like you have been a photographer for some time though. When did you start getting into it and would you describe your experience with film?

It started about two and a half years ago, that was the time when my biking skills really improved. I loved being in the mountains, riding some decent trails and just wanted to document that. I wanted to share my adventures with others. Because of my lack of photographic skills I chose a digital SLR. Starting to shoot sports means you produce a lot of crap at the beginning and digital photography is just cheaper for beginners. With the Horizon two things changed. First: If you shoot a DSLR these days you always see your cameras lightmeter in your viewfinder and second: you can check your
results right after the shot. I had to get used to these things but I really love them now, it slows things down a bit. Seeing the images a couple of weeks later for the first time is really exciting.

Describe the Horizon Perfekt in five words.
Inspiring, surprising, tough, ingenious, addictive.

Judging by your website http://www.bikewithpassion.com, you do some pretty daring stuff on your bike! What motivates you to head to the top of a mountain?
The mountain itself and the feeling you get when you stand on the top. It is kind of addictive, when you find a mountain in one of your hiking maps with a challenging downhill you can possibly ride you start researching and planning a trip
and won´t stop thinking about this particular mountain till you’ve done it.

Sure does seem like you have a lot of passion for what you do. Do you think your photography and love of sports go hand and hand (drive each other on)? Or are they for you mutually exclusive?
They definitely go hand and hand. I love biking, I love photography and I especially love good mountainbiking-pics. It is quite hard to capture the action, the beautiful landscape, the spirit and maybe the dificulty of a mountainbiking scene.
When I look at one of my pictures I want to feel the same way, as I felt when I rode this part of the trail. That’s pretty challenging, but it helps a lot if you do the same sport as you are shooting.

On the trips you documented with your Horizon Perfekt, what was the strangest, funniest, or hands-down greatest photographic/ Lomographic encounter that you have had.

I think the funniest thing were the faces of all the guys that I took photos of when they first saw the Horizon. They kept asking if the Horizon is really a camera. My favorite thing about the Horizon is, that it needs no batteries and everything works mechanically. That really fascinates me.

If your photos shown here could have a soundtrack of three songs, what would they be (song title & artist please).

  • Red Hot Chili Peppers: Scar Tissue
  • Eddie Vedder: Society
  • John Frusciante: Murderers

If you, your bike and Horizon Perfekt could pack a bag and go anywhere right now, where would it be and why?
New Zealand! Because of the landscape, the spectacular mountains and all the hiking paths I would like to ride with my bike.

What’s coming up on the horizon for you? Do you have any upcoming trips organized? What are your plans?

Well during the winter-months mountain-adventures are not possible with the bike in and around Austria, I just ride some local trails and do some slope-riding with my bike from time to time. But for next summer I´ve planned some nice high-mountain trips ;-)

Do you have any advice for other people looking to get a Horizon Perfekt? What about people looking to take up mountain biking?
For the Horizon-guys: Get it! If you are not used to setting aperture, shutterspeed and guessing the light-situation, you maybe want to get or borrow a lightmeter since the Horizon Perfekt is a fully manual camera. For everyone who wants to start biking: Start on easy trails, wear protection and respect the nature.

written by plainjane on 2010-01-15 #people #lomo-amigo #interview #panorama #horizon-perfekt #lomoamigo

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