About

My name is Andrea Monti. I’m an Italian free-lance journalist, photographer and – in my spare time – an hi-tech lawyer.

I started this website because I needed an online place to collect (mostly my) pictures and thoughts about photography, and because I was bored to death of reading sites where people of (various)  knowledge sell camera and lens reviews labelled as “independent”, while actually being pure and simple paid-ads. Or, worse, listening at “ho-ho-ho columns” (again, actually “featured-ad”) that arise hype on whatever gimmick the market throws at the consumers hoping that somebody clicks the associate program links to get a few quids.

I didn’t initially mean to become a professional photographer, in fact when this blog went online, rhetorically asking myself if I were for hire, this is what I answered:

Absolutely NO. Although you might like some of the pictures I take, I don’t shoot to earn money. The world is full of serious professionals that know their way and that deserve to be rewarded for their capability. If you need a serious job, by all means, stay clear of amateur.

But in the course of time things changed. Thanks to the mentorship of Manlio Cammarata, a seasoned photo reporter, journalist and for many years a Nikon Italy adviser (he authored the Nikon F3 official Italian user manual) my skills grew up steadily fast.

I started covering live shows for an online music magazine and a 200 years-old theatre, “designing” the corporate portraits for an IT security company, and attending sport events (mainly, fitghting disciplines). But, still, I’m not for hire since I don’t want to kill my passion by turning the pleasure of shooting into a tedious job.

To put it short, I’m at my liberty to accept – more often, reject – a proposal.

And now a final note about what this website is not:

  • a way to collect money through advertising and affiliate programs, by “pushing” people to buy whatever garbage the camera business dumps on the shelves,
  • an authoritative technical resource that provides measurable and scientific claims (look for the great work of DxO labs, instead),
  • a way to catch the attention of some manufacturer so to start traveling around at its expenses attending its product presentation tours, while still claiming to be born on July, 4th.