A proper introduction: my name is Carlo and my account is @thePhotoGuide

So I have been here for two weeks under the name @thePhotoGuide and I did do a kind of introduction to explain my account name, but I hadn't introduced myself properly up until now...

Hello! I thought I'd spice it up a little from the usual paper signs

Finally, we get to know you

Yes, finally! So my name is Carlo and I was born and raised in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I am 29 years old and I came across Steemit the way a lot of us here did, through the cryptoworld. Although I had my first encounters with Bitcoin a couple of years ago already, I never got around to actually invest in it...such a shame, for obvious reasons. Oh well, I still think we are at the absolute beginning of what this will all bring in the future.

4 random facts to get this started

1. Who cares about 6 degrees of seperation? I'll be at Justin Bieber in 4

2. I'm virtually unbeatable in the original Super Mario Kart for the SNES

3. Goats are by far my favorite animals

4. People have often said I should be a comedian, but I'm too modest to be on a stage

More about me

My main interests are photography, writing, sports, gaming and movies...I'm a big movie buff. For those of you who have already read some of my posts, you may have already noticed I am very passionate about photography and the reason I decided to dedicate my account to writing about anything related to photography is because it's the one thing I'm very experienced in and love talking about. 

Do you do anything photography related aside writing here then?

Well actually I'm in the works of writing my own book on photography. The focus will be on the creative side of things as most books are just full of technical explanation or lack this alltogether. Also, I think I have a unique perspective on photography and how it should be done. This is exactly what I'm going to teach people and hopefully inspire many others along the way!

The sad thing about being a photographer is that you rarely have good photos of yourself...this is one of the few I'm happy with :)

My first digital camera

Back in 2004 my parents took me on my second trip to the U.S. and it was the first time I went to New York city. As an extra they gave me my first digital camera which I still have to this day. I was so impressed with the gigantic surroundings of Manhattan that I didn't even know where to point my camera... The photos I took then and in the years after weren't especially great, but it was good practice! Here is a photo from that vacation back when I just started photographing:

So this photo was taken in 2004, way before I could even think of editing anything. In comparison, here is a photo I took last year at the Grand Canyon:

Sports

I have always played a lot of sports from a young age on. 4 years of tennis and 10 years of football (soccer for Americans) until I injured my knee. I can't put too much stress on it anymore because it's always going to remain a weak spot and I don't want to have to walk on crutches for a month anymore. Nevertheless I still very actively watch sports, football mostly. Since a couple years I have also taken a big interest in MMA, but unfortunately I can't get into doing it myself. I do own a season ticket to my favorite football team and visit matches as frequent as possible.

This is the view from my seat in The Johan Cruijff Arena, two years ago. The quality is bad...I took it with my phone

One last thing

Okay so maybe you have noticed it already, but sometimes I talk to myself. Not in a crazy way...I wouldn't go out in the streets having conversations with myself. It does reflect in my posts a little, it's like I'm being interviewed, but there is no one to ask the questions. The truth is this way I feel like I can interact a lot more with all of you. 

That's about it for now. Like I always conclude my posts with: If you have any questions, just let me know in the comments!