Interview with Nina Nayko

The Magazine For Photographers
Feb 12
4 min read

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Nini Kachakhidze, but I go as Nina Nayko as my nickname. I’m 24 yr old photographer and content creator. I was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. The inspiration for my photography is my city and my country. I love capturing every detail of it, as it has beautiful nature, culture, various architecture and of course a very unique atmosphere.

How did you get into photography?

My vision was always ‘’strong’’ since childhood, I always noticed and found beautiful things in my surroundings and I wanted everyone else to see it. When I was 13, my father got me a tablet which could take photos, so I started capturing details I appreciated daily, and then showed it to my friends and shared them online. I quickly fell in love with taking photos, editing them and sharing it to others, and that’s how my journey began.

What role does composition play in your photos?

Composition is the most important part of my photography, as no matter how you color it, you can’t fix an unstable, unbalanced image. As a photographer, with the details I see around me – I see compositions everywhere, if I think a certain detail is interesting, I won’t really take a photo if I don’t see it as a good composition. Second most important is the color grading, which really helps me transfer the feelings I’ve felt in the moment of taking a photo - through a flat image.

What do you think sets your work apart from others in the industry?

I simply love what I do and it shows, the ideology of my photography was to always share it to others, let them see how I see the world, and teach them to appreciate the details around them. My photography is firstly for me, and for others as well. I’m staying true to myself meanwhile following the trends and keeping in mind what audience likes. So I think the connection of my art and the general audience is what keeps my work special.

How do you stay inspired and motivated to continue creating new and unique photographs?

The urge to take photos is already in my blood. I need that in my life, so wherever I go, my camera comes with me. My country is my inspiration, as it’s so interesting on every step, each walk is something new to explore and photograph, it’s hard to stay uninspired, but making content is different, you always have to push yourself to be consistent as that is a job, think about what audience enjoys, think about stats and numbers, which can be exhausting. But luckily the support I’m receiving from people is always enough to make me feel motivated whenever I feel down.

What are some of the most important qualities for a great photographer to have, in your opinion?

I think it’s all about taste and love for taking photos, without the love and interest you can’t be a great photographer, if you feel nothing when you take photos, it won’t turn out good. Photography is super subjective, but I know how to rate things objectively, some people have an amazing eye for compositions, but they put Instagram filters over their photos, or just make objectively terrible choices for editing. It is not because of the lack of editing knowledge, when I first started out, I knew nothing about it, but as I look back at my very first photos – they’re done with taste, tons of mistakes, but still with a vision and a specific taste.

What gear do you use?

I use canon 6D mark ii for photography and my animated photos. I use canon 24-70mm 2.8 lens as it gives me lots of flexibility. I also use canon 75-300mm f4.5-5.6, the cheapest telephoto lens I could find, I’ve been using it for 5 years and it is always fun to use as it has a great zoom.

What is your editing software of choice and how much time do you spend editing?

I use adobe photoshop and premiere pro. Sometimes I spent 5 minutes on a photo, sometimes 30 minutes, and sometimes days, depends on the complexity, the mood. Video editing and content preparation takes much longer, hours and days, my computer is a little slow so it takes longer than it should.

How did you find your signature photography/editing style?

As social media switched to videos, I had to switch too, but I really care about quality and the video quality of my camera wasn’t good enough, so I had to get creative. I came across animation processes and realized that when you combine 2 differently edited frames, it’s an animation, I added my own twists, aesthetics and the flickering light animations became my most successful series.

Reels or photos? And why?