About
Donny Kurniawan – Biography
I was born in Surabaya, 1977. My father is a collector of cameras, antique cameras. I guess my exposure to photography really started at a very young age. I started learning and dealing with camera was with Nikon FM3. My first Digital SLR camera was Nikon D100 which is now converted to an Infra-Red (IR) only camera. I love working with passionate people, positive energy and I like to surround myself with energetic and happy people. I graduated from the University of New South Wales – Sydney, Australia. Got my Masters of Commerce and Technology Management enables me to work with people and learnt a great deal of management and business. Photography is my main hobby and I couldn’t resist to go anywhere without my camera. I took part-time and freelance works as Photographer’s Assistant in Australia and have worked with wonderful photographers ranging from landscape, portrait, commercial and still life photography businesses.
I am a father to my 2 kids, Farrel and Megan, and am married to my beautiful wife, Lisa who is now one of the Managing Directors of our own studio, Portrait Studio. Me and my business partner, Leo CA, founded Portrait Studio in 2005 and has now grown to one of the top lists of Wedding Photographers in Indonesia. My works have been published in Bazaar Wedding and Cosmopolitan Bride in Indonesia. I find Wedding Photo Journalism very interesting. I believe that every wedding has a story to tell and every love has a tale to unfold. I respect my clients, the bride and the groom, other wedding vendors and people around me in this industry. We are now able to shoot in average of not more than 8 weddings a month. My greatest inspirations are Annie Leibovitz, Kevin Kubota, Jerry Ghionis, James Nachtwey, Marcus Bell, and many more. They give me inspirations, ideas, more to a motivational booster to achieve better every time.
My hobby? Scuba Diving. Life underwater is beautiful and I happen to have an underwater speciality camera, Sea and Sea Motor Marine EX with the strobes and wide-angle lens converter and have taken dozens of photographs underwater. I have dived the Macronesia, Maldives, Great Barriers Reef, Bali, and hopefully next trip, The Red Sea.
In Wedding, I just happen to fall in love with the bride every wedding I do. Also, fall in love with the groom, but not too much. I sometimes direct but not as much. I do wedding photojournalistic approach to my photography style. Most important thing is, I am not one of those “1,2….3 (Click)” kind of photographer. I see what I feel and I press the shutter at my own free will. My gears range from Nikon D3 Full Frame Digital SLR to Mamiya 645 AFD with Phase One P30 Digital Back. All my lenses are fast gold-ring lenses. I am not into talking about my gears as much but for assurance, I try to believe that my photography gears are on the top list.
To me, photography is beyond the art itself, it is beyond pixel and technology. The most important thing is not the man behind the gun, or the man behind the camera, but more to the soul behind the camera.
Well this blog is dedicated to all my friends and families out there who wants to keep track of what I am doing and my happenings, please feel free to wander around. Drop me a line or two 
Cheers,
Donny K
