Derren Versoza is a 22 year old (1989) technical engineering major hailing from Riverside, California. Photography is one of his hobby’s, and one he became damn good at. His portfolio consists out of conceptual/fashion portraits which are completed by shallow depths of fields and great post-processing. I’m sure that Derren’s skills will mature and progress even more over time, so keep an eye out for this young creative talent.
“I’ve been striving to progress with each shoot and try new and different things that I haven’t done because that is the best way to learn!”
The creative process started little over two years ago, when Derren first picked up a camera. After doing a 365days project and a short venture into videography, he began taking some seriously nice pictures.
Derren: “I’ve always been a creative person; creating music was my passion until I picked up a camera. I discovered that photography can be another way to convey certain moods, ideas, and stories in images. I like to stay motivated as much as possible which can come from watching movies, listening to music, and day dreaming. I’ve been striving to progress with each shoot and try new and different things that I haven’t done because that is the best way to learn!”
Hailing from Riverside, California Derren has the sunshine with him. “Living in Riverside influences my shooting because it has a lot of diverse location types. There are fields, hills, lakes and urban city locations within 20 minutes from my house so I try to utilize my local environments in my work. Riverside also happens to be an hour away from the beach and also an hour away from the mountains.”
We’re always wondering what kind of creative process a photographer goes through, from the first idea to the end-result. Derren always starts out with a certain concept. Derren: “My shooting process usually starts off with an idea. Sometimes I can get inspiration from a certain television episode or even a commercial. Once I get an idea, I make sure to immediately type it out in the notepad in my phone! From this point I try and plan in head the best way to shoot the idea that would be the easiest to manipulate in post process.”
“Having an idea for a photo can be one thing, but having a good plan to execute it correctly is very important. I learned a lot of this by trial and error and practicing shots with my beautiful girlfriend which usually turn out to be my personal favourites. My editing process for all of my different usually involves a lot of curves adjustments on multiple layers. I like to edit the colours of my photos to match a certain colour palette to produce a more pleasing image with colours that mix well with each other. When I finish a photo, I usually save it and then come back to it a couple of days later to try and spot anything that needs to be fixed!”
As for a specific goal with his photography, Derren doesn’t really have one. “All I know is that I want to keep producing photographs no matter what career path lies ahead of me. Having a creative outlet is important to me and I’ve found that photography is something I enjoy and can see myself doing for a long time.”
