“I love being able to freeze time and emotion in a photographic frame”

This week, we’re talking to Johny Costa, who was born and raised in the Middle East but now calls Warrington home.

He is a business analyst by profession but a photographer at heart.

If you would like to appear in our Behind the Lens feature, email heidi.summerfield@newsquest.co.uk

Click here if you would like to join Warrington Guardian Camera Club.

Warrington Guardian Camera Club member Johny Costa

Where are you from?

Bangladeshi by birth but raised in the Middle East, Kuwait and that’s where we immigrated from with my family here to Warrington. Warrington is where we call home. It was very much a case of out of the frying pan (Kuwait at 50 degrees) and into the icy bucket (sub-zero temperatures at times) in Warrington and where it never stops raining.

When and why did you take up photography?

I picked up my first camera when I was 12 and did a terrible job of capturing my uncle’s wedding. Later, at university, when I joined Uni Magazine, I started taking pictures and this is where I fell in love with photography - capturing smiles, moments and events.

Muddy puddles in the park

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What do you love about taking pictures?

I love being able to freeze time and emotion in a single frame, especially when you are able to capture your own family members. It allows you to go back in time when you look at the pictures and you can close your eyes and remember the moment - how you felt, what you saw and who you were with.

Pink and green

Where is your favourite place to take pictures and why?

Currently, I love taking pictures at Sankey Valley Park. Throughout the seasons, it provides variations beyond imagination. The flora and fauna, the gradient of the sky, the light and the wildlife are all great to photograph. I also love taking pictures in national parks as well as local establishments or museums and I really like travel photography.

Droplets on grass, Sankey Valley Park

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“Photography brings me so much joy – capturing the beauty around us”

What is your favourite subject matter and why?

My favourite subject is people, especially children. I also enjoy photographing birds and streets. I like capturing the realism and authenticity of human nature and behaviour.

Summer skies

What do you enjoy about being part of our Camera Club on Facebook?

I love how we are all able to share our love of photography and meet people with the same interests. It’s great to be inspired by so many amazing visionary photographers.

If you could photograph anyone/any place/anything, who/what would it be?

If I could photograph anyone it would be King Charles III. I’d love to photograph him in a busy area, maybe a train station, where he will be absolutely still and everything around him will be a blur. Other people’s movements and trains passing by would show how calm he is while all around him is a blur.

My ideal place would be the Lake District during the peak of autumn when the mountains are covered with flowers and the sky is orange, maybe red just before the sunset or sunrise.

I’d also love to photograph an active volcano in Iceland.

Dancing swan at Sankey Valley Park