Tula Urban
Staff Writer

Andy Madjedi, Arroyo Grande native and a first year student here at Cuesta finds his peace in photography. Andy captures his world in snapshots and capturing images that mesmerize the viewer.  

He discovered his talent sophomore year of high school and began taking photography classes. He also had the honor of shadowing his cousin who works for National Geographic. With influence like that Andy was drawn into the photography world. He continued to take photography classes and began to dabble here and there. He focuses primarily on landscape and eventually began to experiment with star and night shots.

With his cousin as his main inspiration Madjedi yearned to create something raw of his own. His first camera, a Canon 7D Mark ll and eventually moved on to a Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR (DSLR just means  that it is a digital single-lens reflex camera is a digital camera combining the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor, as opposed to photographic film) to capture the elements of his world.

As he continued on his journey, Madjedi found that he wasn’t searching for the “perfect” photo, instead he found beauty in being able to just take hundreds of photos with no care in how they turned out. Andy has had the honor of doing a few shoots here and there, but finds they lack passion. He is most passionate when he is able to take photos and not worry about the end product.

“I want to be able to take photos when I want, edit them when I want, and find inspiration instead of being forced to do something,” Madjedi said.

Photography will continue to be a hobby for Madjedi. He believes that his work is there to simply capture the beauty most of us rarely find in our day to day lives. With a keen perspective and unusual eye Madjedi hopes to continue to evolve as an artist.

As a Computer Science major he wants to find a job in the industry while keeping photography as a hobby. If the opportunity presented itself, Madjedi would work for National Geographic with no questions asked. Other than that he plans to use photography as a creative getaway and an excuse to go out and explore.

“I like just being able to go out and just take photos. It gives me an excuse to go on an adventure and explore the outside world,”  Madjedi said.