From Asia to a castle and photography

From Asia to a Castle in Litomyšl

After some time, in 2020, I started working at the castle in Litomyšl. In a way, I moved from travelling around the world as a tour guide to showing people around one very specific place.

Alongside guiding, I also worked with visitors and prepared foreign-language texts, mainly in English and Spanish.

It was a completely different experience, but many of the things I enjoyed were still there – people, communication, languages and storytelling.

Then I went on maternity leave and eventually left the castle.

And I started thinking about what I wanted to do next.

I Needed a Job That Could Fit Around Life

My husband has a demanding job with unpredictable working hours, and I also knew that I didn't want a traditional nine-to-five job.

That doesn't mean I don't want to work. Quite the opposite. I've spent most of my life working for myself, and I like having a certain amount of freedom – as well as responsibility – for what I do.

But I needed something that could work alongside family life. Something flexible. Something where I could organise my own time.

And then I thought:

Why not photography?

After all, I had been taking photos for most of my life.

I Had Been Taking Photos for Years. I Just Didn't Call Myself a Photographer.

Of course, I was always taking photos while travelling. Landscapes, people, streets and the places I visited. They weren't professional assignments. They were simply photographs from my travels.

I had some technical knowledge about photography, but being a tour guide isn't exactly the ideal environment for carefully thinking about every single photo. When you're responsible for a group, you can't really stop in the middle of the street for twenty minutes just because the light happens to be perfect. 😄

Then I took a bit of a break from photography.

I didn't feel like carrying a big DSLR camera everywhere, so I started taking photos with my phone instead.

And… it just wasn't the same.

So I started looking for another option.

That's when I discovered mirrorless cameras.

I realised that there were smaller cameras that you could actually carry around with you while still getting the kind of results I wanted from a camera.

After doing some research, I bought a Fujifilm X70.

And photography slowly found its way back into my life.

To this day, it's still one of my favourite cameras.

Yes, I'm a little bit #TeamFujifilm. 😄

Maybe it's the film simulations. Maybe it's the colours. Or maybe I simply love the way Fujifilm cameras make photography feel.

Either way, I realised that I genuinely still loved taking photographs.

Later, I bought a larger Fujifilm X-T200 and started wondering whether I could actually try photography as a job.

And suddenly, it started to make sense.

I could work around having a child. I didn't have to follow the same routine every single day. I could organise my own time.

And most importantly, I could do something I genuinely enjoyed.