On top of the mountain: An interview with Edgar Bullon 🔗
Edgar Bullon is a photographer, focused on nature photogrammetry. He creates challenging yet captivating photoscans of mountain peaks, rocks and atmosphere. In the interview, he talks about his passions and work process.
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Hi Edgar, could you please tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m 39 years old, born in Odessa, Ukraine. Moved to Montreal when I was 10, and to Vancouver, BC, when I was 12. Lived here ever since and would now consider this place my home. I have recently become a father, so the past couple months have been both exciting and challenging.
I love the outdoors and outdoor sports, and I find Vancouver to be the best place for it. However, my family and I are thinking about potentially finding a new home. The reason for that is the increased cost of living. Maybe we will travel to South America or New Zealand.
What kind of photography work do you do?
I have worked as a photographer for the past 8 years. I started with doing adventure and travel photography. The last couple of years I have been working for a wedding company. It has been an interesting experience and keeps me busy during the summer season.
How did you get into photogrammetry?
A few years back I was experimenting with doing photography composite work. After finding out about Blender, I wanted to learn to incorporate 3D work with photography. I was trying to recreate 3D mountain peaks, which I quickly realized isn’t too easy. I then discovered photogrammetry and thought that it might be the answer for creating it in a realistic way.
The learning process has been a bit slower than I would like. I learned everything from online courses. I still believe that I have lots to learn and improve on. I have decided to dedicate more time and effort towards it.
What I like about photogrammetry is the ability to take a real life object and bring it into a 3D world. The results are gratifying to me.
When it comes to photogrammetry, you are mainly focused on nature in British Columbia, Canada. Your landscape work feels like a study of the land, as well as a love letter. What attracts you to it?
I do love BC, Canada, and the West Coast in general. It is just so vast with lots of different types of landscapes and there is so much to explore. There are lots of mountains here and the ocean, which are my favorite things in nature. I also love long scenic drives, which BC has tons of. Everytime I travel somewhere else I am always happy to be back here.
You have uploaded to BlenderKit many photoscans of rocks, cliffs and mountains. How do you choose locations?
I do have particular locations in mind when I go out for photoscanning, but sometimes I simply like to find places along the way. Many of the locations I photoscan are up in the mountains and it takes the entire day to get there.
It’s very tricky since you need luck to capture some of these features and it’s tough to find the perfect conditions to photoscan. Every so often, I had to hike up multiple times to get the photoscan I wanted. After a few hours of hiking, either the sun would open up, the clouds would cover the rocky peak, or it would rain.
However, because it’s so tricky to get to the mountain peaks, I find it rewarding everytime I manage to.
You have also created a variety of cloud and fog models. What intrigues you about the atmosphere?
I have been fascinated with clouds ever since my skydiving days. I just loved being in proximity to the clouds. That fascination grew after I started flying and took up photography. The way the weather system works and interacts with mountains and light is very fascinating.
As for the cloud and fog models, I do have a collection of them that I use for composite work in Photoshop. I thought it would also be useful in Blender as well for fast atmosphere creation.
On what project are you currently working?
At the moment I am trying to build a good library of photoscans of many varying rock assets. I do want to get more assets that are harder to capture like mountain peaks. Maybe something on a bigger scale with good details.
Do you have any suggestions for starting 3D artists?
My advice is to use common sense: take your time to learn, there are many resources online. And then get out and start capturing, you will learn from your mistakes. And I see myself as still new to this, so I am still learning myself.
