Meet Dino Šertović | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dino Šertović and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dino, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
Ever since I started skateboarding in 2000, and I was only 10 at the time, I soon realized that team sports were not my cup of tea. I am pretty sure that translated to everything that I’ve done later on in life. I first started filming skateboarding with my own camcorder in 2005 and it wasn’t long after that I got into photography. I played drums in a band at a very young age, spent a lot of time drawing and doing graffitti, but none of those things really stuck with me like photography and video. Those two disciplines perfectly resonated with skateboarding, no doubt abou it. I remember doing artsy photos with my Nokia 6020 cellphone and I could easily say that was my first camera. All of you guys older than 30 will surely remember that experience with a dose of nostalgia. You couldn’t really do much with that 0.3 megapixel phone camera, but there were ways you could trick it into darker or brighter exposures. The feeling I got from composing pictures with that little obscure phone camera is what made me happy. I still feel the same today. The only difference is I use more sophisticated tools and have learned a lot since. 🙂

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been working as a freelance photographer and videographer for about 10 years. Unfortunately, I can not say that I am really specialized in just one particular field of photography that really sets me apart from others. But that doesn’t necessarily create a problem for me nor I see it that way. My “problem” is I’ve always strived to be great at everything I was doing at a certain point in life. Balancing between skateboarding, filming and photography was never easy and I’ve never managed to bridge that gap – to decide putting focus on one thing only. I don’t think that kind of approach is always the best decision, especially in Croatia where I live. The market here is also very small and it’s just nearly impossible to only do one thing in commercial photography. You have to be able to cover more in order to make it. It certanly hasn’t been easy, especially lately after the Covid 19 pandemic that significantly affected my line of work. I’m happy I’m still doing what I love, pursuing my photography career and have more than enough free time to go out and about. What you learn by doing anything in life is there are good days and bad days. That one little thing that makes all the difference is discipline. Still going when it’s tough – that’s what pushes you through and gets you to the next level. It’s cliche, but it is what it is.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
As a person who spends a lot of time in nature running and hikning, I would definitely choose a more active approach here. It would probably consist of going to Medvednica for proper hike. Medvednica is a mountain conveniently located at the north part of Zagreb. Since it’s so close to the city center, you only need 10-15 minutes to get to the starting points. Medvednica is a very popular place to be on weekends so there are many mountain huts where you can stop by, take some rest and eat various meals of which I would highly recommend a delicious been soup with saussage. After that it’s always nice to stick around the city center and spend some time lurking around the upper town. One other thing that I would strongly suggest is going for the best burek in Zagreb at Dolac. Dolac is a marketplace located just beside the Ban Jelačić main square, and for those who have never tried “burek” – it’s high time. 😀

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I certanly have people to recommend, so here’s a little list for you guys; —
Ivan Tomašević // https://www.instagram.com/ivek_/ // ivek.nagrabi@gmail.com

One of my childhood friends with whom I started skateboarding and taking photos as well, but he only recently discovered he wanted to pursue a career as a fine art photographer. He is a very talented artist with an interesting story to tell.
—

Danijel Berković // https://www.danijelberkovic.com // danijel.berkovic@gmail.com

My good friend and a coworker with whom I’ve been doing a lot of work with recently. He is by far the best product photographer in Croatia (and probably beyond) and he’s been smashing that line of work for a long time now. Very skilled and focused, has tons of knowledge which he always selflessly shares, I highly recommend that you reach out and find out what he has to say. 🙂

Website: https://www.dinosertovic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinosertovic

Image Credits
Dino Šertović