My name is Sebastian Hosche and I'm living in Leipzig, Germany (one of the cities to host the Soccer World Cup 2007). I'm working for SmugMug as a Support Hero. Almost 25 years ago I was born in the lovely small city of Lutherstadt Wittenberg, where Martin Luther is supposed to have posted his 95 Theses on the doors of the Castle Church.

My father has always been very passionate about keeping photographic memories of everyday life in our family in a documentary style. He has a large collection of slides and negatives that with the emerge of digital techniques he was able (and still continues) to preserve them by digitalizing them. So it is my father that I have to thank for introducing me to the basics of photography and also waking my interests for computers. It took me many years to actually getting started on photography myself when I bought my first digital camera in April 2004.

A few years ago I started to work with my father's old Praktica SLR in order to get to the roots of film photography, but soon lost interest, partially due to the lack of direct results while experimenting with it and it being completely manual, which kept me too busy with the technique of picture taking. The advent of digital photography allowed me now more to concentrate on the actual subjects and composition and leave more to the camera. That doesn't mean that I'm completely point and shoot orientated, but I like to play with a certain set of options while leaving the rest to the camera. I bought the Sony DSC-F717 and from then on had it almost all the time with me, in order to shoot my Daily Photo for over 2 years without missing a single one.

Since my old F717 was stolen in Ecuador, I have been using the much smaller Canon A620. I have always been torn between going to dSLR and sticking with smaller cameras. For the near future, I could see myself going back to the good old Sony swivels, maybe in form of a F828.

I love hanging around in the streets and old buildings, not focusing on people at all. Buildings and cityscapes don't get impatient and I can take all the time I need looking for the best view. If I don't like the light, I can back at any time without complicated appointments. Plus, there are lots of old industry building and all sorts of other cool places in and around Leipzig and I hope that I'll have more time next year to explore them further.

My biggest photographic influences are undoubtedly the lovely folks from Dgrin. This is were my passion for photography really started and I'm still amazed by all the great shots that are posted there on a regular basis. I'm always blown away by Yuri Pautov's portrait work in the streets of Russia. He accomplishes to tell os much about the characters with just a single shot. I still wonder how he always gets these beautiful women to pose for him. His work is something that is so completely different from mine and it reminds me to concentrate on the little details instead of going too wide with my photos.

One of the other big influences on me is Andy Williams' wide ranged work going from street photography to landscapes and architecture etc. . Andy inspires me with his tendency to try new things all the time. He was also one to get me started with infrared photography and I loved it. (The reason that I mentioned him is not that I work with him – honestly!)

With my first digital camera in 2004 I was on the search for a place to share my photos with the world. That's when I decided to go Smug. One of the main reasons to go with SmugMug was the additional level of safekeeping for my precious photos. Once they are uploaded, I can have them there forever and won't ever have to worry about storage. With the constant stream of innovation, especially the recent SmugMungous release, SmugMug makes sure that even my oldest galleries can be shown big on today's huge screens.

SmugMug gives me an efficient set of tools to show my photos in a way that I want them to be seen, while also leaving me in charge to limit my private photos to certain groups, like my family or friends.

Even though you might have heard these two things over and over, I sometimes have to remind myself of that:

1. it's not the important thing that you have the best camera, but that you as the photographer know how to use your given tool to get the best possible shot integrating your own personal view and that
2. you don't try to be a player in all fields of photography, but rather find you own little niché and try to excel in your field.