About
Pat Konopka
I'm not a professional photographer, and I don't pretend to be. Photography is how I make sense of the places I go and the things I see. It started as a way to remember trips and turned into the reason I take them.
I grew up in the Chicago area and I'm currently based in Las Vegas. Most of the time you'll find me planning the next trip, researching a new city to get lost in, or editing photos late at night with way too much coffee.
Travel is the point
I travel to understand how other people live. The food stalls that open at 5 a.m. in Hanoi, the monks walking through Chiang Mai at dawn, the narrow alleys in Tokyo that feel like they belong to a different decade. The camera gives me a reason to slow down and actually look.
Southeast Asia and Japan have been the biggest influences on how I shoot. There's a pace to life there that rewards patience -- the light changes, people settle into their routines, and the frame finds itself if you wait long enough. I've learned more about composition from watching a street vendor set up her stall than from any tutorial.
What I shoot
A bit of everything, honestly. Street scenes, landscapes, the occasional portrait when someone's face tells a story I can't ignore. I don't stick to one genre because I don't experience travel that way -- a single day can go from misty mountain roads to neon-lit city blocks, and I want to capture all of it.
I lean toward natural light, darker tones, and frames that feel like you stumbled into them rather than posed for them. The moments between the obvious ones are usually the most interesting.