Hi, my name is Thomas Foillet, and I am a 24-year-old software engineer. I was born in France and spent most of my childhood in the Bordeaux region of the country until the end of my studies. Then I spent half a year in Barcelona, another 2 years in France, and have been living in Dublin for the past while since joining the Engineering Services team in Qualtrics. I have always loved this country, as well as Scotland, where my godfather is from. It was always my dream to move to Ireland, and here I am!
My godfather was a huge influence in my life. Besides inspiring me to move to Ireland, he instilled in me a love for photography and taught me everything about it. As he lived in Scotland, he would send me wonderful pictures of his country that pushed me to start taking photography seriously. Moreover, as a future engineer, I was really interested in all of the technical and software parts of the cameras.
As a software engineer, I have to be imaginative when creating software or solving problems. I guess having a creative outlet like photography helps a little bit! I am definitively not skilled for manual work, and I am quite terrible at painting or other physical arts. Photography is much easier and only requires patience! It does not change my life necessarily, but it gives me a lot of satisfaction when I succeed to get the “good shot”.
Being a nature lover, I love landscape photography. Landscapes are never the same, as you have to deal with different light and weather. Photos will always be different, even if you come back to the same place several times. This also means that post-production is a very important step in photography. Film, photography, and the editing process really have the same goal: get a picture that really reproduces what you saw during the shoot. Some people choose to edit to be more creative, but I see it as a mandatory part of photography.
Fortunately, there is good photography everywhere nowadays. Websites and social media have made it easy to get inspired and learn more from professional photographers around the world. I used to take a look at Flickr, a social media dedicating to photographers. There are some absolutely amazing photos every day. It is great to spend 10 minutes a day watching the work of amazing photographers.
Photography and software engineering do not always have a lot in common. While everyone has a different opinion, I find that patience, rigour and adaptability can be seen in both. Personally, I like to take the time to think about the photo I want before shooting, and then develop it with rigour. If I cannot get the exact shot I want, I will try a different method. It is quite the same as when I am working on a new software feature. Adapting to new ideas or structures while being as meticulous as possible is what I deal with daily at work. It would be impossible to not be patient!
Once a week, I take an extra long walk with my dog around some of the more scenic areas near me. I always bring my camera on these walks, and try to find new shots of the mountains, lakes, or fields around. It is not for any monetary reason; I just enjoy taking photos of wonderful places. Irish landscapes are perfect for that.
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