Photography and piano have been his passions for years. He combines them with the position of an assistant at Department of Technical Computer Science at the W4 faculty. Meet Michał Zmonarski – another protagonist of the #JestemzPWr #JestemzWIT series.

In photography, he tries to artistically reflect reality. He is fascinated by aerial photography and drones. Aerial photography also helped him start work at our Faculty. His master's thesis on processing algorithms, image recognition and satellite and aerial imaging was met with attention.

“My adventure with photography began when I was 4 years old. Over time, I developed it more and more. Currently, I take photos not only with a camera, but also with a drone. The world looks phenomenal from a bird's perspective and that's why I share these views on the Internet,” says the scientist.

For most of his life, he has shared his passion for photography with his father. He prefers to take photos in natural colours. Currently, he is involved in such types of photography as landscape, studio, portrait, reportage, wedding, as well as aerial and astrophotography.

“In photography, I try to capture beauty, look for unusual frames, use unconventional techniques or interesting shots. I emhasize simplicity, patterns and natural features,” he explains.

One of his most difficult photographic challenges was taking photos of Jupiter and its moons in the autumn of 2022. The problem was to focus on such a distant object, which was also in motion. It was also a challenge to take a photo of a huge rain cloud with a drone at sunset.

“Electronics don't like water. You should not fly a drone in the rain. All in all, the drone survived, and the photo "landed" on the fanpage of Wrocław and received positive reviews from Internet users,” recalls Michał Zmonarski.

Below, you can find one of his videos recorded with a drone.

Photography is not his only passion. The researcher also plays the piano. He also owes this passion to his parents, who not only sent him to take lessons in playing this instrument, but also instilled in him a love of classical music.

“It has been 20 years since I started playing the piano. I learn on my own, practice, find new songs. I play classical, film and contemporary music. I also compose a little,” he says.

His greatest achievement was winning in the International Piano Competition under the patronage of the Minister of Culture of France in Paris in the "Debutant II" category.

The scientist claims that he would not be able to give up any of his passions. Every day he tries to sit down at the piano for at least a few minutes. He doesn't use his camera every day. On a daily basis, he uses his phone. The camera is his weapon of choice on days off from work.

“I hunt for the right weather conditions and time of day. I go to the city for sunsets, I take photos in the city at night, both from the ground and from the air. Recently, I came to our campus on Saturday to take photos of the university in the heavy snow – in fact they are quite magical,” he says.

You can see his photos in his portfolio Zmonairsky, on flickr, as well as on Facebook and on Instagram.

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