About
Who is Stavros?
Hello, my name is Stavros Karantonis, but people call me Stav, Stevy, and my long-term nickname, Tesla.
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The nickname originates from my school days. Being introduced to Physics, and specifically Electromagnetic Fields from a young age, I naturally grew an obsession with Nikola Tesla. I talked about him so much that my fellow students thought I was actually called Tesla... so when I started my photography journey back in 2014, I created TeslaPhotography *
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* (Not to be confused with a particular car manufacturer run by Elon Musk)
Background
I was born and raised in a tiny island in the Mediterranean called Cyprus, which at the time, wasn't particularly famous for supercars or cool cars in general.
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When I was 5 years old, I remember watching a 10-year anniversary video of the Alfa Romeo 155 TI V6 dominating DTM. The pure adrenaline and thrill from that video might have sparked my ever-lasting passion for cars... First, with the Italian holy trinity of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Lancia, followed by an interest in the classic air-cooled Porsche era, and later on expanding to pretty much every other manufacturer. Needless to say, and not long after, I became an avid fan of past and present motorsport, including Formula 1 and Group B rallying.
My fascination with physics soon grew as well as my interest in the mechanics of internal combustion engines. So by the time I was in my early tee​ns, the only thing I would talk about was cars.
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However, while cars were conceptually interesting, as a young teenager there was nothing legal for me to do with them, so I had to look elsewhere. That's when I found interest in photography.
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What started off as a hobby, photographing landscapes and occasional portraits, slowly evolved to be a passion like no other...
Tesla Photography
At the age of 13, I decided that I wanted to save up for a DSLR to start my photography journey. While I knew I didn't have the gear to shoot cars, I knew the end goal would have been premium automotive photography. As soon as I got my hands on a camera I started photographing anything from stars to animals, and from headshots to landscapes.
I started off with photographing birthday parties of friends as well as shooting amateur portraits for free, to build up a photo portfolio. Once I felt confident and more experienced, I took it a step further and created Tesla Photography. I then slowly worked my way up to bigger events and professional portraits and before I realized it, I was photographing weddings. Initially for family and friends then later on expanded to couples' weddings who only knew me through my work.
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While I enjoyed photographing various such events, I did not find it creative enough, so I sought for something more artsy. I then found myself photographing real estate and occasionally combined it with aerial (drone) photogrammetry for architects and civil engineers. I have also combined real estate photography with bespoke woodwork projects, to help build a profound portfolio of a carpenter.
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After coming to the UK for my university studies, I was exposed to a much more diverse world of cars than what I had previously experienced in Cyprus. Which - as you would expect - immediately drew my attention to them and couldn't stop thinking about finding opportunities to work with automotive photography.
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Fast forward to today, I am no longer shooting weddings, or other events, and instead primarily focus on cars - back to where it all started. I do, though, still enjoy real estate photography so you might find me working on a real estate project as well.
