Fernando Rodriguez Marmolejo

Fernando first encountered Angelbird in 2019 at a photography event in Birmingham, UK. “I had been an Olympus ambassador for several years and was running workshops throughout the day”, he explains.

“Roman, who founded Angelbird, approached me and told me that he kept coming back to watch my masterclasses. I didn’t know Angelbird but he showed me everything and I was so, so impressed. I was like ‘wow — this company is the Apple of photography engineering. This is insane!’”

Fernando quickly became an Angelbird fan and has been part of the Collective since it launched. He enjoys being part of the development of Angelbird products, giving feedback, and testing them. Fernando also contributes to Angelbird content by shooting world class athletes that he knows personally.

Fernando has been a professional photographer since 2017. But his journey towards photography started back in 2007, when he was mountain bike racing in Austria. After crashing and injuring his arm, he was unable to ride his bike for six days — and began taking photos instead.

“I love extreme sports photography because this kind of photography gives me more adrenaline,” he says. “For example, this past three months I was filming cars coming towards me at 180 kilometers an hour and passing centimeters in front of me. My adrenaline goes super high, similar to when I'm riding a fast bike.”

Fernando uses a wide range of equipment for sports video and filming — along with his signature ‘camera behind the camera’ point-of-shooter videos. 

“I started with Canon cameras about three months ago. I use the Canon R6 and R5 now, and I will switch to the R5 MK2 next month. My lenses include a 15 millimeter lens with Fisheye angle, then 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 70-200mm.”

“I was also working with Insta 360 cameras to film behind-the-scenes (BTS) videos. I use Avata and DJI Mavic 3 Pro fro drone recording, and I combine them with microSD cards. The holiday mini three Pro is in my regular gear too.”

“I shoot with a wide range of lights, like LED lights, and flashlights. For videos, I use null light and for flash photos, I go with elinchrom.”

“In terms of Angelbird products, I use the CFexpress Type B cards and the SSD2GO PKT MK2 drive.These two products are so fast and that’s the key.”

“I cannot describe the feeling of the file transferring between the camera and the card so quickly I can really see the difference between my R6 with the SD cards and my R5 with CFexpress Type B cards.”

“Both can be used for continuous burst shooting at about 20 frames per second. The R6 might stop within the first two seconds. Meanwhile the R5 with the CFexpress Type B card can record much more. That's way better. And shooting video is just on another level.”

“The most practical thing is that I don’t have to worry about whether the camera memory card is going to stop working or not. That, for me, is the most important thing. For me, Angelbird means less problems.”

“My favorite workflow hack is to edit my shots as soon as possible after shooting them”, Fernando explains.

“After a day of shooting, we might have 45 minutes to take a shower before we go to dinner. But I use that time to edit instead — and then I just change my t-shirt and go.” When I edit right after the shoot, I can select the pictures in seconds, because they’re fresh in my memory.”

Naturally, this quick follow-up work saves Fernando time — and also helps him create better relationships with the athletes he shoots.

“If you have the content on your phone, you can share it with athletes that night or the next day. Then when you see the athletes performing, you can say ‘hey, do a flip tsunami for me’. And the athlete is going to do it for you, because they know you'll make them look awesome.”

Fernando also recommends creating presets for your light settings and giving them labels that describe the visual effect. This speeds up your workflow while helping you create a signature look and feel in your work.

Having the right camera gear is particularly important when shooting extreme sports — as Fernando is covered in a recent shoot he did for Ford in Morocco.

“When you’re shooting in sand dunes and on gravel roads, your gear can get destroyed. Not just because of the sand, but because of the heat — and because you don’t have time to clean it.”

“This is why it’s so important for me that Angelbird’s SSD is constructed with the  Solid Connect™ recessed cable connection inside the housing. I don't know how many times I've seen photographers and videographers drop their drives because the cable became loose. These small details make a huge difference — we need our gear and material to be safe.”

“About seven or eight years ago, I started a little series of behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube. Monster Energy invited me to a lot of big events, and called it the ‘point of shooter.’”

“Now I see a lot of people doing the same thing, and I’m super proud of it. So many photographers who follow me from around the world — and I follow them too — tell me ‘hey Marmo, we’re doing this kind of video too, is it ok with you?’”

Fernando believes that leaving his previous job and becoming a full-time photographer was the toughest challenge of his career. However, he was aided in the transition by strange twists of fate.

“Something happened that I’m going to remember all my life,” he recalls. It was August 26 of 2017, and I was just five days into being a professional photographer.”

“Then the worst possible thing happened. I took my camera with me on holiday and dropped it into a pool. So now I’m five days into the biggest career move of my life, and I have no camera.”

“The very next morning, Olympus called me to offer a kind of sponsorship. I told them ‘you won’t believe what just happened to me’ and they ended up giving me all the equipment I needed.”

“From that moment, the energy shifted and I thought that if this can happen to me, then if I keep working, even better things will happen.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Fernando had space to get some fresh perspective on his daily work. Despite his passion for what he does, he felt he had lost some of his creative vision — and began working to reconnect with it.

“When you are always working, doing the same thing every weekend, you lose some of your creativity. So, in the last few years since lockdown, I've intentionally worked more on personal projects. And this helps me be way more creative. After a personal project, I often have a huge idea, and can transform it into something new for paying the bills.”

“Don’t seek to make money too quickly,” Fernando answers. “Find your real passion first.”

“If your real passion is photography and videography, you can go step by step and it’s going to work” he continues. “But so many kids jump straight into serving clients before they develop their skills. They put their prices super low to attract more clients — and the whole industry suffers because of that.”

“I spent maybe seven or eight years working on passion projects before turning professional. I started to do things like magazine covers within the first year of that — but I still wasn’t obsessed at that point. After that, I built up the desire to be the best photographer in the world. And when you have that kind of passion for what you do, everything gets a lot easier.”

While many budding photographers might not have the patience to work on their craft for years, the payoff can be worth the wait. According to Fernando, when clients truly trust your skills, you can experience genuine creative freedom in your working life.

“You have to work a lot for that moment when the client says, ‘Dude, I love your work, so do whatever you have to do,’” he says. “When you have the freedom to create your own script, to do your own shots, and the client has a huge smile on their face — that's what creative freedom means to me.”

Big thanks to Fernando for being in the Angelbird Collective. We look forward to seeing what else you do as you enjoy creative freedom  — without limits.


Connect with Fernando online:

Instagram
YouTube