Place you live: Roma, or Rome, as it’s said in English.

Occupation: I work in advertising as a Digital Director.  I have always had dual interests: developing and coding websites and mobile applications and capturing inspiring moments with stills or video. Some years ago I started a video and photographic project focused on travel destinations.

Preoccupation: Roma is obviously one of the most famous destinations in the world; this means that it’s crowded with many tourists. Of course you can’t stop the influx of people but you have to wake up at dawn to get a chance to photograph the city “naked”.

Place your Instagrams were taken? A sunset view of the historic Villa Borghese must be one of my favorite places in Roma to photograph. I do love, though, to wander around and take snapshots of the abandoned buildings scattered around Ostiense. During the weekend I love to get to the coastline in Ostia. Roma is very close to the sea.

Can you sum up Rome? Chaotic, energetic, amazing. I feel deep sentiments for my hometown. One of my latest works, a video I did about Roma represents my personal perspective of the city. The video was a huge success and received over 1,200.000 views.

What is a perfect day in Rome? I love the “golden hour” in Trastevere, one of my favorite districts in Roma. My best pictures were taken during this time when the sun is low in the sky, producing a soft, diffused light that is very flattering. After sunset you can have a glass of wine in one of the several bars/pubs located around the area.

If Rome was a person or character who would it be and why? That’s hard to answer – Roma has so many faces. In my opinion it is more like a kaleidoscope than a person.

How long have you been using Instagram? I’ve been using it for over five years. Instagram is my first choice for sharing my work. I believe that at the moment it is the best platform for artists to showcase their work to large audiences.

Do you shoot with your phone or other cameras or both? I use both. I believe that the iPhone6 has a sensational camera built in. Sometimes it is difficult to know which photos were taken with my mobile phone and which were taken with my Reflex. Also, with the new RAW I have access to many editing possibilities.

What is your editing process? VSCO is my favorite editing process. I made my own custom presets to adjust the colors of photos. I have recently discovered PhotoDirector, which is an excellent app that removes unwanted objects from photos.

Has Instagram/phoneography affected how you shoot? I used to shoot using only Medium Format cameras. I love the square format of Instagram because it helped me re-discover a photo format that I hadn’t used for a long time.

Can you give a couple tips to aspiring Instagram photographers? Instagram is evolving and many photographers are approaching it in a more professional way. But the continuous search for new ways to increase our followers has the potential to decrease content quality. In addition, many people tend to copy or get inspiration from other photographers, populating our feeds with identical photos and making it all less interesting. If you really want to emerge, you need to find a unique style and approach to photography. I do suggest looking for inspiration in other communities, like Flickr, that has thousands of really talented photographers posting amazing photos every day.

Who are your three favorite Instagrammers? @sejkko, @evanjamesatwood, @charlsdivoi

Want more Instagram tips and inspiration? Check out all of our Best of Instagram features and learn from the masters.

Want to be featured on our best of Instagram series and bask in the glory? Follow Global Yodel on Instagram and tag your best local shots with #GlobalYodel!