Pentaxian Profile: Juan Roldán

Wedding photographer from Colombia

By PF Staff in Pentaxian Profiles on Feb 11, 2016

I am a graphic designer by trade, but I've also been a professional photographer for about ten years now.  When I previously worked with one of the two "big brands", I was in a bunch of different fields like food, jewelry, architecture, and models.  Things changed when I got married and learned the real meaning and beauty of that special day. And so I had a revelation and decided to start shooting weddings seriously.

Weddings are really hard to shoot.  They demand my full effort and push my gear to its limits. When the ceremony is about to begin, there is this electricity in the air and nerves and anxiety everywhere. A lot of eyes are attending to what’s going on; that’s when I need to be ready, watching everything, with hands on my camera and eyes on the couple. When I hear the shutter release I know that my Pentax gear is entrusting me to do this mission.

I do weddings because I believe in love, and I admire the courage between two people who join and start a new family.  They give me hope about this world which sometimes gets so crazy and cold. There are smiles everywhere, tears sliding down cheeks, hugs, families reunited, little ones, and grandparents. Some are happy, some are sad; that's life, and I feel glad and humbled to be there.

Pentax came to my life; I wasn't searching for it, it just knocked on my door during a moment of my photographic life when I was feeling so bored and stuck with the usual brands. That's when I saw a FA* 28-70 F2.8 lens second-hand on the internet and decided to make what ended up being the best turn in my photographic journey. To accompany the lens, I got a brand new Pentax K20D in a duty free store in the airport. I fell in love with this gear, and even through the K20D was my first ever Pentax body, I decided to give it a chance in one of the hardest fields of photography: weddings.

Today, I still use the same camera and lens plus a F 50mm F1.7 that I purchased from a forum member.  These are accompanied by a good flash system and accessories.  This is what I use for all of my family, wedding and model photo shoots.  Even after testing a few more brands I continue using the same not-so-new-gear, just because it makes sense to me. I know its strengths and weaknesses and I hope to soon get the upcoming K-1 full-frame and a Pentax K-3 as a backup. Pentax lenses have something special; that's my biggest reason to stay. I cannot imagine abandoning my FA* 28-70. If I've been happy with a K20D and some old lenses, can't wait to have the full frame and maybe the new D FA 70-200 F2.8.

There is a lot of noise out there and a lot of discussion about brands, speeds, charts, graphs, and so on.  These discussions can be interesting, but photography is more about the person.  It is about passion, seeing what no one else sees, feeling, being humble, learning to use light, and knowing all about the gear you have.


"Once a Pentaxian, always a Pentaxian?" In my case, I think it’s true, and it makes a lot of sense to me when I’m looking for something different than other photographers. Pentax is the brand that I choose to use in my artistic future and it makes me feel inspired and confident to give to my clients the memories that they are going to share generations from now.

You can see more of my work— all taken with Pentax— on by blog.  You can of course also follow me on my Facebook fanpage and reach out to me on the forum under dinamojuan.

-Juan Roldán

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