Hobbies
Here I describe my hobbies that I do in a free time.
Digital photography
Not counting film photography using Soviet Zenith camera, I started my way into photography with an ultrazoom Canon Powershot G7 camera my mother bought to me when I was 18 years old (2008) and went on my first trip to Kenya.
It was a decent camera back then and it served me well, but it was clear that DSLRs were outperforming digital cameras these days so I got my Canon 750D in 2014 and it was my travel companion until around 2020. I have a set of cheap lenses (portrait 1.8, pancake, wide angle and kit). Most of the pictures I took were uploaded to a Russian social network VKontakte and will likely stay there. I used Capture One and Aperture for photo editing.
My DSLR was slowly replaced by a smartphone (Huawei P10 Pro, then Oppo X2 Pro, then Google Pixel 7 Pro) due to the several factors, not the least was the size of DSLR and low-coster airlines policies. However I am still unhappy about the quality of the resulting pictures taken via smartphones and one of my goals for 2025 is to get back to the real digital photography (but with a mirrorless camera, I guess).
Books
I am a proud Lord of the Rings boy since 12 years old. I am still enjoying fantasy and sci fi books (should I make a list of recommendations?). Last years I almost fully switched to audiobooks and mostly always popular science books such as the Dopamine book or Exercised.
Computer games
I am a fan of long story-driven adventure games. I truly enjoyed Baldurs Gate 3, Witcher 3, Stray, Atomic Heart, Metro: Exodus, God of War. I also like narrative-driven open-world RPGs such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim or Morrowind.
I am still playing old RTS games such as LOTR: The Battle for Middle Earth or Age of Mythology.
Last but not least - turn based strategies such as Heroes of Might and Magic (3,4,5) or Civilization (3,4,5), more recent - Frostpunk 2.
Beer
I think I can list this as my hobby. Except trying new styles of beer everywhere possible, I also have a PerfectDraft machine at home and sometimes get kegs of beer not typical for Germany and thus unavailable. I love simple beers too, however, I would always prefer a variety and a choice. Beer styles are a question of taste, however, I do think that I can distinguish terrible beer from a good one.
