Chris is a professional travel photographer living on a gorgeous Mediterranean island of Malta. To many who love photography, he is living the dream. Find out more about him and his work in the interview below.

PE: Hi Chris, thanks for accepting an invitation to the interview with Planetary Excited. I have followed you for some time and I was always stunned by your photography and videography skills. How long have you been doing photography?

Chris: Thank you so much! I have been doing photography for about 4 years now, the first year was mainly experimenting but after that feel, I have found my style, kept learning and improving from there.

PE: What’s your favorite photography style and what equipment do you use most often?

Chris: My favorite style would have to be travel and landscape. There’s something special about being in a beautiful yet unfamiliar place with limited time to capture it to your best ability.

I prefer to shoot landscapes, mountains, castles rather than cities but still like to do a city every so often. I also have a soft spot for photographing people and cars – I feel it’s good to have a mix and be open to everything.

I shoot on a Panasonic system, mainly the GH5 with a bunch of different lenses depending on the occasion – I use the Micro 4/3 system as it is relatively lightweight when compared to the Canons and Nikons but most importantly because it is really good for video too! I also always have my drone with me, I’ve always used DJI ones, currently the Mavic 2 Pro.

PE: You have visited so many beautiful countries. How many exactly and what’s your favorite destination so far?

Chris: I am not really counting, to be honest. If I had to guess I would say around 30-40 different countries. I do love to explore the different regions though, for example, I have been to Italy around 25 times visiting different areas both for work and leisure.

The same goes for most of the other central European countries. I’ll tell you what, each place I have been to has its beautiful locations, culture, and memories at the end of the day. I always say my favorite destination is the last one I’ve visited, so if you’re asking me today I’ll have to say Slovakia, where I have just spent the last week!

PE: You live in Malta, right? Why Malta and how did you fall in love with this gorgeous island?

Chris: Yes my Dad is Maltese and we moved out here when I was a kid, so I grew up here. It’s a beautiful place, and great to live here. The only thing I hate is that we don’t have any mountains and that it gets a bit too hot and busy in summer.

PE: What are some differences between life in the UK and Malta? Except for the weather of course ☺️

Chris: I’ve been back to the UK plenty of times so I can agree with you there, the weather is totally different! Obviously, the UK is a much bigger place so you have a mix of culture and differences between one region and another.

Malta is quite a small place so we basically have the majority of the island consisting of different towns with some more rural areas up north and in Gozo. Being surrounded by water is great for swimming though – we have plenty of beaches and rocky areas to swim!

PE: Did you have to learn Maltese language to live there and communicate with locals?

Chris: Yes at school the main languages are English and Maltese so I can speak both fluently.

PE: What are your favorite locations on the island for photography and chilling? Tell us also your favorite restaurants and coffee shops, please.

Chris: Our capital Valletta is a treat, really beautiful place to shoot especially if you make it there early before the crowds. The same goes for the old capital city Mdina. We have some nice beaches up north and then a sister island called Gozo which is my favorite for photography.

Regarding restaurants and coffee shops you’re asking the wrong person but there are too many to choose from and it’s all about the company you’re with at the end of the day!

PE: What are your plans after the pandemic? Right now I know that you had planned a trip to Jordan but that had to be postponed.

Chris: The past few months have been crazy. I don’t want to go on too much as at the end of the day our health is the most important thing which I’m grateful for! But yeah basically the past six months most of my work projects and personal trips had to be canceled so that was definitely demotivating.

I just managed to get out to Slovakia last week which was awesome after being stuck here for five months. I have a handful of projects lined up for the coming months so at the moment just monitoring the situation as we don’t know what’s going to happen next.

The Jordan Photography Tour you mentioned was actually one of the first things I had to cancel in March. I went out there for the first time last year creating content for the tourism board and loved it so much that I decided to organize a photography tour to take some people with me to visit and shoot the favorite spots we had been.

Spent months planning and promoting it, and we were going to be a group of seven people but obviously had to cancel as COVID started hitting Europe hard exactly the week before.

PE: How can one travel photographer make money and travel the world? It is a dream come true for many people and I would like to hear your perspective on this topic.

Chris: At the moment I am permanently based here in Malta and that is where I get most of my income from. Saying that you can make money by selling your photos, either as prints to personal customers as well as licensing to larger organizations. Tourism boards and companies in the travel industry are always looking for new unique quality content.

I also shoot videos that are more lucrative, although a lot more work. Another option (something which I haven’t found the time to work on yet) is digital products! I think in all you have to have a varied income with different revenue streams.

PE: Please tell us something about yourself that we can’t find out online. ☺️

Chris: I support Chelsea FC, the London football club! I miss a few matches when I am traveling but when I am at home I’ll switch off for two hours during the match. Also, I love tea and despise coffee 🙂

PE: Where can we find you and connect with you? Please share your social media accounts and feel free to promote yourself.

Chris: So my main social channel is Instagram – you can find me at @iamchrisborg
I post daily travel content on there. For all business, you can head over to my website at www.chrisborgstudio.com.

You might be able to find me on other social media platforms such as Facebook and Tiktok but the main action is happening on Instagram. Peace out!