A ► DEVELOPER
Good old HTML
It all started in high school, when I first encountered the HTML 4 markup language. I still remember that moment: a few lines of code, a save as .html in Notepad… and before my eyes appeared a web page. A simple magic, but enough to make me realize that this would be my world.
And then came my first "real" programmer's mistake. I had spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out why my page wasn't displaying a title correctly. I tried everything, even rewriting the file from scratch. In the end, I discovered I had forgotten to close a tag. A simple </h1>. It took me half an hour to find a four-character error. Yet that small frustration turned into great satisfaction: I understood that code doesn't forgive, but it teaches.
Since then, I've never stopped. Over the years, I've delved into various languages and metalanguages that today form the foundation of the modern web:
HTML5 – The structure of every web page. It allows you to organize content, integrate video, audio, forms, and create semantic and accessible pages.
CSS3 – The language that gives style: colors, layouts, animations, visual effects. It transforms a raw page into a pleasant and professional interface.
SASS – A CSS extension that introduces variables, functions, and modules, making work more efficient and scalable.
JavaScript – The engine of interactivity. With JS, a page comes to life: animations, dynamic logic, user interactions, APIs, and much more.
CoffeeScript – A language that compiles into JavaScript, designed to make code more readable, elegant, and concise. A clean syntax that lets you focus on logic without getting lost in brackets and semicolons.
PHP – The server-side language that allows you to create dynamic sites, manage databases, authentication, forms, and complete web applications.
But enough with the technical list: I don't want to bore you. Let's move on to letter B.
B ► GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Often relaxes me
In this case, open source software came to my rescue: GIMP, Inkscape, and Darktable. With them, I discovered three fascinating worlds: the poetic pixelation of bitmap, the precision of vector, and the freedom of RAW. I still remember the first time I opened a RAW file in Darktable: I thought I had messed up the exposure, but it was just the "naked" photo, ready to be sculpted. An almost artisanal feeling.
Then, for reasons of precision and speed, I shifted to the Adobe ecosystem. Photoshop taught me the discipline of layers (and the fear of forgetting to rename them), Illustrator showed me that a Bézier curve can be as elegant as a brushstroke, and Lightroom… well, Lightroom was like switching from a bicycle to a motorcycle: same path, but with a completely different acceleration.
Now I'm exploring the world of Affinity, which fascinates me with its fluidity and that mix of power and lightness that makes you think: "Okay, these guys know what they're doing." I'm rediscovering the pleasure of tools that don't impose a method but invite you to experiment.
And yes, I admit it: I miss those hours spent editing shots taken with my Sony Alpha 55V. There was a time when I spent more time correcting chromatic aberrations than sleeping.
But enough with the nostalgia, before a tear actually falls on the keyboard. Let's move on to letter C.
C ► PHOTOGRAPHER
Thank you Sagem
I had to choose between a PlayStation and a Sagem myX-6 with a 640×480 px camera. I chose the Sagem. I wanted to photograph my friends, freeze moments, create memories. Those photos — grainy, noisy, often crooked — are all still in my archive (there are more than ten thousand), guarded with three backups and a jealousy worthy of an art collector. Every now and then I look at them and smile: they were ugly, yes, but they were real.
The second step was buying an entry-level DSLR. I bought it online from New York… and I still remember the surprise of the customs duties to pay. That's when a portal opened: ISO, aperture, focal length, rule of thirds, lenses... an entire world I had ignored until the day before. I still remember my first "serious" photo: I was convinced it was perfect, then I discovered I had shot at ISO 800 in broad daylight. Noise everywhere. But what satisfaction pressing that button and hearing that sound with its iconic fixed semi-transparent mirror.
Those who are passionate about photography know it well: behind every shot there's much more than a click. There's study, attempts, mistakes, patience, and that strange feeling of always being halfway between artist and experimenter.