When Michael Sugianto enrolled at the University of Calgary in 2013, his future seemed clear.

“I wanted to be an engineer,” he says. It was a familiar – and familial – path. Both his dad and sister were chemical engineers, and Sugianto looked forward to following in their footsteps.

His studies made for 15-hour days Monday to Friday. What little free time he did have on the weekends he spent outdoors. “I was really into hiking,” he says. “[Eventually I thought], ‘Why not bring a camera along with me?’” He bought an EOS Rebel T5i and started sharing his photos on social media. Soon he was making a little money with odd-end photography jobs in Calgary – an elopement shoot here, product shots for startups there. “It became more and more part of my life. Once I graduated, I decided why not give this a whirl.”

Sugianto has been a full-time freelance lifestyle and portrait photographer for just over a year. While his love of the outdoors inspired him to start with landscape photography, he soon decided to try shooting portraits as well. He developed his own unique style be combining the two.

“From what my friends have been telling me lately, my photos are really more dreamy and nostalgic,” he says. “I’m not into that super-sharp image; I want the images to be in focus, but not over digitized. I want it to feel like you were there.”

Considering Sugianto initially envisioned a completely different career path for himself, he took time to school himself on a new subject. He relied on his camera’s automated options, ran ideas by more experienced photographers and actively practiced, practiced, practiced. “When I started, I’d probably take 1,000 photos in a day. Now I probably take half of that. Once I got the shots I want, I put the camera down.”

Picking up a camera has allowed Sugianto to experience a whole new world – literally. Bali, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and New Zealand are just a few of the stamps on his passport.

And while he’s not putting his chemical engineering degree to practice, the commitment and discipline needed to earn it prepared him for the career he found in photography.

“[Photography has] allowed me to run my own business and operate within my own schedule,” says Sugianto. “School taught me to be very disciplined. For the four and a half years, every day I would go to school at 8 a.m. regardless of whether I had class, and I wouldn’t come home until 11 or 12 at night, minus maybe weekends. That constant schedule of doing school-related stuff for over eight hours a day has made me feel like I always have to be doing something. That has really helped me.”

Sugianto has always loved challenging himself; “I’m always trying to do more.” He wants to continue to tell stories through his photos. Capturing those genuine moments, he says, comes down to connecting with the person on the other side of the lens. “The main goal is for your subject to feel comfortable enough that there are no guards up between the two of you.” By being open, friendly and genuine yourself as the photographer, he says, your images will be real and more relatable. “My ultimate goal is to capture that one timeless image that tells the story of the whole adventure.”