Magomed Shapiev is a talented 24-year-old self-taught staff photographer at Dagestans presidential press office and popular instagram user based in Makhachkala, Russia. Magomed shoots the exquisite natural beauty of the Caucasus mountains: amazing ancient towers, rivers and waterfalls. Shapiev shares his pictures on instagram with more than 121,000 followers and marks them with the hashtag #exploringdagestan.

I grew up in the mountains and as a kid I used to go on little adventures and sketch what I saw. Then I discovered photography

Magomed Shapiev uses his iPhone for many of his shots, but his main cameras are the Canon 5D Mark II and the Sony Alpha A7.