![]()
People are not ‘Sites’
One realization that I had a number of years back after a trip was that I was actually thinking in terms of ‘capturing’ photos of people. In a sense I was photographing them in a similar way to the other tourist ’sites’ that I was photographing along the way - almost as trophies.
I realized that my approach was totally arrogant, disrespectful and very rude. People are not ‘tourist sites’ - they’re people and they deserve to be treated as such.
A much better approach is to take photos in a relational way. This doesn’t mean you need to have talked to them for hours, swapped numbers and told you deepest secrets before photographing them - but it does mean that taking their photograph can actually become a friendly interaction between people from different cultures.
Learn a few words in their language, smile lots, tell them something about yourself (or show them a picture of your family at home), take an interest in their work, home and family, show them the pictures you’ve taken of them on your LCD, tell them that they look great, shake their hands and generally be polite and warm and you’ll find that photographing them is a much richer experience for all.
Also knowing a bit about the culture and what is and isn’t appropriate in terms of your dress, interactions between genders and more can be very useful to know.
The results of this approach are that not only do both subject and photographer potentially come away having experienced something of value - but the photographs you take are generally better as the subject is more relaxed, you might have been able to get a little closer and there is some kind of connection between the two of you.
Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t spend your whole trip with your camera to the eye I’m often amazed to see groups of travellers driving up to a location - all piling out of the
Read the rest of this entry »
![]()
Today I want to continue with the themes of Travel Photography and adding Variety to your Shots in a post with one on mixing up your shots when you travel.
I recently had a friend take me through the shots that they took on their latest trip away (all 600 of them) and was amazed to see how many of his shots were of largely the same thing - buildings. Not only that all the buildings were photographed in much the same way in terms of framing and composition.
Now to give him credit - he had been traveling in Europe where there are some marvelous examples of architecture, but I came away from the experience of viewing his shots wondering a few questions that I would have thought his photos might have answered like:
• Who did you travel with?
• Where did you stay?
• What did you eat?
• Who did you meet? etc
There’s nothing wrong with photographing buildings, but unfortunately exclusively photographing any one type of thing on a trip can leave the end results of your travel album looking a little one dimensional.
I made this mistake on my first overseas trip to Malaysia as a 16 year old on a trip with a school band. On my return I showed my shots to my parents who nicely pointed out to me that I didn’t have a single shot of myself or any of the people I travelled (not a single shot of the band playing. I’d been so amazed by the different landscapes and buildings that I didn’t take any shots that would personally mean anything to me years later.
These days as I travel I spend time each day reviewing the shots that I’ve taken. I often do in the hotel room at night (or on a bus between places) and as I do I purposely analyze what types of shots I’ve taken that day and more importantly ‘what’s missing’ from the day I’ve had.
Read the rest of this entry »
Travel Photography is a topic close to my heart and is something that I know many others get excited about also. Here are a few tips that might help get
Read the rest of this entry »
![]()
Digital Photography School reader (Trish) asks:
“I love your new site and wondered if you could write something about travel photography. I’m heading to Europe for a four week trip in June and I was wondering if you had any advice for how I should prepare in order to get the best digital photos. I’ve got a Canon Digital Rebel XT and was thinking I might buy an extra lens to go with my 18-55mm kit one. Do you have any advice on what sort of lens to buy? Any other travel photography tips you could give me would be great.”
Thanks for the feedback and question Trish. I’ll attempt to answer your lens question first and then will write a few more posts on Travel Photography over the coming weeks.
Which Lens is best for Travel Photography?
This is actually a question I’ve thought long and hard about having gone on several overseas and interstate trips over the past few years. The answers that I’ve come up with have varied from trip to trip considerably and have depended upon a number of factors including the length of the trip, the nature of the trip, my current ‘favorite’ lens and my current phase of photography (I tend to go through phases where my style in photography changes a bit).
A lens can make or break you in terms of image quality. I constantly advise people to get the best one that they can afford as an upgrade in lens will usually lead to much greater improvements in image quality than an upgrade in camera body.
The main considerations that you’ll probably want to consider when buying a lens for travel include:
Read the rest of this entry »
