Are you ready for your next photo trip?
By Jim White
There are a number of reasons for taking a travel photography trip. The best, of
course, is because someone is paying you to cover an exotic location for their world
famous travel magazine. Perhaps you're interested in building your stock library
with images of an up-and-coming travel destination with expected revenue generating
potential. Or, if you're like me, you simply love to travel, love photography, and
can't image going anywhere interesting without bringing home a complete photographic
record.
Whatever the motivation, whether you're heading to the bright lights of Las Vegas,
the back streets of Bangkok, the Swiss Alps, or the African bush, you want to shoot
effectively. Preparation should start long before you ever leave home.
Research
Get a head start by researching your destination in the travel section of your local
(or online) bookstore. Guidebooks will provide great detail on popular places and
local events. There are a range of books on offer to address the needs of travellers
of all budgets and intents. In some cases, there are even guidebooks that point
out 'hidden' photographic secrets (though you have to wonder about the secrecy if
they're published!)
Photosecrets books cover a few cities from the viewfinder's viewpoint. Fodor's even provides an online section to help you improve
your travel photography, which is targeted at photographers with beginner or intermediate
experience with a camera.
Take note of any special festivals, natural events, and occasions that might be
happening at your destination. You may find yourself re-arranging holidays to be
in Washington when the cherry blossoms are blooming, the Kalahari when the desert
is blooming, or Notting Hill when the local community is celebrating! And anyone
who has unwittingly stumbled across a Fasching festival in Switzerland has been quite surprised,
perhaps even pleasantly, by the craziness expressed by that otherwise docile and
repressed society!
Plan your daily itinerary with photography in mind. If you know when and where the
sun will rise and set, you can predict the best places to be for dramatic lighting.
Look for rivers, shorelines, mountaintops, and vantage points for skyline images
that take advantage of nature's light show. The Marin Headlands, for instance, provide a wonderful view of
San Francisco at sun or moonrise. Your trip will almost certainly be scheduled to
accommodate the rise and fall of heavenly bodies!
Getting a good map before you go also allows you to become familiar with the distances
and available transport between targeted photo opportunities. Maps frequently feature
the locations of popular destinations, and you can easily map out (pun intended)
your preferred route.
Depending on the climate at your destination, it may be worth making separate plans
for sunny and rainy weather. Then, when you look out your window in the morning,
you can choose whether to weather the weather or not. In London there are always
things to see, do, and photograph when it rains. In Phoenix, your options are somewhat
limited in the rain (as I discovered on a recent trip!)
Check out travel forums (like the TPN Discussion Forum!) for local and experienced
travel photographer knowledge. Your colleagues have similar goals and experiences,
and are generally ready to help.
Photo Equipment
Make a list. Check it twice. You know what camera equipment you have, and with experience
it becomes second nature to bring what you need. As a rule, it's best to be as self-sufficient
as possible on your trip. Making your list of desired equipment ahead of time (when
you're not under any pressure) ensures that you will take what you need when you're
doing that last minute packing. (Or is that just me?) Regular TPN readers will remember
how happy I was when I found myself in Dubrovnik with full memory cards, a laptop,
and no cable to connect them!
If you use film, bring twice as much as you think you'll need. It's far cheaper
to buy extra film that may not be used right away than it is to go pick some up
if you're running out while trekking through the jungles of Borneo. Odds are the
supply of professional quality Velvia is limited in remote areas.
Make a complete inventory of all your equipment (including serial numbers) with
you. Hopefully you will not need to use it, but should something happen, it can
be very useful to have this information to share with local police or even customs
officials. (By the way, this also applies to passports, credit card numbers, etc.)
Buy/bring electrical adaptors (including phone adaptors) for your destination. This
is especially important for digital photographers who tend to consume power for
camera batteries, laptops, and/or CD burners fairly quickly. I have quite the collection
of UK to US power adapters because I always forget to bring them and buy another
one about every six months or so.
Bring a flashlight! If you're hiking in the wilderness, bring a big one. If you're
simply shooting evening cityscapes, a small one will do. In fact to be safe, bring
both anyway. When they're useful, they're very useful!
Practice
Know your camera and how to use it to shoot your preferred subject before you're
under pressure to perform. If you are planning a big-game photo safari into the
African Bush, practice shooting deer in the local park to understand the best way
to compose and expose large fauna. Likewise: practice on local birds before stalking
the Atlantic Puffin; local buildings before shooting the Manhattan Skyline; local
sunsets before hiking the California Coast; and practice shooting people in your
home town before trying to do portraits of people who may not speak your language!
You want to know what results you will get from your camera at various settings
under different lighting conditions, film speeds, and with or without filters. You
need to know how to get the best results before you find yourself looking at that
award-winning, top-selling photo opportunity. It's much easier to practice at home.
You may also want to practice packing and carrying your gear around before you find
yourself halfway up a mountain, realizing you're not going to make the summit with
all that kit on your back!
If you're serious about selling images from your trip, you should check out what's
published in the travel sections of newspapers, travel magazines, brochures, ad
campaigns, and the like. One very common element is people. Including a person in
the image gives a sense of scale in a landscape, a personal connection for the local
culture, or a sense of involvement for the viewer.
Notice also how a series of images cover a subject. A wide-angle image provides
an overall context while a close-up shows details of the subject. Practice 'covering'
a subject, whether it's a town, a building, a person, a statue, or whatever.
Analyze the images you like when you review your work. Try and understand why you
like certain types more than others. If you consistently get better results with
one style of image over another, you may want to focus on that type of image when
travelling. People who participate in the TPN forums have 'discovered' that they
are good at portrait, composition, evening shots, B&W, or whatever.
And now that you've gone through all that work to become an expert on your destination,
defining your photo targets, planning your shoot, shooting a subject, analyzing
your strengths, using your equipment, and covering a subject ... Go buy your tickets!
It's time to travel!
About the Author
Jim White is the Editor at Travel Photographer Online Magazine. Jim's work can be
viewed at JimWhitePhotos.com,
in
PhotoPortfolios.net, and in the TPN and NPN forums.
If you have any comments regarding the TPN articles, please contact us at:
editor@travelphotographers.net.
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