How to Take Great Travel Photos
Great travel photos are all about being in the right place at the right time. Does that mean it’s all luck. No way. You can ‘create good luck’ but doing a little research, talking to people, and generally saying YES to opportunities.
I love travel photography. It’s what pushed me towards pursuing photography (instead of silversmithing, which I was intensely studying), it has been the driving force in my professional life, and it acts as a rejuvenating activity to keep me fresh creatively.
Travel photography makes you think fast, observe closely, and generally helps to push you out of your comfort zone. When you only have one chance to get the shot, it should make you think just a bit more about the kinds of photos you want to create. When you are seeing things for the first time, you have the perfect opportunity to capture them in a creative way.
Nikon F100, 70-200, f3.2, Fuji Velvia 50, b&w processed in Photoshop
While riding around the countryside outside Kep, Cambodia on the back of my friend/fixer Rya’s rented moped, we had stopped so I could photograph the landscape, verdant green rice paddies leading up to dark green mountains. After a few minutes this old man came walking down the road. He was a 72 year old rice farmer that had survived the Khmer Rouge and the civil war in previous decades and was happy to chat and be photographed.
The light was hard from a late afternoon sun, but there was enough bounce from the light red dirt road we were standing on to not give super deep shadows. Although I shot a number of different angles of this man, I like the shallow depth of field keeping the focu on his weathered, kind face.
While traveling may begin as a search for place, it ultimately ends up being about people.
Nikon F100, 50, f4, Fuji Provia 100
Before children were to put on a traditional Khmer dances, there were filling a school room getting ready. It was slightly chaotic with kids running around, so I looked for interesting moments I could focus on to calm the scene.
When the action starts I find myself on auto-pilot, shooting instinctively, flowing really well. It’s these moments that I strive for, a photo-zen.
Nikon D2X, 17-35, f7.1, 30secs
As the chaos of the annual water festival swirled around town, I worked my way down the river, grabbing shots where I could. It was a sea of humanity, many sending floating candle boats down the river. From one of the bridges I made this long exposure of the candles blurring as they make their way down stream. I wasn’t carrying my tripod, so the camera is resting on the edge of the bridge, triggered by the self timer. I definitely had one hand on the neck strap, in case the camera decided to jump off the edge.
Traveling to countries while they’re having annual celebrations is an easy way to soak up the local culture and there are photo opportunities everywhere.
Nikon F100, 24-120, f5.6, Fuji Velvia 50
Traveling presents encounters that you don’t get in your normal life.
After driving all day through overcast skies, we reached our destination for the night, Oggi Noor Lake. We were sitting in our SUV, mustering up the energy to set up camp, when the sun dropped below the clouds and bathed everything in it’s golden light. I jumped out of the SUV and started shooting when I noticed a group of teenage boys on horseback on the beach below me. They saw me and waved me down. I clamored down to them. They were very excited and offered me a drink of vodka. After a few minutes of hand gestures we all made our way back up to where the others were. I shot a bunch of group photos and a few portraits before they headed off in different directions. In a few minutes, what had been a drab day turned into the best light I saw the whole trip.
Nikon F100, 70-200, f2.8, Fuji Velvia 50
After the young Mongolian riders left, I captured this shot that I think sums up Mongolia the best and has been a favorite of mine over the years.
Nikon F100, 24-120, f4.5, Fuji Provia 100
This was a grab shot while meandering through the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. It was tough shooting with the bright smoggy haze that blanketed the city. The city was hot, in late summer. Shooting in touristy places like the Summer Palace, it’s sometimes hard to find new and engaging images that haven’t been taken a billion times before. This image came about as I was shooting the pond of lilies behind her. She sat down and started fussing with her hat. I made a few frames before the crowds overtook me and I moved on.
Nikon F100, 24-120, f5.6, Fuji Provia 100
Getting lost is part of traveling.
If your aim is to get lost, are you really lost?
Nikon F100, 24-120, Fuji Provia 400
While in the process of documenting the small Muslim community in predominately Buddhist Cambodia’s city of Siem Reap, we were invited to join some of the community for a Ramadan meal. It was just after the time the USA was entering the war in Afghanistan and it was unclear how they would receive us. As with most people I meet traveling, they were exceptionally welcoming. I made this shot of an old man tentatively watching us from across the mosque, through a railing.
When I’m shooting I always look for things that can go in the foreground of a photo. I want to give depth and a sense of scale, add a bit of color, or just add a little framing. I couldn’t see over the railing, so shooting through it made more sense. You have to work with what you have.
Nikon D2H, 50mm, f4.5
If you really want the shot you might have to put up with some little annoyances.
The flies in Lake Mungo, Australia are persistent little buggers. You have about a minute from exiting the confines of your car until they cover you…or at least they covered me. I could barely handle it.
Nikon D2H, 24-120, f4.5
Forcing myself to not freak out over the flies rewarded me with this ridiculous landscape of one of Lake Mungo’s sand dunes with an impending rain storm that almost trapped us in the outback.
The weather can change in seconds. Those times can present stunning landscapes and colors. You may have to run for cover in a few minutes, but the leading edge of storms is a beautiful thing. Dark skies can also help to bring out the colors of the landscape.
Nikon D2X, 7mm, f1
There are times when you just get a feeling about which lens to use and how to shoot a space. When you’re in the golden orb at the top of the Bayterek Tower in the new section of Astana, Kazakhstan the time is right to pull out the fisheye. While I think that fisheye shots can be gimmicky, there is a time and place for every lens.
The need to keep changing things up when you’re shooting is key. Along with the fisheye photos, I also shot with a telephoto lens and a normal wide angle. This gave a whole range of images to work from. Knowing that I wouldn’t be back to this place again on our trip, I made a point of a taking a few extra minutes and making a few extra frames.
Take the time to stop and look around.
Packing the gear bag for the day in an unknown city is a tough exercise in preparedness, economy, and guessing. You want access to all your gear, but you don’t want to lug it around day and night. What I bring depends on if there’s a car involved or if I’ll be hoofing it all day. This day in Astana we weren’t doing too much walking, but we were still moving around too much for my huge backpack. I used a medium sized shoulder bag, carrying two Nikon D2X’s, 70-200mm, 17-35mm, 50mm, and 7mm lens, one SB-800 flash, and an extra layer of clothing. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but when creating images is what you do, you drag that bag around until your sore and tired.
I love all my gear, but there are days when it’s good to go super light, back to basics, one camera one lens. I usually go for the 50mm. Forcing yourself to work in that limited frame will get you thinking about your photos and lead to more creative shots. Going back to basics is a good thing to do, revisit what you know, push the boundaries a bit. One camera one lens, especially a prime lens forces you to move your feet, changing your angle and giving you a new perspective. Zoom lenses are wonderful, but nothing beats moving your feet.
Taking great photos is about patience when you’re waiting for the shot, then hustling to work the moment until it’s gone. Setting yourself up for shots is as easy as paying attention to your surroundings. If you see something that works well as the background, be patient and wait for something to come in front of it. Something invariably will. Pay attention to weather and lighting, sunrise and sunset times and put yourself in places to make the most of each. Some places that are ‘known’ for sunset might be just as stunning at sunrise without all the crowds.
Nikon F100, 24-120, Fuji Velvia 50, SB-80 Flash, tripod
This shot was made just after sunset at Phnom Bakheng temple, overlooking Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. The camera is on a tripod, the flash is being triggered manually from inside the temple. The exposure is a few seconds. While making this photo we were already being hustled out by the guards before nightfall. You can always get a few minutes out of guards by being nice, starting to chat with them, and generally being polite. You’ll eventually have to leave anyways, and who knows, they might give you a private tour or show you some special place off the beaten track.
An interested, kind smile is your best currency when traveling, it is universally accepted and sometimes priceless.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f18, 9 seconds
Try and get to places where you can have a view. This time lapse of the Bangkok, Thailand streets at night is from one of the many concrete pedestrian overpasses that are ubiquitous to South East Asia’s crowded cities. I wasn’t carrying a tripod, so I just rested the camera on the railing. It’s pretty hard to keep a camera still for 9 seconds, so find places to prop your camera. Time lapses are great for showing movement within a space. Is there crazy traffic? Are the crowds overwhelming? Go for the long exposure to convey the movement.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f2.8
Follow your nose (and other senses) to take great travel photos. Street food is an amazing thing. Cheap, easy, and delicious. The best part is that people congregate near food, there’s usually lots of good color, and interesting moments to capture. And afterwards (or before) can you eat some interesting food! Ordering food or a drink from street vendors is a great way to break the ice and get you on a good foot for when you go back and ask to take photos of them.
When I’m traveling, it’s very apparent that I’m not your normal tourist taking little snapshots. When you bring out the big cameras people notice. Most people are very open to having their photos taken and I try and ask people if it’s okay before I get to it. If someone says no, then I just thank them and move on.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f2.8
Traveling will surprise you.
Ok, so this isn’t a great photo, but it comes with a crazy travel story about getting lost in the Cambodian jungle on motorcycles. There are stories behind every photo.
Controlled and Studio Lighting
When you can control the lighting, you can control exactly how a photo will look and make minor adjustments all in the comfort of your studio, or wherever you’re shooting. While studio lighting is an endless experiment with endless variations, I’m going talk generally about the thought process.
Coming into a space that you will fully light, you have to think in terms of key lighting (main lights), background lighting, and highlights. You can control lighting with one light or a hundred. Each light adds a layer that you need to think about it’s direction, intensity, and shape (you can add color as well).
I won’t get too specific with which types of lights you can use. I use a mix of small flashes and large studio flashes depending on the location, subject, and how much I can carry to a shoot.
Let’s start with a simple one light studio setup.
Nikon D2X, 6omm, f20, 1 Nikon SB-800 no diffusion
This spider plant hangs over my desk and during a tremendous growth spurt last year was flowering like crazy. I taped some blue paper on the wall behind it, grabbed my SB-800 flash, tethered with a TTL cord, camera right and blasted away. It was challenging to get the light to only hit the flower and not the background. I ended up zooming the flash head to it’s max, 105mm. I had to shoot at f20 to get even a little bit of depth because the flower was so small and I was right up on it with my 60mm macro.
The whole thing about lighting is to make it look ‘real’ or believable, which generally means getting the flash off the camera to add depth and definition to the subject.
Nikon D2x, 70-200mm, f3.5, Excalibur 1600 with white umbrella
Although not in a studio, I had to take control of the lighting in this florescent lit basement laboratory. Nobody wants a dark green cast over your photos from the standard florescent tubes in most buildings these days. I set up an Excalibur 1600 Studio Flash with a large white umbrella to camera left, triggered by a radio slave. Shooting at 100/sec was enough to overpower the ambient light of the lab, eliminating the green glow, and giving me just enough light that I could still go as open as f3.5 to keep a reduced depth of field. I was trying to get something in the foreground and we had tried a number setups with various lab equipment, but here I’m shooting through a shelf that separated the room. I had to stand on a stool to get up high enough to shoot through the hole in the shelf. The flash is on the same side as the subject as I didn’t want much light on my side to keep the focus of the Dr.
Now to add more lights. The more lights you add, the more complicated a shoot becomes. When I’m doing quick portraits, I like to keep it simple and use 1-3 lights, usually just one, off camera. However, some subjects call for more than one. 
Nikon D2x, 6omm, f5.6, three studio lights
This was shot for an article in Vermont Vows Magazine, the premier wedding mag here in Vermont. The setup was outside, but under a roof, but I wasn’t really looking for any ambient light, so I set up three studio lights, one on camera left with a large umbrella. From this angle it would be my ‘key’ light. I had two more lights, one on camera right with a softbox on it. That was creating the highlights on top of the flowers. The other was straight across from the first light, again with an umbrella, this time to light the back wall and fill in some shadows.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f5.6, Excalibur 3200 Studio light
This shot was made with only one light, a studio light, camera right with an umbrella on it. While this section is about total light control in a studio sense, the only other light source was the monitors which I had to include in the photo, which meant that this image was made at 1/15 sec. While that’s pretty slow, it was dark enough that the flash would freeze any minor movement. On a side not about shooting at slow speeds, I find it’s all about controlling your breathing and steadying your body. If that fails, take as many photos as you can, one will end up sharp. I had brought and set up a few other lights, but once I got going, I realized that if I wanted a more dramatic shot of the doctor and patient, I should par it down to one light, not to mention the comparatively dim monitors that were being totally blown away by the flash. By moving the flash off to camera right, I could avoid getting reflections on the monitors, while lighting both subjects and giving the background just enough to tell that it was in a hospital.
Nikon D2x, 70-200mm, f3.2, Excalibur Studio Light
Here’s a simple one light set up, a large umbrella, 45 degrees camera left provides all the light you’ll need. Enough to pop the main subject, and giving just enough to light the background. You could also do this with two lights, one for the subject, one for the background, but this is the simplest way. With only one light you can keep those deep shadows on the non-lit side, giving enough light at the right angle to show real depth. I was also using a long lens to compress the depth of field and to blur out the background a bit.
To see more of my work or to contact me about a project or assignment, please visit my website, www.photovt.com.
Available lighting
In this post I’m going to talk a little about lighting and how it relates to taking great photos.
Lighting one of the big three that makes a photo great; lighting, composition, and subject matter. I’ll discuss each of these in other posts.
Photos need light. It’s what makes them a photo. In the old days it was a chemical process, now it’s a digital one, turning light into a photograph. Within lighting there are basically three options, natual/available, flash/controlled, and a combination of the two. We’ll start with the original light source, our sun. It’s big and bright and comes in an unending variety of colors and intensities depending on what’s diffusing or reflecting it. While direct sunlight has it’s place, and the golden hours around sunrise and sunset are a magical time, it can create blinding hot spots and black holes in your photos if you’re not careful. Cameras are not equipped to deal with the capturing the range from hot highlight to deep shadow. They’re much happier with either one of the other, which means moving your subject into some shade, or evening out the light a little bit. Yes, there’s the new craze of high dynamic range (HDR), but I’m a purist and think people take it too far and it ends up looking like a velvet painting. Used properly, there is a place for HDR, basically replacing filters of yester-year. However to get great photos, it’s easier to take a few seconds and think about what the lighting is, and how you want to use it, then to spend countless hours in Photoshop massaging a bad photo into a mediocre one. Let’s take a look at a few photos that give examples of different types of natural light.
Nikon F100, 50mm f5.6, Fuji Velvia Film
This boy was photographed just before a hazy sunset outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can tell that the light is very low on the horizon and therefore very directional, leaving part of his body in shade. I had him turn slightly towards the sun so his face wouldn’t totally be in shadow and to give a little definition to his body and to pick up that golden light.
Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm, f2.0
This photo of Amy Redford, film maker and daughter of Robert Redford, was shot under the eave of a porch to block out the harsh late afternoon sun. Although I did make some images of her in the direct sun, this setup worked best, with the soft light filtering in.
As a photographer, I’m always scanning my surroundings for proper lighting and background options. When shooting, I’m always aware of the direction and intensity of the available light as it determines what to do next. You can see in both of these shots that I have the subjects turned slightly from the light source to give more depth and definition to their faces.
Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm, f1.8
This portrait was made in full shadow outside of my studio. After working with studio lights, I wanted to get some totally different lighting options, so we headed outside. With the soft even light when I’m out of the full sun, I like to shoot pretty wide open, softening the light even more.
When you’re shooting in available light, you really have to work with what you’ve got. You need to think outside the box and try create interesting vignettes. There’s always a little corner here or there with acceptable light. Work the light coming through a window or door, or if it’s bouncing off a white wall, even better.
To see more of my work or to contact me about a project or assignment, please visit my website, www.photovt.com.
