Each place we visit has
its own particular look, character, and ambiance. If we want photographs of our
travels to be good and lasting, they should capture all of these qualities, and
say as much about a place as give the literal look of it.
We are unlikely to long
remember the smell and buzz of a flower garden in spring, the awe of gazing for
the first time at the mountain we intend to climb, the caress of a tropical
breeze, the thrill of a huge roller coaster, the wonder of our first wild bear,
or the adrenaline of rafting white water. Our photographs need to bring these
and other sensations back, to trigger our memories, and to communicate how we
felt to others. To do this, we need to think and feel as much as look when
setting out to make photographs.
First and foremost,
think about what made you decide, out of all the places in the world, to choose
this particular destination. Whatever it is—the beach, the rides, the mountain,
the galleries, the food—obviously appeals to you. If it didn't, you wouldn't be
going there. That site or activity (or inactivity) is one of the things you
want to photograph. But there are probably many other interesting aspects of
the place you may not be aware of. That's where research comes in.
Photographers for
National Geographic spend a lot of time doing research. This helps us figure
out what's there—what the place is about and what subjects we need to cover.
Read brochures and travel books. Go to libraries, bookstores, or onto the Web.
Talk to friends who have been there. Pick up travel information at the
country's embassy. Find whatever you can that is relevant, and devour it.
Understanding the
customs and traditions of a place is vital. For one thing, you want to be sure
you act in a way that is not rude or offensive while you are there, and it's
hard to know what's acceptable and what isn't with some knowledge. It can also
help you understand things people do that at first encounter you might consider
incomprehensible or even horrifying.
When you arrive at your
destination, be open and try to take note of the first impressions—write them
down if you have to. (A notebook is an essential accessory for a travel
photographer.) When you see a place for the first time from the plane window,
or when you drive around a bend and there it is, or as the ship nears some
distant island—how do you feel? Where do your eyes go first? What do you notice
about the place right away? A smell? The heat or cold? Blistering sunlight?
Mysterious fog? A particular building or vista? The way people move? Their
dress? Whatever it is, remember it. First impressions are invaluable sparks to
creative interpretation, and by definition are not repeatable. You've seen the
place in pictures, you've read about it. Now you're there, and all your senses
can partake.
Get out there. The only
way to discover the rhythm of life in a place, and so figure out what to shoot,
is to experience it. Many places, particularly hot ones, are active very early
in the morning and late in the afternoon but rather in a lull around midday.
Get up early, stay out late. If you are on a tour that is scheduled to leave
the hotel or ship at 9:00, get up well before dawn. Wander around before
meeting up with your companions. If the tour goes back to the hotel or ship for
lunch, don't go with them. Rather than take the bus back at the end of an
afternoon tour, hang around until after sunset and then take a taxi. Use any
spare time to get out and look for photographs. Besides availing yourself of
more opportunities, time spent discovering the place will enrich your
experience.
Get lost. Wander down
alleys. Sit in cafés and watch life pass by. Don't eat where the tourists do,
but where you see locals. Just set off down a street and see where it leads.
Look around the bends, over the rises. Get away from the crowd. I find that if
I meander away from the tourists and tourist sites, away from what is too
familiar and comfortable, it's much easier to adapt to the rhythm of a place, and
to be more observant.
Always have your camera
with you and always keep your eyes open. Serendipity plays an enormously
important role in travel photography. You never know what you are going to run
into, and you have to be ready. Many times you will see what could be a good
photograph but decide that the light is not right, or there are no people
around, or too many—something that means you will have to come back later. But
sometimes you get lucky. You happen to stumble upon a scene at just the right
moment. If you forgot your camera, are out of film, or your digital card is
full, if you have to fumble around getting the right lens on, the moment may be
gone before you can recover. This is true whether you are doing street photography
or visiting a natural or man-made site. Mountains, trees, monuments, and other
static subjects are, of course, not going to go anywhere, but the ray of
sunshine, the soaring eagle, or the embracing couple that add the needed
element to your photograph are unlikely to hang around. Think of it as
hunting—whenever you leave the confines of your camp, you should be ready and
able to capture whatever pops up.
Make time for
photography. Like doing anything well, making good photographs requires a
commitment of time and energy. One problem with much of modern travel is that
the days are chockablock full of scheduled tours, events, and meals. Our trips
are usually of limited time, and we naturally want to see as many sites as
possible. The itineraries rarely leave room for serious photography. You have
to make time. It may help to make photography a scheduled part of every day, so
you know you have the time and won't be tempted to get lazy and say, "I'll
do it tomorrow." It might rain tomorrow. Don't procrastinate.
When traveling, you're
likely to encounter all sorts of situations and subjects. This requires being a
bit of a jack-of-all-trades—you need to be able to photograph portraits,
landscapes, and everything in between.
Above all, work the
situations over. Never be satisfied with your first view of a place or the
first frame you snap. It's always possible—and usually likely—that you can come
up with something better. Why else would painters make sketches? Get closer,
then get closer still. Try different angles, different lenses. Wait for the
light, wait for the crowd, wait for a bird to land on the tree branch. Never be
in a hurry to get somewhere else. Tell yourself that nothing is more important
than getting the best you can get out of the situation you are in. Once you've
exhausted every possibility you can think of, you can start working on the next
one.
Landscapes
Landscapes come in all
forms—mountains, forests, plains, deserts, swamps, lakes, rivers, seacoasts.
Each has its own characteristics, and individual sites within each category
have their own too. The Grand Tetons do not look like the Andes—the Nile River
is different from the Mississippi.
Whatever kind of
landscape you are shooting, think about what the essential qualities are—and
not just the visual ones; think about how the place makes you feel, what kind
of emotions it stirs in you. Then look for ways to get those qualities and
feelings onto film. Is it a rocky, violently wave-washed coast or a bright and
sandy one? If it's the former, you want to show waves crashing against the
shore, probably in stormy weather. Blue sky and sunlight are more appropriate
for the latter unless you want to show the desolation of a resort beach in
winter.
Cities and Towns
Like landscapes, each
city and town has its own look and feel—a distinctive setting, architecture, or
skyline; a famous local site; a particular kind of food or dress. There's
always at least one thing that is unique. When covering a town or city, even a
small village, you need to do three basic things at a minimum: capture a sense
of place, which is usually a wide shot that shows the setting, skyline, or
other view that gives a feeling for the whole; landmarks that the place is
famous for; the life of its inhabitants. For the cityscapes and wide shots, as
well as for the landmarks, it's a good idea to check out the postcard racks in
your hotel lobby or at kiosks. They will quickly give you an idea of where the
best views are and what is considered well-known enough to warrant a postcard.
Monuments and Other
Buildings
When you are
photographing buildings, statues, or other monuments, think about what they
represent before you shoot. For example: There's a large statue of Vulcan
outside Birmingham, Alabama. You could make a perfectly nice image of him
standing on his hill on a sunny day, but such a picture would not say a lot about
who Vulcan is. A photograph on a stormy evening, with perhaps lightning in the
background, would. Cannons on a historic battlefield might look better in fog
than in bright sunlight. Get the idea of the subject, then think of the
weather, light, angle, etc. that best communicates it.
Photographing Family
Members and Friends
We often travel with
people we know—taking a family vacation, for example, or bicycling around
Tuscany with a group of friends. We quite naturally want to come home with
pictures of them as souvenirs of the trip. Be sure to get these, but don't
forget that you can also use members of your family and your friends to make
your other photographs more effective.
When you are making
pictures of your friends, try to strike a balance between a picture of them and
a picture of the place. A friend of mine once made a close-up portrait of me in
China. It wasn't a great portrait, but more important, it could have been made
in my backyard—there was nothing of the place in the frame. Of course, you may
want to shoot portraits, or to capture someone's expression at a particular
moment, but often you are making the picture as a way of documenting your
shared experience. You want to show enough of your friend to be able to
recognize him—that vertical speck in the distance could be anybody. But you
don't want to be so close that there's no context. If your friend is the
primary subject, he has to be strong enough to draw attention and be
recognizable but still keep some sense of where he is.
Photographing Strangers
It's best to ask
permission if you want to photograph someone, especially if you are working in
close. Engage them before you pull out your camera. Learn at least how to say
"hello" and "May I make a photograph" in the local
language—just showing that you've made a little effort helps. Explain to them
what you want to do and what it is about them that made you want to make a
picture. If approached in an open and friendly manner, most people will be
agreeable—many are flattered that someone has shown an interest in them and
what they do. In places where there's a lot of tourism, you may run into people
who are tired of being photographed—many tourists are not courteous enough to
ask permission, and local people can come to feel abused and exploited. The
only way to overcome this is to spend time with the people or to go to parts of
the place less frequented by tourists.
In many tourist
destinations, people may ask for money if you want to photograph them. Many of
these places are desperately poor, and people have few ways of getting hold of
cash. The money they ask for is usually not very much to us, but may represent
quite a lot to them. How you deal with these situations is up to you, but
remember that every time you buy a postcard, you are happy to spend the money
for a picture somebody else took. Why not spend a little on your own?
You cannot always ask
permission, of course. If you are shooting a street scene or a wide shot of a
market, you can't run up to everyone and ask if it's OK. In general, people do
not mind this sort of photography—it's only when they're singled out that they
get uncomfortable. But not always. Be sensitive to the scene in your
viewfinder. If people are getting nervous, ask permission or move on.
Make use of people to
give your images life and scale. If the facade of a particular building appeals
to you, the picture may be that much better if you show people walking in front
of it. They will give it scale and also let viewers know what sorts of people
live there, how they dress, and the like. An outdoor café may be more
interesting crowded with people than empty.
From Photography
Field Guide: Travel
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