Travel Photography How To

Vacation season is approaching fast! Like millions of other Americans, you may be planning to travel to a destination where you can do a few of the things you really enjoy—including some inspired photography. Whether you’re headed to Tokyo, Toronto or Terre Haute, Indiana, here are a few tips that will help you enjoy your adventure.

Pssst! Hey – yeah, you. Share this story with your significant other and maybe they’ll take the hint that this year you both need a photo-perfect vacation.

For the past 30 years, my great passion has been to travel to the world’s most remote and beautiful places on earth telling stories with my camera. I spend weeks at a time immersing myself into the landscapes and with the people who inhabit these lands.

French photographer Aurelien Buttin has traveled the world, from Europe and Asia to the ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. He recently made a road trip across California with some friends, and did some really nice photography along the way.

I don’t have to light up rooms or freeze fast action very often—travel photography doesn’t usually call for that, and, besides, I really prefer to shoot in natural light. Fortunately, most of the time I can, but there are instances when a flash will make the difference in a picture by narrowing the scene’s contrast range, making it possible for the camera’s sensor to capture the details in shadow and highlight areas. Often flash is the only way for me to make a picture, as I don’t have the luxury of coming back when the light is better.

It happens to all of us as photographers. We suddenly stop feeling inspired and even are, dare we say, a bit bored with shooting photos.

What I want to capture in my photography can be expressed as the character of a place. I have to aim for images beyond “this is what it looks like here” because in my business photos have to tell stories, have to illuminate, even educate; my images should always reveal something of the culture, the history, and, most important, the lives of the people.

DigitalGlobe has announced its 4th annual Top Satellite Images of the year contest and some of the contenders are pretty darn amazing. This year's top satellite photos were shot with the company's recently launched WorldView-3 satellite and include sky-high perspectives on a range of locations from around the world.