Travel Photography How To

Most landscape photographers carry a polarizing filter in their bag for darkening pale skies, making colors more vibrant, and eliminating distracting reflections from water. But what if you’re out in the field and your polarizer is at home?

Making great images is often about being in the right place at the right time. But that’s not always possible depending upon where you live, where you’re going, and the degree to which Mother Nature cooperates.

Share your best images with the world by posting in the Shutterbug Photo of the Day gallery. Here’s the quick and easy procedure along with some tips to help you navigate to the right place, and even some advice about composition and subject matter.

[Column Note: Most people come to professional photography by traveling a familiar route: from an early fascination with cameras, to photo classes and courses, followed by assisting a pro to gain some real-world experience. Then comes striking out on one's own as photographer, which, if all goes well, is followed by the frequent printing of invoices. Others, however, arrive at a pro career sideways—that is, coming at it from another occupation. The stories these "second career" pro photographers tell tend to be quite interesting, even inspirational. And those stories are what this new online column, titled Going Pro, is all about.]

It’s not your typical image of that place then, which means Mirjam Evers has done her job well. She has images of the colorful chaos of revelers in full regalia, but the challenge is to get something special. “The travel publications I work for ask for something different and unusual,” Evers says. “She was posing, and most of the photographers were shooting from eye level, so I crouched down.”

Today's eye-opening tutorial from expert Ken Evans is for those of you who are disappointed by your monochrome images, and is all about understanding how to view outdoor scenes in b&w. The unique video below describes how restraint, tone, and structure can be used to shape meaning within the frame.