Travel Photography How To

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Ron Leach  |  Jan 08, 2021

Whether you’re shooting landscapes, street photos, or cityscapes, something magical happens when the sun dips below the horizon. Colorful lights abound, and less appealing components of a scene tend to fade into obscurity.

Ron Leach  |  Jan 27, 2017

Nitish Kumar Meena’s day gig is designing software solutions for Microsoft, but in his off time he’s an adventurous travel photographer intent on capturing our world’s natural wonders.

Shutterbug Staff  |  Nov 19, 2024

The official first day of winter is still more than a month away, but we're already focusing on mild, sunny weather and the June 7-8 celebratory opening weekend of the colossal Photoville Festival that will run through June 22, 2025. Now in its 14th year and promising to be bigger and better than ever, the free, public event is now in its planning stages and cordially invites you to submit your visual story proposals for consideration.

Submit your proposal today to be a part of New York’s favorite photo festival dedicated to global visual storytelling in the heart of NYC!

Chuck Gloman  |  Jun 30, 2015

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northeastern Alaska consists of 19,286,722 acres along the Alaskan North Slope, and supports a greater diversity of flora and fauna than anywhere else in the Arctic Circle. It was established in 1960 and is governed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It receives only about 1,500 visitors a year.

Blaine Harrington  |  Oct 15, 2013  |  First Published: Sep 01, 2013

I learned photography in the film days, and when the huge change to digital came along, I changed not only my gear but the way I see. I used to have to see in terms of very specific criteria of what would work within the ISO range of my film and what the film could record in terms of light and shadow. Low ISOs meant I couldn’t get enough depth of field, or a tripod was needed, or I had to light something because there wasn’t enough information in pictures that had incredible shadow detail. High ISOs often meant an unacceptable level of grain and bad color rendition. As a result I passed up a lot of situations that got my attention but were beyond the capability of my film to capture.

Maynard Switzer  |  Aug 29, 2013  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2013

For almost a year I planned for the 22-day trip I took this past January to photograph among the indigenous people of Ethiopia. I did a lot of research so I’d know what to expect and how to deal with everything from the customs of the country to the weather and the traveling conditions. Also, I’d have a driver and a guide, and along the way I’d pick up local guides who’d know the ins and outs of specific villages, tribes, and dialects.

Maynard Switzer  |  Aug 27, 2012  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2012

Often people will ask me, “How do you get that great color in your photos?” I appreciate the compliment, but it’s usually followed by, “You must do a lot of retouching.” Actually I don’t. I will do a little color enhancement, but how color looks in my images has to do partly with how I set certain camera controls, how I control or use lighting in the scene, and how I compose the photograph.

Blaine Harrington  |  May 06, 2014  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2014

The picture of the Buddhist nun drinking tea in the Drepung Monastery in Tibet was going to be perfect. The light coming in through a window behind her was capturing the texture of her skin and casting a glow on the tea and the rising steam, and from my training in studio photography I knew how rarely light like this happens in real life. But by the time I’d asked for and received permission to take the photo, the moment had passed: she’d finished her tea and was about to move from the light. So now, along with permission to take the photo, I had to get permission to recreate it.

Blaine Harrington  |  Mar 07, 2014  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2014

I’ve seen my share, and I expect you have too, of people who basically spray the area hoping to get a keeper. I’ve also seen photographers who wait…wait…and wait some more to catch that decisive moment. I’m neither of those types. I think of what I do as mindful shooting: I know what I want the photo to look like; I preconceive and previsualize the moment; I control the situation as much as I can to get that moment; and I’m prepared to work with what I’m given and what I can’t control in order to get a good result.

Maynard Switzer  |  Jun 27, 2012  |  First Published: May 01, 2012

In early February I went to Cuba for 10 days of photography. Long before I left I knew what I wanted to accomplish. I’d been to Cuba 10 years before, so I knew the basics of what I’d see and what I could expect. This time I narrowed down what I wanted to photograph. I wanted to shoot mostly in the old section of Havana and in the city of Trinidad. People would be my main subjects—people on the streets, in their homes, going about their lives. In Old Havana I wanted to work in the late afternoon and early evening; in Trinidad I wanted to capture people against colorful backgrounds. On this trip there wouldn’t be open country where I’d be shooting landscapes or people working in the fields; there’d be no wide-open spaces, no photos of tobacco fields or expanses of sugar cane.

Maynard Switzer  |  Feb 07, 2013  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2013

At one time or another we’re all tourists somewhere. There’s even the old suggestion that to be a better travel photographer you might pretend to be a tourist in your own hometown. Seek out points of interest and find unusual ways of photographing them and you’re on your way to better images when you get to Paris, London, Toronto, New York, or wherever you’ll someday be headed.

Blaine Harrington  |  Dec 27, 2013  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2013

Early on I lived in Paris, shooting fashion photography. I saw all the iconic places and landmarks, of course, and observed hundreds of people shooting them. When I became a travel photographer, my initial thought was to shoot lots of subjects other than the icons; to make untypical, evocative images of marketplaces, shop fronts, and unexpected details. Pretty quickly I found out the icons defined a place, and even more important, the icons made the money.

Staff  |  May 06, 2016

What makes a great travel photo? Many things, of course, but we’ve found the best images always tell some sort of story. For this assignment, we weren’t simply looking for pretty pictures from a vacation. Beautiful photos are all well and good but they’re a dime a dozen these days. Instead, we were seeking unique travel photos that included some interesting elements in the frame to give a sense of place or context. We wanted to imagine we were standing right beside the photographer, whether they were taking a photo on a dusty street in Marrakesh, or turning their camera toward a vast plain in Montana. While neither of those locales are featured in our 10 favorite images from readers, the places that are presented here look pretty awesome.

Blaine Harrington  |  Oct 27, 2015

When I realized that this column would be in the magazine’s lighting focus issue, I looked at the data for the photos I’d taken earlier this year during a nearly month-long combination of safari workshop, assignment, and stock shoot in Africa. What I found surprised me: I’d used flash on about one-third of the 13,000 photos I’d made on that trip. I had no idea I’d used my Speedlights as often as I had.

Josh Miller  |  Jul 01, 2015

I think I speak for nearly every photographer when I say going to a new location excites me, especially if it is one I have dreamed about for years. We all dream of these once-in-a-lifetime photo adventures. But the truth is for most photographers, the majority of our shooting is actually done in locations that are closer to home and allow us to return more regularly.

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