Travel Photography How To

Travel and nature photographer John Shaw lives his dream, traveling the world with his camera, without deadlines or obligations. His images go toward stock sales worldwide, in addition to being used in his many books. While he doesn’t shoot on assignment, magazine editors familiar with Shaw’s work will come to him when needed, or he’ll occasionally pitch story ideas to them when planning a trip.

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.”

A recent shoot offered a spectacular setting, cooperative subjects, wonderful lighting, great colors, a number of advantageous positions from which to shoot—and a challenge for a travel photographer used to roaming cities and countryside in search of images.

[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.]

If the U.S. goes forward with its historic plan to open diplomatic ties with Cuba for the first time in 50 years, there will be a lot more photographers capturing this long isolated country. While Cuba hasn’t been entirely cut off photographically over the years, photo trips there have been limited and highly restricted.

There is just over a month remaining for photographers to enter the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards. The World Photography Organisation (WPO) announced the Honorary Judging Committee for the Professional competition yesterday and revealed a selection of some of the more head-turning submissions to the 2015 Open competition.

Back in the 70’s when I started my photography career as a street photographer/photojournalist we had some pretty hefty equipment. Protecting it from the elements and potential thieves was our main concern. We didn’t have much in the way of small photo bags other than pricey leather ones that protected the gear but screamed: “Take me. I’m expensive!”