Travel Photography How To

According to a photo industry writer I know, I do something that’s a bit unusual: I freely admit that sometimes I’m too close to my own photographs to judge them objectively, and because of that, I ask for help.

Here’s a story that should further warm U.S.-Cuba relations. A Cuban diver found an American tourist’s waterproof camera that was lost in the waves off the coast of Cuba two years ago, tracked her down on social media, and returned all her photo and videos.

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.

The unsung hero of our age is the rechargeable battery. Can you imagine using a cell phone, digital camera or notebook computer without high capacity, long lasting batteries? The battery technology of choice for the past several years has been Lithium Ion. Here are five things you need to know about it—for your own safety and convenience. 

The most important tip I would like to share about travel photography is never buy a new camera or lens before traveling to Bhutan or even Carhenge. The next most essential travel photography secret is that using your equipment has to be instinctive; when a photo op presents itself you may only have a few seconds to get a shot. There’s no time to think about what menu to use or how to turn on continuous AF, or what exposure mode you’re in. Using your camera has to be instinctive; you should see—or even anticipate—then click the shutter. It’ll make travel more fun, too.

Questions about the viability of travel photography as a way to make money are inevitable in my marketing workshops and classes. The allure is undeniable—it seems to be all about exotic places to visit and fascinating people to meet. While lots of photographers want to get into travel photography, it’s also one of the most competitive fields in freelance photography.

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.