Travel Photography
By Dan
It has been a long time since I had been taking photos and to be exact for 2 years now. So far those years spent was more on excitement, exploration and experimentation. One day upon returning the zooms lens that I had borrowed from the rental shop, a flyer in the shop caught my attention. The flyer showcases a seminar, photo contest and exhibit. What interested me was the seminar itself since it’s a cheap price to pay in order for me to grab knowledge and tips from locally known photographers in Singapore. The information that I will share are notes that I had scribbled down from the speakers with some additional inputs from me as well. The seminar topic was about fashion, travel photography and finding your vision in your photography. The seminar information is located at this site Montage 2009.
Below are some of the tips and information that I had scribbled down during that day.
Tips on Becoming or being a travel photographer
- Passion: Travel, peope, places, culture
- Intent: Quality of content, quality of intent
- Flexibility: Use what you have, wait for the moment
On Location:
- Don’t follow the crowd
- Explore the place around you
- Be early in the location you wish to take a photo of
Preparation/Planning:
- “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”
- Destination research
- Medical and heath concerns
- Sorting out the immigration matters/visa/passport
- Choosing the right gear
Destination Research:
- Weather and season of the place you’ll gonna go
- Festivals
- Culture/Religion: Do’s and Dont’s
- Currency
- Banks, ATM, Credit Cards
- Communication, internet, roaming service, wi-fi
- Accommodation
- Food
- Accessibility
- Local guide and transport
- Check website to destination
- Travel guide
- Travel documentary
- Meet and get to know locals
Choosing the Right Gear:
- 2 FX (Full Frame) bodies (serious stuff)
- 2 DX Bodies (travel stuff and light weight)
- Lenses: 16-35mm/24-70mm/70-200mm (serious stuff)
- Lenses: 18-200mm (travel stuff and light weight)
- Lenses: 50mm/85mm/10.5mm Fisheye
- Flashes, Tripod, Filters
- SD/CF Card
- Media Storage (Vosonic, Epson)
On the Road: Up’s and Down’s:
- Cloudy/Raining: Shoot indoors, get close up shots
- Look for funny things
- Be friendly
- Overcast sky: Get portraits
Setup or Not to Setup:
- Waiting for the moment vs Creating the moment
- Capturing the moment
Home Sweet Home:
- Download your backup
- Sort/Catalog
- RAW conversion
- Edit/Enhance the pictures
To some all this up, just go out take pictures…enjoy what you do!!!
mouse pointer will turn like a crosshair indicating you are ready to retouch. To use this, just left-click and hold on the item/object you want to remove. There will be a translucent red markup that will indicate the selected area (see image on the right). After you release the left-click, Capture NX will attempt to retouch the selected area to blend with the surrounding pixels near it. That’s how simple it is, however the outcome most of the time might look awkward and end up looking fake. Don’t let this put you down. Just practice and soon enough you’ll get the hang of it. Note that sometime you might need to change the stroke or how you select the object to have a favorable result.
