You have heard me mention the Africa trip in August? Great news: info and a detailed itinerary are now available here (click) and there are still spaces available.
For the photo trip of a lifetime, click now and come to one of the two info evenings in Oakville May 14 or May 18. Reserve your spot on the presentation evenings quickly: RSVP now. First come, first served!
Now I go back to deciding which lenses to bring (hint: one of them will be loooong).
Check out this page.
In August 2012, international photog Kristof is doing photo training during an Africa Safari trip. And great news: I will join too, if we get enough signups!
This is the trip of a lifetime, both as a trip and as photo coaching. Check out the page and contact me or Touch de l’Afrique if you are interested: come and I’ll be there too, so Kristof and I can help you with two teachers present through the trip.
Bett still: Monday evening, in downtown Oakville, an information evening about the trip. Follow the link above and RSVP to Kristof to ensu your place!
Kristof and I will teach Travel Photography, wildlife, lenses, light: everything you need for a perfect memory of the trip, plus a great boost in your pro skills!
Reader Tyrone asks:
I’m going away to Alaska on a cruise and was wondering if you had any recommendations for particular lenses that I should get for this trip.
Sure.
First, it is not easy. You will want a wide range of focal lengths, from very wide (say a 10-20mm lens on a crop camera – this will give you depth and National Geographic type shots) to long (say, a 70-200); as well as a fast lens (a prime 50, say, for indoors portraits, or a prime 24 or 35).
The long lens is for faraway scenes and whales – but long lenses need fast shutter speeds and even then, when a ship is not steady (it is a ship after all) you will blur many images. Still, there will be whales and you will want the long length. A stabilized lens (IS/VR) is a big bonus.
So I would say, if at all possible: one wide, one long, and one prime fast.
Why not, say, an 18-270 all-purpose lens? Because its image quality is not as good, and its smaller aperture will reduce your available shutter speeds.
Two final notes.
And finally: have a great cruise!
I have asked this before… what do you do when it is hazy? Like in this shot of Hong Kong?
No-one will be impressed.
So you can take the image into Lightroom, and drag “blacks” to the left and “exposure” to the right. Or do a “Levels” adjustment in Photoshop.
True. But as said before, you can make the drawback into a benefit. Male lemonade out of the lemons. And I thought I would show you another “improved” example. Here:
So you find a sharp object to put in front. Simple – now the haze becomes a benefit. Making lemonade out of lemons.
Here’s an image from a 2007 trip to Jerusalem:
A typical “B-roll” picture – a picture that helps…
In this case, elements are: the blurred scene in the background (people eating and drinking, the waiter, the umbrellas); the Hebrew on the coke bottle; the menu including shoarma; the sunny background; and the three-dimensional feeling created by the “close-far” technique.
When you next travel, try to take lots of images like this. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to tell the story.
It is night, as in this old shot of Grand Central Station. How do you deal with this?
Technique. A combination of techniques, actually. Use as many of these as you can:
As you see, there is no single answer. A combination of the above will work. Night is the best time for many shots – use it.
This shot is from the all-new “Travel Photography” course I just wrote for the School of Imaging, by the way. Completely rewritten and worth taking – if you are going to travel, you owe it to yourself!
Just to show how much a few seconds and shift in viewpoint can change your photo, look at these images:
Most people would assume that…
I am not sure I agree with that. The top picture is a favourite, even though the aircraft is tiny. And while aircraft spotter sites insist on “straight” images, I much prefer the drama a wide lens gives you (bottom images).
This is not to say that I am right. What I mean is: cameras, and lenses, are powerful creative tools, and you should think about how you use them; try to use them in different ways; be creative; experiment, and follow your intuition.
Travel tip repeat: you have heard me mention bags before, but now let me get specific: when traveling in a warm climate, carry Ziploc bags. Because they close with a pretty much airtight seal. And then put the camera and lenses into those bags when you carry them out. And then wait until the equipment has warmed up – maybe 10-20 minutes.
If you don’t, then the moment you walk from the airconditioned inside to the moist, warm outside, this happens:
I.e.due to fundamental physics, the camera mists up. Viewfinder, lenses: possibly even inside. And that is bad – misting up means moisture – water. Water can lead to fungal growth in tropical climates, and in any case, it is never good.
For the camera, that is.
But it can work in pictures – low contrast pictures can carry a mood very well, like in the following image of tropical storm Irene, which turned into a hurricane later:
That slight residual fogging helps, here. But I would of course not recommend that, for your camera’s sake.
One more thing – carry a microfibre cloth, as well, and wipe off any excess moisture as soon as possible. Keeping your camera healthy is a good idea.
I am in the Caribbean, on the island of St Maarten, for a few hours. INcluding the pool bar, of course:
But also including camera care. The moment you walk out of the hotel – bang, the camera mists up. This is due to the difference in temperature and the humidity.
Solution for tropical camera use: Before using, wait until the camera warms up.
And a very good way to do that is with the camera in a closed (tightly wrapped) plastic bag. That way, the misting up, which is bad for cameras, is minimized.
10-20 minutes and you can take as many pics as you like. Or put bag and camera on your balcony before you go out!
As of today, I plan to be traveling for a week, so if posts are repeats, or delayed, you will know why.
Of course upon my return I hope to be able to show you some nice pictures.
In the mean time, a travel tip – and there will be a few more I should think.
TIP: when skies are blue, and you want contrast, use a polarizer. This is a filter that, when you turn it just the right way, removes non-metallic reflections and does this to the sky (especially at right angles to the sun):
Meaning a super-contrasty look between sky and clouds (even when shooting B&W).
