January 2020 – To Travel Hopefully

Followup–To JPEG or Not to JPEG [Encore Publication]: For many RAW shooters there is no need to use RAW+JPG

A couple of years ago, I published the following post in which I explained why I was transitioning away from shooting RAW+JPEG to shooting only in RAW format. Just a quick follow-up to share that since then, I have executed several hundred photo shoots in RAW mode only, and I also have gone back to nearly all my archives of older shoots and deleted all the JPEG files where the same image was also stored in RAW format. What are the results so far? I’ve recovered about 20% of my hard disk drive’s space, so everything now runs faster on my PC and I’m not always struggling to free up enough space for each day’s new shots. Furthermore, my shoots are going more smoothly because I don’t need to wait for the camera’s buffer to clear as it attempts to write both RAW and JPEG versions of each image to the memory card, and because I don’t need to change memory cards nearly as often. And I’m happy to report that thus far I have had absolutely no issues as a result of making this major change to my workflow. If you’re still shooting RAW+JPEG, now may be a good time to examine whether the extra burden is worthwhile in your own workflow. The original article from two weeks ago follows.

=======ORIGINAL POST FROM FEB. 4, 2017=======

Regular readers of To Travel Hopefully already know that I always shoot in RAW mode, and most likely you do, too. I’ve written repeatedly about the major advantages of RAW vs. JPEG format. For a refresher, here’s a good summary post on the topic: Post on RAW Mode. I concluded this previous post with a recommendation to shoot in RAW+JPEG mode, where the camera writes out the image data in both its native RAW format and in the familiar but problematic JPEG mode. Here’s the relevant paragraph from that older post:

I recommend shooting in RAW+JPEG all the time, unless you know you will need the slightly faster shooting speed or extra storage space of JPEG alone. Doing so will give you the best of both worlds: a quick and easy JPEG to share right out of the camera, and the much more detailed data in the RAW file from which to bring out the nuances in color, texture, and exposure later during post-processing. If you use JPEG alone, you’ll be throwing away image information you may wish you had later.

But right now, I’m in the middle of making a major transition in my workflow. I’ve stopped shooting in RAW+JPEG mode and am now storing my images only as RAW files. Moreover, I’m cleaning up my PC’s hard drive by revisiting many of my directories from shoots over the past few years and deleting all of the original JPEG files (obviously, I am keeping the JPEGs that I exported from Lightroom after post-processing the original RAW files).

Why would I do such a thing, you may ask? There are several major reasons:

I don’t end up using the JPEG files: Shooting in RAW+JPEG had become a crutch for me. I had been using this mode because I was afraid of not having JPEG versions of all my images, in case I decided post-processing the RAW files was too much work or if I wanted to share certain images right out of the camera. But I’ve been realizing that I never share JPEGs right after shooting. They just don’t look good enough for most professional work, so I need to post-process the good ones before delivering them to anyone. You may have clients who need to see some rough JPEGs immediately after the shoot. I know some wedding photographers who promise this immediate preview to their clients. But I don’t have this requirement, so the JPEGs were just sitting on my hard drive, unused, forever. And it’s so easy to export quick-and-dirty JPEG files from Lightroom shortly after the shoot.
Duplicate JPEG files slow down shooting: The RAW+JPEG mode tells the camera to write out two different formats for every image you shoot. This slows down your shooting by bogging down the camera’s processor, and it also fills up the camera’s buffer more quickly, requiring a disruptively long wait to resume shooting. It also fills up memory cards more quickly. While JPEG sizes vary from image to image due to compression algorithms, I find they average about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of my camera’s RAW files. That’s a lot of extra space on the memory card, so I have to stop shooting to change cards more often.
Duplicate JPEG files take up a lot of disk space: Even though my main laptop PC has a 1.5 TB hard disk drive, I find it is always filling up, which considerably slows down workflow and requires bothersome housekeeping to clean up. Storing unneeded JPEG versions of my many tens of thousands of images wastes a lot of disk space.
Those JPEGs slow down workflow: Even though Lightroom has a useful option to import only the RAW version into your catalog, and it keeps track of the duplicate JPEG version of the same image, having both files on your hard drive still slows down post-processing and image maintenance tasks.

I know that some photographers really do need to have JPEG files of their images. They may be delivering images right out of the camera via a wireless connection to a cloud server that supports only JPEG format. They may not get to post-processing for some time after the shoot and want to remember what the image looked like with the camera’s settings applied (although here one should note that Lightroom and other RAW viewers will access your camera’s settings via the thumbnail image embedded within your image’s RAW file). They may really love their camera’s black-and-white conversion tool or other in-camera editing tools, which work only with the JPEG format. There are quite a few situations in which you may truly require a JPEG version of your images. But I haven’t encountered these situations in my own recent work and don’t expect to in the foreseeable future.

So, that’s the backstory on why I’m moving from shooting RAW+JPEG to RAW only. I’m even taking the drastic step of going back to recent shoot directories on my PC and deleting the original JPEG versions of the images. I’ll report back in a few weeks to provide an update on how this works out for me. In the meantime, if you’re shooting in RAW+JPEG mode, you may also want to think about whether doing so genuinely helps your workflow or simply is wasting your resources.

Do you shoot RAW+JPEG, RAW only, or some different format? Why? Please share your experiences here.

Want to read more posts about photographic techniques? Find them all here: Posts on Techniques.

Focus on Vietnamese Tet Festival [Encore Publication]: A vibrant lunar new year celebration in America’s largest Vietnamese community

Most Americans are familiar with the Chinese New Year festivities that usher in the lunar new year in late January or early February, but most are not as aware of the Vietnamese cultural celebration of the start of the lunar year. Called Tet, the Vietnamese new year’s festival has its own distinctive, bright, and colorful symbols and traditions. By far the biggest Vietnamese community in the USA is in San Jose, California, which not coincidentally also hosts the largest Tet Festival each year in the US. I’m fortunate to live quite near San Jose, and on the day of the Tet Festival I was already collaborating with a favorite model in a studio one city north of there, so I decided to drop by and shoot the Festival. I’m very glad I did. Today’s post presents some of my favorite images from the festival in the form of a simple photo essay. I’ve included some discussion about how the images were made.

Welcome to the Tet Festival! When shooting symbolic items, always check your background and find a point-of-view that is clean and compelling. Buy this photo

An unusual cultural juxtaposition: Vietnamese belly dancing. Here I used a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion and a relatively wide aperture to soften the background. Capturing the right moment in the dance pattern is important, but it’s equally essential to capture the right facial gesture and eye contact. Buy this photo

What’s scarier than a clown? A drunken clown. This fellow came out on stage with a bottle of beer and a bottle of whiskey, both of which he proceeded to drink onstage. My wife and I suspect that this was an object lesson for the children in the audience, but we’re not certain. Buy this photo

The fashion show of people watching the fashion show on stage. Whether shooting landscapes, people, wildlife, or urban scenes, always remember to look in all directions. Sometimes the most interesting subject lies in the opposite direction from the one you thought you were shooting. Buy this photo

To capture this candid moment of young kids trying out the Vietnamese drums, I used a medium telephoto lens. Most of the time I prefer to approach subjects before photographing them, but occasionally it’s preferable to shoot first and ask questions later, so as to capture the subject without self-awareness. Buy this photo

Wearing many hats! Buy this photo

This traditional Vietnamese dance troupe performed a series of dances, each representing one of the seasons of the year. This was their Spring Dance. The vibrant colors of the costumes and props contribute greatly to this portrait. It’s also important to compose and crop the image carefully to achieve a pleasing result. Buy this photo

Summer dance. Buy this photo

I love this portrait thanks to the dancer’s look of contemplation and concentration. To make an effective portrait in spite of the cluttered background, I used a medium telephoto lens set to a wide aperture to set the subject off from the background. I also cropped the image in post-processing to remove extraneous background objects. Buy this photo

Parting shot: A favorite portrait of a traditional Vietnamese dancer. Buy this photo

What are your favorite cultural events and celebrations? Please share your thoughts on how to successfully photograph them.

Want to read more posts about what to shoot while traveling or near home? Find them all here: Posts on What to Shoot.

The Berlin Chapter [Encore Publication]: Updates on my ongoing Human/Machine Dance Project

Last summer I began a passion project in collaboration with choreographer, dancer, and Fulbright Scholar Carly Lave with the goal of exploring how the human body moves and how we humans will be transformed by increasing immersion into advanced technologies, including virtual reality, robotics, and interconnectivity. I was delighted when one of my images from this project was recognized by my being named one of three Emerging Pros in Digital Photo Pro Magazine’s biannual awards. The image was the overall winner in this international competition’s “Fashion & Beauty” category.

In an earlier post I shared a few favorite images from the California-based photo shoots that Carly and I conducted last summer. In today’s post I’ll share a few new images from our recent photo shoots conducted in Berlin, Germany, where Carly is spending the year as a Fulbright Scholar.

“Der Temporaum in Berlin: Flug”. Carly takes flight while exploring a virtual world. The very real world she inhabits here is a shared workspace for artists in a Soviet-era neighborhood of the former East Berlin. To capture the fast action of Carly’s leap, I used a fast prime lens nearly wide open so as to achieve a fast shutter speed while shooting at a relatively low ISO.

“Der Temporaum in Berlin: Tanzen”. Carly dances within a shared workspace for artists in a Soviet-era neighborhood of the former East Berlin. To create the soft, intimate feel of this portrait, I used a prime portrait lens (85mm) at a wide aperture (f/2.0) to allow the lovely light streaming through the window to illuminate Carly and to throw the background into soft focus. Composition is very important to the success of intimate portraits, so I was careful to frame Carly’s body within the lines of the window casement and using the soft white curtains to provide a pleasing and non-distracting background.

“Tempelhofer Feld I”. The virtual and physical worlds collide on a defunct runway at the pre-WWII airport of Tempelhofer, now a recreational space in the south of Berlin. Working on location in outdoor settings can be tricky and success may be dependent on weather conditions and other factors. Carly and I conducted this shoot during a gathering storm, making for a dramatic sky that complemented our theme and the industrial setting very nicely. The accompanying challenges we experienced were very high winds, shifting light, and very little time to shoot before the sky opened up in a barrage of pelting rain and hail. Fortunately we were able to “get our shot” before getting soaked to the bone. I framed this image to give prominence not only to Carly but also to the old airfield’s runway and to the stormy sky.

“Der Temporaum in Berlin: Schwarz und Weiß”. While I liked the way this image looked in color, my visual concept of the scene called for high-contrast black-and-white to give it an antique graphic-arts feel that seemed to suit the historically drab East Berlin setting. During post-processing I converted the image to monochrome and increased the contrast, adjusting the tone and color curves until I achieved just the effect I was seeking.

“Der Temporaum in Berlin: Virtuell”. Carly explores a virtual world. The very real world she inhabits here is a shared workspace for artists in a Soviet-era neighborhood of the former East Berlin. Using a fast prime lens at a very wide aperture setting, I intentionally limited the depth-of-field to such an extreme that Carly’s hands as well as the background were thrown into soft focus. I like the effect this has on leading the viewer’s eye from the outstretched arms to Carly’s head and upper body, then around to the bleak industrial background. The view thereby experiences some of the sense of exploration in the space where Carly is feeling her way.

“Tempelhofer Feld II”. This image was made in a similar fashion to the previous one at the same location, except that here I gained a different perspective by backing further away from Carly as well as crouching down to the ground. The resulting effect is one of precariousness rather than one of steadfastness in the earlier image.

I hope this behind-the-scenes peek at my ongoing passion project will help inspire your own creative process. It’s important to be personally and deeply invested in a project before you begin. Select your partner(s) carefully and plan thoroughly. Then the process becomes joyful and exhilarating as you begin to bring your concept to life!

Have you carried out a photography project? Please share your key learnings–positive and otherwise–here!

Want to read more posts about what to photography while traveling or near home? Find them all here: Posts about What to Shoot.

Under the Milky Way Tonight [Updated]: How to make great images including our home galaxy

Chile’s Atacama Desert, with its clear and dark skies and perfect latitude, makes a stunning location for capturing the Milky Way.

Not too long ago, making images of the Milky Way was not practical for most photo enthusiasts. Only astronomers and a handful of professional astrophotographers had the expensive equipment required to capture sufficient light from the cluster of quite dim stars that we refer to as the Galactic Core in the night sky. Shooting with a very long exposure didn’t do the trick for the Milky Way, because leaving the camera’s shutter open for more than about 15-30 seconds would blur each star’s image due to rotation of the Earth. These blurs, called star trails, could make for striking images with the stars appearing to streak in circles across the sky, but the subtle beauty of the Milky Way would be lost with these long exposures.

But in the last 5-10 years, camera sensors have become much more sensitive to light, and now it is possible–indeed quite easy–for photo enthusiasts to photograph our home galaxy without expensive specialized equipment.

Here’s how:

You will need a camera with a sensor that can gather a lot of light and with a shutter that can be kept open for a long time. These requirements limit the range of suitable cameras to full-frame DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, as well as a few higher-end crop-sensor cameras. You will also need a fairly fast wide-angle lens: I recommend a zoom or prime (fixed focal length) lens with a focal length of 14-16mm on a full-frame camera, and a maximum aperture of f/4 or faster. For astrophotography I most often use the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens. It’s got great image quality and is well built, and it is wide enough and fast enough for the purposes of capturing the Milky Way. For those with the financial means, buying or renting a very fast wide-angle lens such as the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 allows for gathering even more light.

You will also need a heavy, solid tripod. I’ve been successful using a lighter weight tripod for Milky Way shots while traveling, but a good professional tripod is better. I use the SLIK 615-315 with a ball head.

Finally, you’ll want to have a remote shutter release, either a hardwired cable release or a wireless remote release. This is to trigger the camera without touching it, so as to avoid blurring the image from the vibration of your touch.

Once you have the right equipment, it’s fairly straightforward to photograph the Milky Way. Choose a dark sky area, far away from the light pollution of any cities or other sources of stray nighttime light. It’s best to plan your Milky Way shoot at or within a couple of days of a new moon to further minimize extraneous light in the sky. Shoot toward the Galactic Center where the stars of the Milky Way appear brightest and most colorful. Note that the Galactic Center is not visible at all times of year at all latitudes; in many locations in the Northern Hemisphere, it is visible only during the summer months. To plan for where the GC will be on any given date and time and at any given location, I use a smartphone app called PhotoPills: PhotoPills in App Store.

While the Milky Way is lovely as a subject in its own right, a really good image also needs to include interesting foreground and/or middle-ground elements in its composition. The image below, made in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is appealing because the Milky Way is seen rising above a dramatic indigenous algarrobo tree.

The Milky Way is seen arched through the sky of the Atacama Desert above a local algarobbo tree in silhouette. Careful composition adds drama to your Milky Way images by including Earth-based subjects as well as the sky.

With your fast wide-angle lens on your full-frame camera, all mounted on your stable tripod, you are ready to shoot. Remove any filters on the lens, set your camera on full manual mode, select a fast ISO (I usually start at about 3200 and sometimes have to go even higher) and a wide aperture (f/4 or wider), and choose a shutter speed of 20-25 seconds (shorter if your lens is longer than about 18mm). You can use the 500 Rule, which states that shutter speed should be approximately 500 divided by the focal length of the lens; for example, for a 16mm lens you can use a shutter speed of not longer than about 31 seconds. Turn off your autofocus on your lens or camera, as it will not work in so dark a setting; instead, manually set your focus to a point near infinity where the stars appear sharp in your viewfinder (or better yet, on your live-view screen). I like to tape my lens to this setting before it gets dark, so I know the focus won’t change while I’m out in the field in the dark. It’s also a good idea to turn off your camera’s long-exposure noise reduction feature, if it has one, as this wastes time in the field and it’s equally effective to reduce the noise in Lightroom during post-processing. Of course, you want to be sure you are shooting RAW files.

Go ahead and shoot a lot of frames, experimenting with different ISO settings and compositions. It is often a good idea to get a very long exposure, sometimes several minutes long, so that your foreground subjects will be properly exposed. The frames with the foreground well exposed can later be combined in Photoshop with the ones in which the night sky is properly exposed.

This image was made from several frames: one long exposure for the lake, trees, and mountain in the foreground and middle-ground, and several different 25-second exposures that each captured a different meteor during the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. The resulting image shows all of these objects quite prominently, along with the Milky Way.

You may want to combine several different images to see all the features of the night sky and the terrestrial objects clearly.

In post-processing your Milky Way images, select a white balance that makes the sky and star colors appear natural, apply enough noise reduction to remove visual noise from the high ISO capture but not so much as to soften the appearance of the stars too much, and add some visual punch by painting additional contrast and clarity over the Galactic Center.

Worth the 3 AM wakeup call! A once in a lifetime opportunity to photograph the Milky Way above the iconic mo’ai on Easter Island. We had a bit of cloud cover, but overall I was very pleased with the resulting images.

With practice, you’ll find that capturing the Milky Way is within your reach, so long as you have suitable equipment and the patience required to compile enough images that a few will turn out to be successful. I believe it’s well worth the effort because a good Milky Way shot is so subtle, colorful, and strikingly beautiful. Good shooting!

Have you created a Milky Way image that you love? What were the key components to your success? What were the challenges you faced? Please share your thoughts and experiences here.

Want to read more posts about photographic techniques? Find them all here: Posts on Techniques.

Purple Mountain’s Majesty [Encore Publication]: Including mountains in your images

Whether we’re traveling halfway around the world or just a few miles from home, we travel photographers get excited about including mountains in our images. Mountainous landscapes can provide so many of the most basic elements we look for in a great photograph: beautiful light, compelling composition, exquisite textures, and an authentic sense of place. In this post we will cover some of the fundamental techniques for capturing great images of mountains.

As with most kinds of photography, it all begins with beautiful light. Whenever possible, try to shoot mountain landscapes near sunrise or sunset, or when something interesting is happening with the weather conditions. The quality of light tends to be best during these times. You’re more likely to capture lovely colors on the peaks and in the sky, and the image is more apt to give a sense of depth and drama than during the middle hours of the day.

Shooting from the deck at our lodge in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, I had to miss most of an excellent dinner to capture Lago Grey with its mountains and glaciers during the “golden hour” just before sunset. The lovely interplay of colors and textures, from the sky to the peaks and to the icebergs and water, made the resulting image worth the effort. Buy this photo

When shooting mountain landscapes, it is usually a good idea to bracket your exposure. With the camera fixed on a sturdy tripod, compose your scene and then shoot a series of images, each with a slightly different exposure. Many cameras have settings to automate the process of bracketing. The two main benefits of exposure bracketing are raising the odds you’ll have a perfectly exposed image and allowing you to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image from several different exposures. See this post for a refresher on how to use exposure bracketing: Post on Exposure Bracketing.

This HDR image of Yosemite National Park’s peaks reflected in the Merced River was created from a series of different exposures made using bracketing. The camera was mounted on a tripod and I made a series of seven shots, each one exposed 2/3 of a stop brighter than the previous one. Buy this photo

I’m often asked how to make mountain images that really “pop”. Why are some photographs of mountain landscapes so dynamic and compelling, with intriguing contrast between the peaks and the sky? Of course, there are many elements that go into the making of an excellent image, but there is a “secret sauce” that can dramatically improve many mountain images: the polarizing filter. Properly using a circular polarizing filter on your lens can emphasize the contrasting parts of the rock, snow, and/or ice on the mountains and can also add drama to the clouds and sky. Every image shown in this post was made with a polarizer. Be sure to adjust the filter by turning its outer ring until you see the effect you want to achieve. Usually this involves rotating the filter’s ring until you see the maximum polarizing effect possible and then dialing it back a little (or a lot) until you achieve a balance between added drama and a natural look. Experience helps here. Check out this post on the use of filters, including polarizers: Post on Filters.

This image of a rare lenticular cloud forming on the summit of Osorno Volcano in Argentinian Patagonia was made using a polarizing filter to bring out the cloud formation and darken the sky. Buy this photo

Mountain colors can be glorious, but also consider converting some mountain images to black-and-white during post-processing. Rendering in black-and-white can emphasize the textures on the crags and peaks of a mountain and can also lend drama to the foreground and sky. Shots captured with a polarizing filter will usually result in more intriguing monochrome images. When converting to black-and-white during post-processing, be sure to play around with the contrast and individual color channel sliders until you achieve the result you want. For more info on black-and-white photography, check out this post: Post on Black and White Photography.

This shot of a rock dome in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows area is striking when rendered in black-and-white. Buy this photo

Sometimes when we’re traveling we don’t have the option of returning to a gorgeous mountain location when the lighting is perfect. Don’t let the flat lighting of a bright mid-day sun stop you from shooting the local peaks. Great images can be made at any time of day. Just make sure to follow the main techniques outlined in this post: compose well, use a polarizing filter, and bracket your exposure.

Patagonian peaks captured on our way out of Torres del Paine National Park. Because we didn’t have the option of returning at the golden hour, I made this image in the harsh mid-day sun. With careful attention to composition and the use of a polarizing filter and exposure bracketing, I was able to make a favorite image in spite of the less than perfect lighting conditions. Buy this photo

What are your go-to methods when shooting mountain scenery? What are your favorite mountain locations? Please share your thoughts in the comment box here.

Want to see more posts about photographic techniques? Find them all here: Posts on Techniques.

Focus on Lisbon, Berlin, and Barcelona [Encore Publication]: History, architecture, and cultures yield boundless photographic opportunities

My wife and I recently returned from two weeks of travel in Europe to fulfill several of my photography assignments. I’ll publish separate posts in the coming weeks covering some of those professional assignments. In today’s post we’ll explore the vibrant capital cities of Lisbon, Berlin, and Barcelona. While each of these three cities has a personality very much its own, I’m hoping my images will demonstrate that photographing cities, like photographing people, is all about looking for what we have in common even as we celebrate our differences. Urban photography is special to me because cities are the places where history, architecture, and culture often align most dramatically to paint a full picture of how we live today. Note that all of these images and many more are available to view and, if desired, to purchase; just click on any image to view the gallery. Enjoy!

On arrival in Lisbon, we are treated to an early morning view of the old Moorish quarter of Alfama. I like to underexpose by 1-2 stops when shooting sunrises and sunsets to bring out more intensity in the colors. If in doubt, bracket your exposures and choose the one that best captures the scene as you experienced it, or combine the different exposures into a composite high dynamic range (HDR) image.

I loved the look and feel of the old streetcars plying the streets of Lisbon, so I found this picturesque spot and waited until the next tram came into view.

If you had told me one of the most amazing experiences in Lisbon is visiting a tile museum, I’d have answered it’s more exciting to watch the grass grow. But it turns out the National Azulejo (Tile) Museum is absolutely incredible from start to finish. This ornate chapel, decorated in azulejo tiles, is entirely contained within a part of the museum. When shooting interiors it is often advantageous to use a wide-angle lens, but it’s important to keep the camera level to the plane of the ground and avoid shooting upward or downward in order to avoid the severe proportional distortion that can occur in these situations. While it is possible to correct for this sort of distortion in post-processing software like Lightroom, it is preferable to get it right in-camera.

A nighttime street scene in Lisbon’s old Moorish neighborhood of Alfama. When handholding the camera in a low-light situation, especially when a small aperture is required for depth-of-field, it’s a good idea to boost the camera’s ISO sensitivity setting in order to achieve a relatively fast shutter speed.

We spent a full day exploring the Sintra region about an hour west of Lisbon, at the very far western edge of the European continent. Quinta da Regaleira is a wonderfully eccentric estate including a palace, a chapel, and several strange features adorned with symbols of alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar, and the Rosicrucians. Our favorite feature was this stone tower. I’m always on the lookout for repeating geometric patterns that often make for compelling images. It’s important to compose such shots carefully to enhance the power of the recurring pattern. I converted this image to black-and-white during postprocessing to give it a high-contrast graphic arts style look.

The Alfama neighborhood is famous as the birthplace of fado, a form of music typically performed by a solo singer accompanied by two Portuguese guitars. Fado is essentially a Portuguese version of the blues, with lyrics and melodies emphasizing the melancholy side of the culture. Most fado clubs feature extremely dim lighting to set the mood, and flash photography is strictly prohibited. This results in a technical challenge trying to capture good images. Here I used a very fast (f/1.4) prime lens almost all the way open and also boosted my camera’s ISO sensitivity setting to 6400 (as high as I like to go in order to avoid excessive digital noise), but still the required shutter speed was a rather slow 1/15 second. Instead of trying to capture the moving singer in tack-sharp fashion, I leaned into the mood of the place and allowed some motion blur to occur.

On our final day in Lisbon we explored Belem, an historic Medieval parish most well known for its medieval tower. Again, when shooting architecture with a wide-angle lens, try to shoot with the camera parallel to the ground to avoid distortion of the vertical lines. I also underexposed this image a bit to make for a more dramatic sky, recovering some of the shadow detail in post-processing.

Enjoying the Lisbon obsession, the sublime custard pastry known as Pastel de Belém, at the cafe that invented them (well, the recipe was probably borrowed from the Jerónimos Monastery next door). Food is a key part of any people’s culture, so I like to capture food scenes as part of every urban shoot. Insofar as possible, I try to arrange the various elements on the table so they tell a story in the frame of the image. Here I removed some of the items that cluttered the background, including just the pastries and the local coffee drinks. I try not to shoot straight down onto the food, as that usually results in unappealing shots. With food photography, some work is usually required in post-processing to adjust color temperatures and remove distractions like dirt and shadows.

After our stay in Lisbon, we enjoyed an unforgettable two days on assignment shooting the annual Mardi Gras Carnival festivities on the Poruguese owned island of Madeira. Those images will be featured in a separate post. Then, onward to Berlin. Our hotel was right next to the infamous Checkpoint Charlie section of the old Berlin Wall, shown here.

No visit to Berlin would be complete without passing through the stately neoclassical Brandenburg Gate. It can be very challenging to get a clean shot of very crowded iconic urban sites. Here I fitted a wide-angle lens, composed the shot looking straight toward the gate without pointing the camera up or down, and waited until nearly all of the tourists had left the frame. Some straightening of the vertical and horizontal lines still had to be done in post-processing to avoid the perspective distortion introduced by the very wide focal length.

Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial takes up a large city block and requires some time to take in and explore. To capture this large, powerful, and rather imposing monument, I composed using a moderately wide lens stopped down to a small aperture for maximum depth-of-field and keeping the horizon line with the background buildings completely straight. I converted to black-and-white in post-processing to achieve a stately, somber feel.

On our way home from Berlin, we had an overnight layover in Barcelona. With time in town for only one dinner and a bit of nighttime and morning sightseeing, we enjoyed Catalonian tapas for an authentic local dining experience. I arranged the stuffed pasta and wine glass in a pleasing pattern against the simple background of the wooden table and cropped the image to emphasize the food and wine without distractions. The color temperature usually needs to be adjusted during post-processing to give the food and beverage a realistic color.

Exploring Gaudí’s masterpiece, the cathedral known as La Sagrada Familia, at night. When shooting really iconic sites, I like to seek out unusual perspectives to avoid the dreaded “postcard shot”. Here I composed looking up from near the base of one of the towers, allowing the background to be filled by the dark night sky. This composition cleaned up most of the busy urban scene’s clutter and made for a dramatic capture of the basilica bathed in several types of light.

We had only 90 minutes to visit the interior of La Sagrada Familia before heading to Barcelona’s airport to fly home to San Francisco. I shot this self-portrait (Mary is also included) using a mirror positioned so visitors could view the soaring interior space of La Sagrada Familia.

I hope you enjoyed these favorite images from three great European cities, along with my descriptions of how the images were made. To view more images, or perhaps to purchase a few, just click on any of the photos to go to the gallery.

What are your favorite techniques or images from your urban photography? Do you have urban themes you like to document wherever you travel? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Want to read more posts about travel photography destinations? Find them all here: http://www.to-travel-hopefully.com/category/destinations/.

Focus on Morocco [Encore Publication]: A visual feast for all the senses

Iconic Moroccan scene: No visit to the Sahara Desert would be complete without experiencing a dromedary ride across the sand dunes. Ever try to photograph while clinging on for dear life atop the lurching single hump of a dromedary? I have. The best advice for shooting in situations like this one is to preset your camera to a very fast shutter speed in order to freeze the motion, use your camera’s or lens’s stabilization feature, and capture a few bursts of many shots in quick succession. You’re unlikely to get any award-winning photos while traveling on camelback, but using these tips you can at least capture some of the adventure of the experience.

My wife and I recently returned from a lovely adventure traveling through Morocco. OAT’s Morocco Sahara Odyssey itinerary took us from the administrative capital of Rabat to the ancient cultural capital of Fez, to the thrilling and otherworldly Sahara Desert including a stay in a luxurious private tented camp nestled among the sand dunes, into the High Atlas Mountains, then on to the quintessential overload experience for all the senses that is Marrakesh, and finally to fabled Casablanca. Throughout this adventure we had the opportunity to meet and learn from local Moroccan people of diverse backgrounds and trades. Morocco is a special destination for photographers of all levels: whether you’re shooting with 40 pounds of professional gear (and the backache to prove it) or just using your phone’s camera, this is an adventure that will engage your creativity to capture sweeping desert landscapes, street scenes among the vibrant and bustling souks, ancient cityscapes, lovely portraits, and exotic wildlife.

Our Moroccan adventure began in the capital city, Rabat. Rabat boasts a twelfth-century mosque and minaret that would have been the world’s largest had they been completed.

When strolling through any city I’m always on the lookout for interesting patterns of color and texture. This bustling urban scene impressed me with its repeating pattern of blue taxicabs framed by manicured palm trees and whitewashed buildings.

From Rabat we traveled to ancient Fez, with its rich Moroccan cultural legacy.

At a souk (marketplace) in the old part of Fez, a vendor prepares thin layers of dough for cooking. Many photographers expect Morocco to be a challenging destination for portraiture because some of its people hold to traditional beliefs and would prefer not to be photographed. We found this to be only partly true. As in any other country, in Morocco one should always ask permission before shooting closeup photos including any person. But in today’s Morocco, particularly in urban settings, people have smartphones and are quite accustomed to being photographed. Your trip experience leader can act as a local “fixer,” helping introduce us to the people we meet and translating for us to help pave the way for photography. But with or without a local guide, the traveler who makes an effort to get to know their subject first is likely to be rewarded with a richer understanding of the local culture and some lovely portraits by which to remember its people.

Traditional leather dyeing process at a tannery in Fez. The tannery staff take pride in continuing to employ natural methods as opposed to the chemical processes used by most modern tanneries. As we looked down on the dyeing vats from the roof of the tannery’s adjacent four-story shop building, I was struck by the stunning array of vibrant colors. I used a moderate telephoto lens to compose the image and underexposed the shot by one stop to concentrate the saturation of the colors.

Our intrepid group poses wearing traditional Moroccan turbans at the caravansary, an ancient rest stop along the trade route where camels were fed and sheltered on the ground floor while their people were taken care of on the upper floors. It’s always fun to capture some shots of the entire group while traveling. Here, I used a wide-angle lens to include everyone along with the surroundings, a technique referred to as an environmental portrait. The trick when photographing people through a wide-angle lens is to keep the lens exactly level to the ground rather than pointing it up or down, which causes unflattering distortion.

After spending several days in Fez, we traveled through the Middle Atlas Mountains into the Sahara Desert. The stark, otherworldly features of the desert were a highlight of the trip. Far from being a desolate and lifeless place, the Sahara is teeming with flora and fauna and home to some of the friendliest people we’ve met.

Traveling through the Middle Atlas Mountains between Fez and Erfoud, we stopped to view Barbary apes in their habitat in a cedar forest within a national park. Tips for better wildlife photography include using a long telephoto lens to allow shooting from a safe distance so as not to endanger you or your subject, selecting a high ISO setting and a fast shutter speed, and grabbing a burst of many shots so as to increase the chances of walking away with at least one really good one.

Meet Moha, whose father many years ago found ground water just below a seemingly lifeless patch of land in the Sahara Desert and decided to plant there. Moha, shown here with his granddaughter, took over the farm from his father and now tends to more than 150 date trees. He showed us his entire impressive operation. When making portraits of two people, it’s best to wait for them to relax and then to catch the moments when they are interacting with each other and not the camera. I used a wide aperture setting (small f-stop number) to soften the background, which helps emphasize the people in the foreground.

Hiking to the top of a massive sand dune near our tented camp to enjoy happy hour, I captured this landscape photo of a Saharan sunset. Not all landscapes need to be photographed using a wide-angle lens. In this case I wanted to compress the apparent distance between the far-off layers of dunes, so I used a moderate telephoto lens. Underexposing by one stop helped concentrate the colors in this scene.

Sand surfing down from our perch on the dunes. Because this photo was shot in almost total darkness well after sunset, I had to boost my camera’s ISO sensitivity setting. This allowed the use of a small enough aperture (high f-stop number) to keep the whole scene in sharp focus and a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action.

Spectacular night sky in the middle of the Sahara Desert featuring a brilliant Milky Way and a meteorite above rolling sand dunes. Because our private tented camp was situated in a remote spot among the dunes, I had only to walk a few steps from our tent to find a dark-sky location for night photography. Today’s cameras are much better at capturing nighttime scenes, but there are still some complexities in getting your shot: use a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release to keep your camera stationary, employ a wide-angle lens to include more of the sky, focus manually so that the stars appear sharp, and select a fast ISO setting and wide aperture (small f-stop number) to allow a shutter speed of no longer than twenty seconds. A longer exposure risks that the stars will move during your shot.

This region of the Sahara is known for its Gnawa musicians. Originally from Sub-Saharan Africa, their ancestors escaped slavery and migrated north, bringing ancient folk traditions with them. Today pre-Islamic and more modern musical forms are integrated into their performances. The famous photojournalist Robert Capa once said, “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” This is not universally true but it’s certainly a helpful reminder when shooting portraits that we shouldn’t be afraid to get really close to our subjects—assuming we have their permission and we’re not disrupting their activities. I used my go-to portrait lens, a moderate (85mm) telephoto prime (non-zoom) lens with a very wide aperture (very low f-stop number) to be able to get this closeup without disturbing the performance. The wide aperture allows a faster shutter speed to freeze the motion and also softens the background so that the drummer’s features are emphasized.

We had a chance meeting with Aicha as she carried a tree she planned to use for firewood through the alleys of the village of Tinjdad. Our wonderful trip experience leader Mohammed broke the ice by asking Aicha some questions about her life and her activities that day. She had quite a few questions for us, too, and found the interaction to be very amusing. With her permission I made this delightful portrait that expresses her wisdom and curiosity about the people she has just met.

En route from the Sahara to the ancient and chaotic city of Marrakesh, we visited several villages and met some of their people.

An eleventh-century village and fortress that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For village scenes, I find it’s helpful to look for a while without the camera and wait for an interesting visual story to come to mind. Only then do I choose the right focal length lens to tell the story. There are many ways to photograph an historical place, so be sure to find a story that has meaning to you.

In the village of Asfalu, Ahmed and his wife Leila welcomed us into their home. I love this portrait of one of their daughters, 13-year-old Nouhayla. After getting to know each other, she agreed to pose for the photo and I suggested we move into the courtyard outside their home where there was an uncluttered background. The background is at least as important as the foreground subject when composing a photo, so don’t be shy about moving your subject.

Marrakesh is a place unlike any other. Its ancient souks inhabit the narrow alleys of the medina (old city). Jemaa el-Fnaa Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of town, bustles day and night with thousands of visitors from near and far.

We enjoyed coffee at a café atop a nearby building and were afforded a panoramic view at sunset over Jemaa el-Fnaa Square. Any camera yields great results when photographing a scene this vibrant and lively. Just choose a composition that speaks to you and fire away. I do recommend checking that the horizon line is level while composing your shot, as it’s easy to get carried away with the excitement of the scene and to shoot with an uneven horizon.

One of countless thousands of vendor stalls along the labyrinthine alleys of Marrakesh’s medina. I was intrigued by the array of identically shaped jars, each with its own vibrantly colored contents. To ensure the lines of the shelves were not distorted, I used a medium telephoto lens and shot from slightly further back. Wide-angle lenses have the effect of distorting parallel lines unless great care is taken when composing the photo.

A few travelers from our group used our free time to hike among the hill towns of the Imlil Valley in the High Atlas Mountains. We were afforded glorious views of nearby villages as we trekked along the narrow trails. This scene of a village at the base of the mountain appeared around a bend in the trail.

A beautiful tagine (Moroccan stew) served at lunch during our hike. We were amazed by the flavor and appearance of this dish, especially given our location at a tiny rooftop café in a remote mountain village. Capturing photos of food is rarely easy and certainly was a challenge in dazzlingly bright sunlight. I moved the tagine under a canopy, positioned a black placemat behind it, and shot from an oblique angle to bring out the contrasting colors and textures in the dish. During post-processing, I cropped a bit more tightly and darkened the background to make it completely black.

Leaving Marrakesh behind, we traveled to Casablanca, our final stop before returning home.

The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is the world’s third-largest mosque, accommodating 105,000 worshipers. Only the mosques in Mecca and Medina are bigger. Photographing very large and tall buildings poses a challenge. To include the whole structure a very wide-angle lens is required, but if the camera is tilted up or down even a little bit, the lines of the building are distorted. Here I used an ultrawide lens but ensured the camera was kept exactly level to the ground to minimize distortion.

You can see more of my images from our Morocco adventure here: https://www.kadlerphotography.com/Travel-Photography/Morocco.

Have you traveled and photographed in Morocco? Please share your experiences, and images, by commenting on this post!

Focus on Yellowstone and Grand Teton [Enore Publication]: The oldest national park in the US remains one of the best photographic destinations

My last visit to Yellowstone National Park and its nearby cousin Grand Teton National Park was in June of 2011, and I am long overdue for a return trip. These two gems of the US National Park system are among the world’s best photographic destinations. Featuring an amazing array of mountain scenery, geothermal activity, wildlife, and human cultural records, Yellowstone and Grand Teton are, simply put, indispensable destinations for travel photographers. In today’s post, let’s look at a few of my favorite images from the 2011 trip and discuss how they were made. While the parks haven’t changed too much over the past six years, the state of the art of photographic gear certainly has changed a great deal. Today’s cameras and lenses will afford photographers even more options for capturing the remarkable beauty of these parks.

Yellowstone N.P. has more geothermal activity than any other region of the world, and this activity manifests itself in many fascinating ways. The Mammoth Terraces area of the park is known for its gloriously delicate and colorful silica terraces, including the one in this image. For a great landscape image, it’s best to combine the main subject (here, the silica terraces) with striking foreground and/or background elements (here, the Teton Mountain Range, behind). I used a circular polarizing filter to bring out the drama in the sky and the highlights in the mountain range, but I dialed back the polarizing effect a bit so as not to eliminate the gorgeous reflections in the pools. Buy this photo

Yellowstone and Grand Teton N.P.’s are filled with fascinating wildlife, including American bison, elk, wolf, coyote, marmot, osprey, and many other mammal and bird species. Here I’ve captured (in images, of course) an intrepid coyote that cut across our hiking trail. For striking wildlife portraits, it’s best to use a medium to long telephoto lens so as not to have to get so close as to stress the animal (or risk your own safety). Tack-sharp focus is important, and I always strive to frame the subject with as uncluttered a background as possible. Buy this photo

Photographs that tell stories are perennial favorites. I love the humor apparent in this image, which tells the story of a standoff between a large male bison and two park rangers attempting to shepherd a convoy of park visitors across the field to an interpretive nature program and barbecue dinner. At the time this photo was made, the bison was winning. Buy this photo

Just as in a portrait of a person, a wildlife portrait should capture the spirit of the subject. This large marmot was sitting up as if to get a better look at us. His expression is both comical and wise. To maximize the chances of capturing just the right expression and position, frame the subject first, set the proper focus and exposure, and then shoot continuously for several seconds. Buy this photo

The quaint Chapel of the Transfiguration, located amidst some of the world’s most lovely mountain scenery in Grand Teton N.P., is a wonderful photographic subject. Here I framed the Tetons in the chapel’s window and fired an off-camera speedlight to illuminate the walls and altar of the church. Buy this photo

The iconic Moulton Barn sits on a field in Grand Teton N.P. with the glory of the Teton Mountain Range arrayed behind it. This landscape image was made with great care to ensure a pleasing composition including barn, mountains, and cloudy sky, as well as to expose for the wooden texture of the barn. A small aperture (high F-stop number) was used to keep the entire scene in focus. I used a polarizing filter to bring out the drama in the sky and mountains, as well as to concentrate the lovely green and blue colors. The scene was further enhanced to achieve a pleasing balance through tone and saturation adjustments in post-processing. Buy this photo

I was drawn to the texture and patterns of the cracked muddy ground in a geothermal area of Yellowstone N.P. Composing the image to include just enough of the pattern as well as leading lines to draw the eye downrange, I converted it to black-and-white and made adjustments to contrast and tonal range in post-processing. Buy this photo

Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring is a breathtaking feature that is almost impossible not to photograph well. That said, there are techniques to capture it in all its glory. Grand Prismatic Spring is one of the world’s few iconic subjects that is best photographed in the harsh light of mid-day, when the reflection from the direct sun most vibrantly brings out the array of colors. Unless you can shoot it from above, looking directly down on the spring, it is best to include some foreground and background elements other than the spring itself, to provide context. Here, I framed the spring through some lodgepole pine trees and included some forests and mountains in the background. Buy this photo

Every visitor to Yellowstone N.P. will stop to observe some geyser eruptions. But instead of just shooting straight on during mid-day into the eruption of a famous geyser like Old Faithful, seek out some of the lesser-known geysers at sunrise and sunset, and compose to include compositional elements other than the eruption itself. This image, a favorite of mine, was made on a geyser basin at sunset. I set up the camera on a steady tripod, set the exposure for a wide depth-of-field, and composed the scene to include the cracked earth and and the reflection of the sunset and eruption within the pools of sulfurous water. Buy this photo

I can hardly wait to return to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks! I’m even more eager to visit during the winter than during the much more crowded summer months. The rich array of scenery, wildlife, and otherworldly geothermal features elevate these parks to the pinnacle of travel photography destinations.

Have you visited Yellowstone and Grand Teton? What did you find most remarkable? What do you recommend your fellow travel photographers shoot while there, and what techniques do you use? Please share your comments here.

Want to read other posts about travel photography destinations around the world? Find them all here: Posts on Destinations.

I Feel Like a Kid in a Candy Store [Encore Publication]: Capturing the spectacular SF Movement Arts Festival

Note: If you live in the SF Bay Area, please plan to attend the 2020 installment of this amazing event on January 24 at Grace Cathedral.

As an official photographer once again for this year’s SF Movement Arts Festival, I look forward to the privilege and pleasure of capturing images of most of the more than 300 talented and diverse performers who will participate in this year’s version of this amazing event. If you live in the SF Bay Area, please plan to attend this coming Friday, January 24.

This epic event of breathtaking beauty and scope brings together many of my favorite choreographers and dancers–those with whom I collaborate throughout the year, their younger students, and some who I’ve never met before–representing a tremendous range of movement practices and dance styles, and throws them all into the grand interior spaces of San Francisco’s iconic Grace Cathedral. My assignment, truly a labor of love, is to stay all day and all night: for the rehearsals, side photo shoots, and the performance, in an effort to capture images of nearly every performer in the festival. Truly, I feel like a kid in a candy store, having the opportunity to make images with so many amazing movement practitioners in this ethereal space, all in one day.

Today’s post, presented as a simple photo essay, shares some of my favorite images from this mind-boggling event. All I will add in the way of technical notes are a few points my regular readers will already know to expect from me:

When shooting fast-moving action in a relatively dark space, use as fast a lens as you can given your focal length needs, boost your camera’s ISO sensitivity setting to as high as you can get away with, and choose an aperture as wide as possible given the depth-of-field you seek
Choose a shutter speed that is fast enough to freeze the performers’ movement, unless you’re intending to create an artistic motion blur
Watch your backgrounds: what’s behind your main subject is as or more important than your subject itself, so try to choose a pleasing or less distracting background whenever possible, and keep your horizons level
Compose your images with an eye toward putting your viewer within the performance to experience the beauty, athleticism, and grace first-hand
Shoot lots of images because the performers’ body postures, gestures, and facial expressions will change in an instant and you want to be sure to capture a few frames that bring out their very best.

You can view and purchase all of the images in this post, and many more, by visiting my web gallery here: SFMAF Photo Gallery .

I hope you’ve enjoyed this small sampler of images from the incredible SF Movement Arts Festival. You can view and purchase all of these and many more by visiting my web gallery here: SFMAF Photo Gallery .

Do you have a favorite festival or cultural event that inspires and excites you so thoroughly that you feel you could photograph it every day? What are your go-to techniques for capturing images at these events? Please share your thoughts here!

Focus on Turkey [Encore Publication]: Spectacular photographic opportunities abound in this troubled nation

In the fall of 2015, my wife and I traveled throughout Turkey on a 2.5-week journey that included adventures in Istanbul, Cappadocia, the Turquoise Coast, and Ephesus. We traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) in the company of a local Turkish trip leader, and we had a wonderful, safe experience. In today’s post I share our experiences and some of my favorite images from this spectacular but troubled nation.

First, a few words about safety. Even when we traveled in September and October of 2015, there were concerns about the safety of travel in Turkey. We did not visit the far southeastern regions of Turkey due to the ongoing violence between various factions from ISIS, Kurdish separatist groups, and the Turkish government. There was a bombing with many casualties in Ankara while we were visiting a different part of Turkey. Since our trip, the situation has deteriorated as a result of an escalating crisis in and around the border with Syria, terrorist actions throughout the country, and the broad government crackdown in the wake of the attempted coup earlier this year. OAT, the company we traveled with, has since suspended all of their trips to Turkey. Tourism in Turkey is being devastated by the concerns of safety on the ground.

So why would anyone want to go to Turkey? The cultural, historic, and natural appeals of this destination are undeniable. It is a travel photographer’s paradise. And safety is a relative term. I’ve traveled in over 100 countries and many of them were considered “unsafe” when I visited, but my only two close encounters with real terrorism were in supposedly “safe” cities: a bombing in Tokyo and a mass shooting in Los Angeles. I felt safer in Turkey late last year than I do in many other parts of the world. That said, the situation on the ground has deteriorated since I visited, tours to Turkey are becoming hard to find, and only you can decide on your tolerance for risk. So perhaps wait for more order to return to Turkey before traveling there to make your own images, but in any case you can enjoy my images from this fascinating and gloriously beautiful part of the world.

Our adventure began in Istanbul, an ancient city situated at the border between Europe and Asia. Its place as a crossroads of history from Roman times through the Byzantine Era, the Ottoman Empire, and the modern Turkish republic is apparent as you stroll its winding streets and ply its crowded waterways. The are opportunities to make great images everywhere in the city.

Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, the foremost Byzantine church, is nearly 1500 years old. When shooting grand architectural sites from up-close, it’s a challenge to try to avoid distortion due to perspective and the necessity of using a wide-angle lens. Here I kept the horizon level with the ground to avoid excessive distortion. Buy this photo

The best baklava in Istanbul? Perhaps. I certainly didn’t taste any better baklava in the city, and believe me, I tried a lot of baklava. To make this portrait, I asked our trip leader to introduce me to the baker, who was happy to pose with his wares. This was shot with natural light and just a touch of fill flash. Buy this photo

View of the Galata Tower from across the Bosphorous. Buy this photo

After Istanbul, we traveled to the central region of Cappadocia, famous for its “fairy chimneys,” natural spires formed by the erosion of soft tufa rock. This region is a veritable dream for travel photographers!

Upon arriving in Cappadocia, we were thrilled to learn our hotel room was inside an ancient cave dwelling. (Not to worry, it had been recently remodeled.) When shooting interiors, it’s usually best to use a fast wide-angle lens and to compose the image carefully so as to gain the viewing perspective you want. Buy this photo

The Goreme Open Air Museum comprises dozens of ancient Byzantine churches carved out of the tufa rock. Remember to capture some images that include yourself and your travel companions. Refer to this post for more practical tips about making great self-portraits while traveling: Post on Self Portraits. To make this image, I set up the camera on a lightweight travel tripod, composed it by having my wife stand in front of the “fairy chimney” church, then joined her in the frame and triggered the camera using a remote release. Buy this photo

The soft tufa stone formations look almost like sand dunes in the late afternoon glow. I shot in RAW mode (as always!) and underexposed slightly to allow for a higher-contrast image during post-processing. Careful cropping also helps a striking landscape really pop. Buy this photo

We awoke at 5:30 AM to the sight out our cave-hotel’s window of hundreds of hot air balloons launching about the fairy chimneys. I jumped out of bed, barely remembering to throw some clothes on, before running out the our balcony to set up a tripod and capture this amazing scene. I exposed for the rock formations and allowed the balloons to be partially silhouetted. Buy this photo

We visited a school in the region, always a favorite activity during our travels. While I also made quite a few images in the classrooms with the kids and teachers, I like the unusual perspective in this image. It was shot from outside the school building as the kids came to the windows to wave goodbye. Buy this photo

We took a very memorable hot air balloon ride at dawn over Cappadocia’s otherworldly landscape. I made this image looking down from our gondola at three other balloons in various stages of preparing to launch. The amphitheaters of soft tufa rock can be seen in the middle-ground and the rising sun in the far background. Buy this photo

At a rug-weaving cooperative, this woman enjoys a cup of Turkish coffee during her break. I was drawn by her colorful clothes and enigmatic smile. I asked our trip leader to introduce us and inquire if it was okay for me to make a portrait. Shooting quickly with natural light only, no time to set up a tripod, and a too-slow lens mounted on the camera, I had to boost the ISO setting quite high. Fortunately, I was able to reduce much of the noise in the image during post-processing. Buy this photo

Hiking up to the top of Uchisar Castle, the highest elevation in Cappadocia. Buy this photo

We had the chance to watch a whirling dervish ceremony. The Samazens, followers of Mevlana Rumi, are a mystical Sufi order who practice the ritual we witnessed. To capture the sense of motion, I used a slower shutter speed to blur the participants. Buy this photo

The Mevlana Museum houses the monastery and tomb of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, the mystic who founded the “Whirling Dervish” sect. This image captures the incredible workmanship on the interior of the monastery, especially around Rumi’s tomb. Flashes and tripods are not allowed inside the tomb, so I had to use a fast lens and high ISO setting to handhold the camera. Buy this photo

We departed Cappadocia and drove to Antalya, the gateway to the southern Mediterranean region known as the Turquoise Coast. Antalya boasts an ancient Roman harbor and a fascinating archaeological museum.

We happened upon an interesting scene when several archaeologists and their students attempted to match a recently excavated statuary head to a body already in the museum. Always be on the lookout for serendipitous scenes, which often make the most memorable images from a trip. Buy this photo

These Lycian house-tombs were carved into the cliffs centuries before the Romans arrived at Myra. Buy this photo

We boarded our gulet, a traditional Turkish wooden sailing yacht, for a four-day cruise along the Turquoise Coast. Each day offered a wonderful photographic tapestry of great images, as we sailed, hiked, swam, and dined.

Kayakoy is a ghost town, a Greek village abandoned when the Turks expelled Greeks after their war for independence in the early 20th century. Turks living in Greece were also expelled the same year. Buy this photo

My wife Mary spotted this rare wildcat, which looked to us a bit like our local Californian bobcat, along one of our daily hikes. I changed lenses very quickly while slowly approaching the cat, then captured this portrait using a medium telephoto just moments before he slipped into the brush. Buy this photo

A riverboat took us from our gulet yacht to the ancient Lycian site of Caunos. This image of a beautiful kingfisher along the side of the river was captured using a long telephoto lens and a fast shutter speed to allow for handholding the camera on a rocking boat. Buy this photo

On our last full day in Turkey, we finally got to visit the splendid ruins of Ephesus, a major Roman city in the region.

The ruins at Ephesus include the incomparable Library of Celsus, pictured here in a self-portrait of my wife and me. To achieve the broad depth-of-field required to ensure both the people and the buildings were in sharp focus, I used a small aperture (large F-stop number). Major archaeological sites are often packed with other visitors, so try to find vantage points that allow the crowds to appear small in comparison to your main subjects. Buy this photo

Throughout Turkey, the food was vibrant, simple, and delicious. Our final day’s lunch, in a beautiful village in the mountains, consisted of course after course of delightful meze (appetizers). Buy this photo

Turkey is a remarkable destination for travel photography. Let us hope its current troubles will soon be a thing of the past and that safe and affordable travel will again be available there.

Have you visited Turkey? What were your most memorable experiences there? Please share your thoughts here.

Want to read more posts about travel photography destinations? Find them all here: Posts on Destinations.

Focus on Balaknama [Encore Publication]: Making portraits that go beyond documentation to help Delhi’s street kids

During a recent trip through the north of India, I had the opportunity to meet with the advisors and some of the young staff at the Balaknama Newspaper, a project to empower the street kids of New Delhi. I’ve long been interested in the plight of the street kids who live in Delhi’s sprawling slums and have historically been terribly mistreated at the hands of exploitative child labor bosses, a corrupt police force, and often their own abusive families, so this visit was important to me personally. In this post I share some of the images I made of the kids who risk their own safety to expose the abuses against the young people in their community, and I also discuss how to go beyond the purely documentary function of portrait photography to give your portraits more power.

The images I share here are published with permission from Balaknama’s editor and the NGO who supports the project. However, I will not share the location of the offices nor the real names of the kids who work there, in order to protect their identities.

The power of a portrait to advocate for social change depends primarily on its ability to go beyond simple documentation and to reveal the personality, background, and/or motivation of the subject. For this shoot, I wanted to convey the passion and bravery of the young reporters. I shot with available light only (no flash) in order to capture the intimate and urgent mood of the work the kids are doing. I used several lenses for different perspectives, but most of the images were made using a fast prime portrait lens. My shooting perspective was from a low angle so as not to give the appearance of looking down on the subjects. People appear more empowered when the camera observes them from the perspective of their peers–it should appear as though the viewer is a part of the conversation.

This 17-year-old reporter is also the primary organizer of more than 10,000 of Delhi’s street kids. I wanted to capture her intensity and focus in this portrait, so I got in close with a medium-length portrait lens and shot from the perspective of a participant in the conversation. A wide aperture (low F-stop number) is helpful to isolate the subject from the background. Buy this photo

The “decisive moment.” I shot several frames of this young reporter as he described the horrific abuses of his peers in the slums of New Delhi, in order to maximize the chances of capturing just the right instant. I love this image, which to me appears to emulate the drama and body language of Francisco Goya’s famous painting, “The Executions of the Third of May, 1808”.

This powerful portrait has a painterly feel and freezes the tension and drama of the harrowing stories retold by the young reporter. Buy this photo

The interaction between the students at the newspaper is an important theme. Here I worked to capture the girls’ engagement with each other and with the overall discussion. Buy this photo

Language barriers are less important than many photographers believe them to be. A simple “thumbs-up” gesture evoked a playful response from these young Balaknama staffers, providing a light moment during the intensity of our conversation. Buy this photo

As I’ve often written in To Travel Hopefully, it’s important to remember to include your own group in some of your images. While I most likely won’t publish this image in my stories about Balaknama, I am happy to have this documentation of my fellow travelers as we interacted with the students and staff at the newspaper.

For large group shots in tight spaces, use a wide-angle lens. This was shot with a Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens at its widest setting, giving the viewer a sense of the setting as well as the people there. Buy this photo

I wanted to capture a final portrait of the two primary student organizers as we left the newspaper’s offices, so I asked them to pose together during our walk through the neighborhood. This gives a sense of the environment in which they live and work. I got in close using a wide aperture to soften the background, but I also chose a background that would inform the viewer about the kids’ environment. Buy this photo

Do you have techniques for making powerful portraits that go beyond pure documentation to advocate for the people and causes in the images? Please share your thoughts here!

Want to read more posts about what and how to shoot while traveling? Find them all here: Posts on What to Shoot.

When You Get Back Home [Encore Publication]: An introduction to the essentials of postprocessing

You may want to share some of your favorite images with friends and family right out of the camera while you’re still traveling, and as long as you’re not sharing so broadly that potential thieves may be alerted to your absence from home, that’s a fine thing to do. To enable immediate and easy sharing, you can choose the setting available on many cameras to shoot both RAW and JPG files; the JPG images will often look pretty decent for sharing when they come straight from the camera, and you still have your much more detailed image data saved in the RAW files.

But when you get home from your trip, it’s worth making the effort to catalog and post-process the RAW files of your favorite images so that they will look their very best and so you will be organized for finding them in the future. I’ll cover how to organize your catalog of images in a later post, but for now let’s take a look at the essentials of post-processing.

There are many software applications available to perform these tasks, but I strongly encourage you to check out Adobe Lightroom. I use this tool, and nearly all professional and enthusiast photographers I know also use it. You can license it along with other Adobe software on a pay-per-month basis as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud, but it can also be purchased with a perpetual license (i.e., you purchase the software once and can use it forever), which is how I acquired it.

Once you have Lightroom installed on your PC, it’s easy to import your images from your camera’s memory card or from your PC’s hard drive and to organize your catalog of images using the software’s Library module. When your images are in your Lightroom catalog, the software allows you to perform all post-processing you desire using its Develop module. After shooting the image, my second-favorite part of the digital photography process is enhancing the the image in the Develop module. The software package even gets its name, Lightroom, as the new digital equivalent of the work we older photographers formerly had to do in the darkroom, such as dodging, burning, and cropping our film negatives to get the images looking their best.

As an example of how a little post-processing can dramatically enhance an image, let’s take a look at a night shot I made of Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament. Here’s the “Before” picture:

Lightroom’s Develop module

The beauty of Lightroom’s method is that it doesn’t actually change your original image files as you edit them. Instead Lightroom saves a roadmap of the various edits you make and stores this list of adjustments along with a pointer to the original file. This is called “non-destructive editing”, and it allows you to edit your images to your heart’s content without overwriting or changing the originals at all. You can go back as many times as you want later to revisit your edits and change them again and again.

Let’s look at this process in more detail. Here is the basic Lightroom Develop module screen:

lightroom develop module

The left bar shows a thumbnail of the image you’re working on and a list of the most recent edits you have made. The central part of the screen shows a larger version of your image and this can be zoomed in and out to work on details or the whole image. The right bar has a histogram (a graph showing how many pixels in the image are at each brightness level from totally black to totally white) at the top, then a toolbar from which you can choose some of the editing tools quickly, and then a large area with sliders (only some of which are shown in this screenshot) that you move left or right to adjust various elements of your image. The editing tools in Lightroom are comprehensive enough that I find I very rarely need to import an image into Adobe Photoshop to make really sophisticated edits; nearly all of the time, I can perform all of my post-processing using only Lightroom.

Some photographers spend a lot of time making major enhancements to their images, but I like to try to adjust my camera’s settings precisely enough that the image is made in the camera the way I envisioned it when shooting, so that I need to make only minor adjustments in post-processing. While the exact steps of post-processing will be different for every image, here is my basic workflow (note that for the most part, I work from the top to the bottom of the adjustment tools found in the right bar):

Adjust the white balance as needed. Remember my advice to always shoot in RAW mode. One of the advantages of RAW files is that you can adjust the white balance in post-processing, regardless of what your camera’s white balance controls were set for while you were shooting the image. In JPG files you have much less control over the white balance after the fact. Just choose a different preset white balance type (such as Daylight, Shade, or Flash) from Lightroom’s menu, or create a custom white balance yourself.
Adjust the exposure as needed. Use the histogram and the image preview pane to lighten or darken the whole image until it looks best.
Adjust the contrast as needed. Increasing contrast gives more separation between the darkest and lightest portions of the image, while decreasing contrast does the opposite. I find that most images require the contrast to be increased slightly to moderately.
Adjust the highlights and shadows as needed. Highlights are the brighter parts of the image, and I find that often these need to be reduced in brightness to regain some detail that may have been lost in the camera. Shadows are the darker parts of the image, and often these need to be made brighter to bring out lost shadow detail. After the highlights and shadows have been adjusted, you may need to adjust the whites and blacks (very brightest and very darkest points in your image) if there are extremes of contrast present. Most of the time I do not need to change the white and black points.
Adjust the clarity as needed. The clarity slider changes the contrast of the middle tones (neither the darker nor the lighter parts) of the image. Usually images need a subtle increase in clarity to bring out the details in the texture. Don’t overuse this tool or the image can become unnatural looking.
Adjust the vibrance and/or saturation as needed. Both of these sliders will change the concentration of the colors in your image, but vibrance tries to avoid changing the color of skin tones so images with people will often look more natural after increasing the vibrance than after increasing saturation. Occasionally you might need to make adjustments to both vibrance and saturation, but usually I find a subtle increase in vibrance is sufficient. Again, don’t overuse these tools or your image will start to look exaggerated and surreal (unless you’re going for those effects).
Adjust the concentration of individual colors as needed. Each color channel has its own slider to increase or decrease its saturation. I don’t use these sliders often, but occasionally you may want to increase or decrease the saturation of just a single color. For example, when shooting a landscape with sky or water, you may want to increase the blue saturation to bring out those parts of the image.
If you want to work on your image in black-and-white, the color channels area is the tool I use to do the conversion from color to monochrome. Click on the “B&W” tab above the individual color channel sliders, and then adjust the mix of how the colors are blended by increasing or decreasing each color’s slider to see how the black-and-white image looks. I find that I often have to readjust the contrast slider at this point to get the image looking its best in black-and-white.
There is some sharpening already applied to your image file by default, but if it looks too soft in the important areas, you can dial in some additional sharpening.
When the image you’re editing was shot at a high ISO (sensitivity) and/or a very long shutter speed, there will likely be some noise in the image. This can be managed somewhat in Lightroom’s noise reduction tool.
Under basic lens corrections I will usually select all three of the check box items. Lightroom knows how most camera and lens combinations work and can eliminate many of the optical glitches that would otherwise show up in the image. Under manual lens corrections, I may need to rotate the image if the horizon wasn’t level when it was shot.
All of the above adjustments affect the entire image. After completing these adjustments, it’s time to make any selective adjustments that affect only a selected part of the image. These selective adjustment tools can be found in the toolbar just below the histogram.
Of these selective adjustment tools, the most generally useful is the cropping tool, which of course allows you to remove unwanted portions of the image on the sides, top, or bottom. It’s always best to try to compose the image correctly in the camera, but cropping is often still needed in post-processing.
The spot removal, filters, and adjustment brush are more complicated selective adjustment tools that can easily be subjects of additional posts in their own right.

These steps usually won’t all be needed for any one image. If you have several images that were shot under similar conditions, you can select them all in the Library module and turn on Auto Sync, which then allows you to make the adjustments only once and apply them to all the selected images. Another big time saver is creating your own presets, which are saved routines that you can call at the click of a button to automate tasks that would otherwise have taken multiple steps. Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom was designed by Adobe specifically for photographers to use, so it is set up in such a way as to make life much easier for us to organize, edit, and share our images.

Here is the “After” version of our sample image of Copenhagen by night. You can see how a few simple edits during post-processing can really make an image pop.

Buy this photo

I hope you’ve found this very basic introduction to the essentials of post-processing to be helpful. Now it’s your turn. What are your go-to techniques in editing your images? Do you have tips and tricks that you’ve found make your life easier after you return from a trip? Please share your thoughts in the comment box at the end of this post.

Want to read more posts about post-processing your images? Find them all here: Posts on Post-Processing.

Focus on Dia de los Muertos [Encore Publication]: When a local festival takes you around the world

Sometimes you can attend a local event and feel as though you’re transported to a far-off part of the world, or even feel like you’re traveling across a wide cultural tableau of a whole region. That’s how I felt while shooting last year’s Dia de los Muertas (Day of the Dead) celebrations in downtown San Jose. Although I had traveled only half an hour from my house, this festival celebrating life and honoring departed relatives took me on a cultural and historic journey across all of Latin America and beyond. In today’s post I will present a simple photo essay featuring some of my favorite images from this festival.
An Aztec dancer helps convene the day’s celebrations. Buy this photo

The Aztec fire dance’s origins date back to pre-Columbian times. Buy this photo

This shrine, erected on the back of a pickup truck, is dedicated to the memory of the owner’s deceased father and brother. Buy this photo

The “elegant skull” face painting is an element of Day of the Dead celebrations in several Latin American countries. Buy this photo

These lovely ladies awoke at 5 AM to paint their own faces and those of their family members. Buy this photo

More wonderful face art. Buy this photo

I love the cultural juxtaposition of Hello Kitty with Day of the Dead. Buy this photo

Although this portrait of a couple also worked well in color, I love the dramatic impact it makes when converted to a high-contrast black-and-white image. Buy this photo

Elegant and beautiful! Buy this photo

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief compilation of images from this recent festival and that it inspires you to seek out Day of the Dead celebrations near your own home.

What are some of your favorite cultural traditions? Have you captured these traditions using your camera? Please share your experiences in the comments box.

Want to see other posts about what to shoot while traveling and near home? Find them all here: http://www.to-travel-hopefully.com/category/travel/shoot/

Nikon’s New Mirrorless Cameras [Encore Publication]: Impressive new technology catches and beats Sony, but issues remain

Update from 9/6/18: Canon joins Nikon in announcing its first full-frame mirrorless camera system. Read more about Canon’s new EOS R system here: The Verge article on Canon EOS R. Canon’s initial launch will include a more extensive and useful lens lineup than Nikon’s, but both manufacturers have a lot of work to do in order to catch up with Sony’s portfolio of lenses. Canon’s initial feature set seems less advanced than that of Nikon’s high-end Z7 camera. It’s unclear at this time whether either Canon or Nikon will have an edge in usability over Sony’s design, but, frankly, Sony has set the bar very low with a complicated menu system and a poor set of controls. It is becoming increasingly clear that mirrorless is the future of professional and enthusiast photography, but for the next few years DSLR technology will retain some key advantages. Read on to see my original post from a few weeks ago when the Nikon launch was announced.

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After months of teasing, Nikon has finally announced the details of their first-ever mirrorless camera launch. The Nikon Z Series, with its first two models, the Z6 and Z7, represents the venerable company’s most ambitious new product launch in years. Not surprisingly, the new full-frame Nikon models take aim squarely at Sony’s popular A7 III and A7R III models, with similar pricing and specs, respectively. The Nikon Z6 will be priced at $1995.95 (body only) and the Z7 at $3399.95 (body only). Initially only a 24-70mm f/4 “kit lens” and fast 35mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.8 prime lenses will be available, with more Z-mount lenses to launch in the future. An adapter will also be available at additional cost to allow use of many existing F-mount lenses on the new Z Series bodies.

Details of the new cameras can be found on Nikon’s website: Nikon’s new mirrorless cameras.

While these new cameras offer very impressive technology and catch–and in many ways leapfrog–Sony’s mirrorless offerings, there are some disappointments specific to this Nikon launch as well as plenty of issues facing mirrorless cameras in general.

Regarding the shortfalls specific to the new Nikon Z6 and Z7, here are a few of my observations for how they fall short of my expectation:

They lack a second memory card slot. For pro shooters, this is a showstopper.
The initial lens lineup will be very sparse, with only three lenses. Over the next couple of years, Nikon will be rolling out additional lenses, but compared to the venerable F-mount glass lineup, the new Z-mount offerings will remain thin.
The lens converter to enable use of existing F-mount lenses will have a considerable additional cost, won’t allow full auto focus and exposure on many existing lenses, and will likely cause the autofocus to perform slowly.

Mirrorless camera technology in general suffers relative to DSLR technology in substantial ways:

They’re really not all that small and light relative to pro-level full-frame DSLR bodies. And after the weight and bulk of the many lenses required by serious shooters are factored in, the mirrorless kit ends up almost as heavy and bulky as a comparable DSRL system. A related issue is that many shooters find the smaller mirrorless bodies to be unbalanced when fitted with a heavy and large professional lens.
The electronic viewfinders (EVF) on mirrorless cameras have evolved quite a bit in recent years, but they remain difficult to use, in my opinion. They suffer from flicker and slow refresh rates, and they just don’t provide a realistic view of the scene. It’s like looking at the world through a miniature TV screen vs. seeing it through your own eyes.
Replacing not only our existing camera bodies but also all of our lenses to make a full move to native mirrorless technology is a very expensive prospect.
With no mirror to protect the sensor, it’s very easy to get dust and dirt on the sensor when changing lenses.
The Sony A-series suffers from poor usability (most functionality is relegated to sub-menus that are difficult to navigate) and from scant weather sealing that doesn’t meet the needs of most professional travel photographers. I’ll have to get the new Nikon Z-series in my hands to assess whether Nikon has resolved these issues for their new offering.

With Nikon now joining Sony in the pro-level full-frame mirrorless game, and with Canon gearing up to announce its own mirrorless offering, there is increasing evidence that mirrorless technology represents the future of photography. That said, as of today there are plenty of good reasons to continue using DSRL technology for its robustness, better viewfinders, much fuller lens lineups, and investment protection. I’ll be much quicker to upgrade my Nikon D810 bodies by buying a pair of Nikon D850 bodies than by purchasing Nikon’s Z6 or Z7 bodies. Your mileage may vary, and I’m eager to hear feedback from “To Travel Hopefully” readers.

Please share your thoughts about the new Nikon Z-series and about mirrorless vs. DSLR technology in general!

Want to read more posts about travel photography gear? Find them all here: Posts about Gear.

Travel Photographers of the World, Unite!: Join my Meetup group

Dear Readers,

I have organized a new Meetup group, Travel Photography Workshops, as a forum to connect and learn in a variety of different ways. Whether through photo walks, hands-on workshops, classes, exhibitions, and photography tours to locations around the world, our goal will always be to fuel our passion for travel photography as we grow our skills. Please join us! Details at: http://meetu.ps/c/3Yl63/vbccL/f.

Love to explore the world through a lens? Do you strive to capture authentic images of the people and places you visit? Excited about using your camera to build bridges across diverse cultures? Want to continually improve your photography in all genres? Then this meetup is for you!

Travel photography is thrilling because it’s about discovery and adventure. Whether we’re halfway around the world or a few short blocks from our home, our camera is a tool to capture the spirit of the places we visit and to share that spirit with our community. The travel photographer must be versatile, switching effortlessly among many genres including landscape, wildlife, cityscape, portrait, performing arts, nighttime, and street photography. Share your passion for travel photography with other like-minded enthusiasts, and build your skills in a supportive community.

We’ll connect and learn in a variety of different ways. Whether through photo walks, hands-on workshops, classes, exhibitions, and photography tours to locations around the world, our goal will always be to fuel our passion for travel photography as we grow our skills. Please join us!

Focus on Asha Stanford Holi [Encore Publication] : Capturing the colors, joy, and exuberance of an iconic Indian celebration held close to home

I love all aspects of travel photography, but the moments I truly live for are when I have the opportunity to experience and to capture images of the world’s most exuberant celebrations. The iconic Indian festival of Holi, celebrated annually throughout India in huge cities and small villages alike, is one of my absolute favorites. This year I had the chance to shoot a large and vibrant Holi celebration without the need to fly for 30 hours to get to India. As an official photographer for Asha Stanford’s Holi festival, I got to document all the color, joy, and revelry of a large, world-class Holi event, all within 20 minutes drive from my home. In today’s post, I share some favorite images from the event along with some brief remarks about how each was made. Note that all of these images and many more are available to view and purchase on my website–get there by clicking on any of the images here.

With colored powder and often sheets of water flying everywhere, Holi is by design a messy and mischievous celebration. Protect yourself when “playing Holi” by wearing clothes you can part with after the event and by covering your camera body and lens with a rain sleeve. Here’s the one I use, which is excellent–inexpensive, easy to use and very protective of the gear:
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Note that even when using a high-quality rain cover like this one, the front end of the lens is still exposed, so be sure to protect your lens’ front element with a UV or Haze filter. And to be extra safe, I brought only one camera body and only a single lens, which was an inexpensive but versatile “walk-around” travel zoom lens.

Crowded festivals, by their nature, have cluttered backgrounds. When making portraits in such environments, I do try to reduce the clutter by choosing the background carefully, but capturing the moment is more important and in any case, it is futile trying to wait for completely uncluttered backgrounds. In post-processing, some of the clutter can be minimized through careful cropping and the application of just a bit of post-crop vignetting. Use too much vignetting, though, and the image begins to take on an artificial appearance.

To capture fast action, you obviously want to choose a fast shutter speed. That’s no problem when shooting in bright sunshine such as we had during this Holi celebration. Still, I choose a moderately high ISO (400) to ensure I could retain fast shutter speeds even when in the shade or when using a small aperture to maximize depth-of-field.

Get in close! Portraits often are most effective when they emphasize a specific detail rather than show the entire environment. To further emphasize that specific detail, try to select a wide aperture (low f-stop number) in order to obtain shallow depth-of-field. I had only a relatively slow “walk-around” zoom lens with me, so for close-up portraits I shot wide open at f/4.5–not great for isolating the subject, but better than shooting at an even smaller aperture. In typically less adverse environments, I would be shooting with a much faster portrait lens, most likely my favorite 85mm f/1.8 prime lens:

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When your subject is backlit (the main light coming from behind), as is often the case when shooting outdoors in bright sunlight, be sure to choose exposure based on the main subject. Here I used my camera’s spot metering mode to set the exposure based on the clothing of one of the people in the group, but it’s also fine to get your exposure by zooming in or walking up close to the group and then to set that exposure manually on your camera. You can also use your camera’s exposure compensation control to dial up the automatic exposure by about 1.5 or 2 stops, but I recommend not trying to use automatic exposure modes in general. If you use the exposure your camera’s auto mode chooses for you and your subject is strongly backlit, your image will be underexposed by typically 1.5-2 stops or even more.

I’m always on the lookout for great moments to capture. When I saw this dad playing with his young daughter, I composed the frame around the two of them and started shooting continuously so as to get a shot at just the right instant. During post-processing, I cropped the image to show only the portion that portrays the thrill and joy of the playful pair.

Careful composition is always important in photography, but it’s easy to forget this point during the heat of the moment when shooting in bustling and chaotic environments. To compose this image, I framed it to get the splash of color from the two friends’ “high-five” moment right in front of the big sign boldly pronouncing, “COLOR”. That’s a Holi moment.

One of the keys to successfully documenting huge festivals is finding the small, intimate moments. Big, sweeping crowd shots showing chaotic motion are important to document, but it’s capturing those small interpersonal interactions that really make your portfolio shine. I used as wide an aperture as I had available in order to cast the busy background in soft focus.

Performances are often a part of festivals, and these are wonderful fun to capture. I’ve posted many times on the techniques required to make great images of performing arts, so I won’t repeat myself here. Just be sure to compose appropriately, set the exposure correctly (challenging to do in direct sunlight), and shoot lots of images to be sure of capturing a few excellent ones.

The climactic moment of the Holi celebration comes near the end, when all the revelers simultaneous throw handfuls of colored powder high into the air. Be ready for these big moments by preparing all your gear and composing all elements of the shot beforehand.

To capture the sweeping scale of really big celebrations, sometimes it helps to make a panoramic image. Some cameras can do this automatically in-the-camera, but I find those images don’t turn out very well, so I make panoramas manually by shooting a series of overlapping images that span the scene. In theory this is quite simple. Just take a series of photos starting from the far left side of the scene, then panning the camera a little bit to the right so the next photo just overlaps with the previous one, and so on until you reach the far right side of the scene. You then use software such as Lightroom or Photoshop to stitch the separate, overlapping photos together into a single sweeping image. In practice, this can be quite difficult. I find the software often takes an extremely long time to process a panoramic image and sometimes even crashes while attempting to do so. If you have a more powerful computer than I have, you may have an easier time with this process.

Parting shot: When I see a great subject for a portrait, I will interact with him or her, get to know them a bit, then begin shooting with their permission. Over time and in the heat of a celebration, they will forget I’m even there, but the resulting images will be better for the time spent interacting with the person first.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this photo essay and brief notes about how to shoot festivals and celebrations. Whether we’re close to home or halfway around the world, such festive gatherings truly define the culture of the celebrants and make amazing photographic subjects. If you’d like to read more posts about what to shoot while traveling or near home, find them all here: Posts about what to shoot.

What are your favorite celebrations to shoot, and how do you capture images there? Please share your thoughts here!

Focus on Dublin [Encore Publication]: Ireland’s main city overflows with Guinness, literature, history, and music

We began our rambles through Ireland and Scotland with a whirlwind two-day stay in Dublin. The capital of the Republic of Ireland, Dublin is well known as the home of Guinness beer and for its literary and historical legacy, but perhaps less known as a remarkable hub of live music and contemporary fine dining. It’s also a marvelous place to make images that highlight the old and the new elements of this vibrant city. Here’s a brief photo essay along with some discussion of how the images were made.

Perhaps the world’s grandest study hall, Trinity College’s Long Room is a stately palace to higher learning. Located next to the vault housing the famous Book of Kells (where photography is not permitted), the Long Room is best photographed with a wide-angle lens using natural light. Here I shot from one end of the hall looking up at the ceiling and upper gallery. Be careful to watch your horizons when making an architectural image from such an angle. Buy this photo

Live trad (traditional Irish folk) music is a staple of Dublin nightlife, and nowhere is it better than at the famed O’Donoghue Pub, where in the 1960’s bands such as the Dubliners sparked the Irish folks music revival. Irish pubs are convivial and interactive places, where you can mingle with the performers and other locals.

To make portraits of the musicians, sit close to the “stage” (there’s rarely a true stage in the formal sense, but rather a performer’s area) and shoot with a fast normal or portrait lens using a high ISO setting. It helps to get to know a few of the players during their breaks. Buy this photo

Dublin is a world-class literary city, with ties to James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, G. B. Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney, among many other literary greats. We took, and highly recommend, a literary walking tour led by scholar, author, and actor Colm Quilligan. There are many photo opportunities to be found during this informative walk. You can learn more about Colm’s walking tours here: http://www.dublinpubcrawl.com/writerswalk.htm.

A self-portrait made at The Duke Pub, where many of Dublin’s great authors took their liquid inspiration. Remember to include yourself in some images, but always look for unusual perspectives. Buy this photo

A park sculpture commemorates the Great Famine of the 1840s. To bring out the textures, I converted this image to black-and-white using Lightroom’s color channel tools, and boosted the contrast slightly. Buy this photo

Dublin Castle dates from early Anglo-Norman times, and a guided tour provides a sweeping history of Dublin from its origins through the present day.

To photograph the Castle and Dublin’s other architectural gems, use a wide-angle lens. Watch out for cluttered foregrounds and keep an eye on the lines at the edges of the frame, as it is tricky to avoid distortion when shooting up with a wide lens. Here I also used a polarizing filter to add contrast to a rather bleak scene. Buy this photo

The chapel within Dublin Castle offers many photographic possibilities. Seek out the details in a place like this. Here I’ve captured the beautiful (but, alas, no longer functioning) pipe organ. I brought out the shadow detail and increased the vibrance during post-processing. Buy this photo

It may or may not come as a surprise to learn that Ireland’s biggest attraction is the Guinness Storehouse. While it’s easy to dismiss sites like this one–essentially a theme park dedicated to a beer brand–that would be a mistake. The self-guided tour is fascinating for its historical, cultural, and architectural facets, and the view from the top-floor Gravity Bar (with an included pint of Guinness) is the best in Dublin.

The Guinness Storehouse was converted into a museum and tourist attraction, but happily they have retained much of the old brewing machinery, which makes a great photographic subject. I used a touch of flash here to saturate the colors. Buy this photo

My wife Mary pulls a perfect pint of Guinness. It’s more fun to include traveling companions when they’re doing something locally inspired and interesting. I used natural light with a fast portrait lens and relatively high ISO setting. The cluttered background isn’t as distracting as it could be, because it documents the bustle of the place. Buy this photo

Parting shot on our last night in Dublin. Another trad music session. This one (which also incorporates a self-portrait) was shot at the Cobblestone Pub. It was an informal sit-in session, so I had the chance to chat with and really get to know several of the musicians before shooting their portraits. Buy this photo

Have you visited Dublin? What do you consider essential activities–and photographic subjects–in this city? Please share your comments here.

Want to view posts about other travel photography destinations? Find them all here: Posts on Destinations.

Focus on Carnival in Madeira [Encore Publication]: This tiny Portuguese island group celebrates a vibrant and unique Mardi Gras

When we think about Mardi Gras carnivals, most often the first locations that come to mind are Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and perhaps Trinidad. But the start of the Lenten season is celebrated in many parts of the world with the outpouring of dance, music, color, and joy known as Carnival. While each region’s celebrations have a few elements in common–typically the all include grand parades with samba dancers and floats, all decorated in lavish costumes–there are many notable regional differences. For example, in my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, Carnaval SF is unique for its array of “comparsas” (samba school contingents) representing the cultural traditions of all of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as parts of Asia.

This year I had the great pleasure of capturing Mardi Gras Carnival images on assignment in Funchal, capital of the tiny island group of Madeira. While politically a part of Portugal, Madeira is located off the coast of Morocco in North Africa and has a decidedly different cultural flair than what is found in mainland Portugal. Samba and Carnival were essentially invented by African slaves in Brazil while it was a Portuguese colony, and the samba parade traditions have migrated back to Portugal where celebrations are held throughout the country. Given its location between Africa and Europe, Madeira combines distinct cultural traditions from both regions and offers a special flavor of Carnival that I found exhilarating. And best of all, the celebrations roll on over a whole week with numerous events, retaining a true local flavor with few tourists.

Today’s post features some of my favorite images from this year’s Carnival events on Madeira. If you’d like to see more photos, or to purchase a few, please visit https://www.kadlerphotography.com/Travel-Photography/Madeira-Carnival/. I am grateful to the Madeira Promotion Bureau for their assistance providing access to the Carnival events. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed these images from this year’s Carnival events on Madeira. Visit https://www.kadlerphotography.com/Travel-Photography/Madeira-Carnival/ to see more photos. Again, a big thank-you to the Madeira Promotion Bureau for their assistance providing access to the Carnival events.

Have you discovered any less known locations for Carnival celebrations? Please share your experiences and your photos here!

Faces of Vietnam and Cambodia, Part II [Encore Publication]: Showcasing the diversity of Vietnam and Cambodia’s people

My wife and I recently returned from an amazing 3.5-week adventure traveling through Vietnam and Cambodia. Our itinerary took us from the bustling capital of Hanoi to the glorious mountains jutting skyward from Halong Bay, then to the former imperial capital of Hue and the quaint festival city of Hoi An, on to the mountain retreat of Dalat and to modern Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and finally to the indescribable temple complexes at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. While it was wonderful to view the region’s gorgeous landscapes and fabled monuments, what made this adventure truly unforgettable for us was its many opportunities to interact with Vietnamese and Cambodian people from all walks of life: a Buddhist nun, an older couple whose homes were confiscated by the Communist Party, a former South Vietnamese soldier who survived the re-education camps and rose to become major of his village, eager students at Dalat’s rapidly growing university, former Viet Cong fighters, and ethnic minority hill tribes rarely contacted by outsiders.

Yesterday’s and today’s posts showcase some of my favorite portraits, some of them not yet previously published, featuring a wide range of people we met during our adventure. The portraits will be presented as a photo essay, but I will include brief descriptions of each and occasionally some commentary about how they were made. You can click on any of these images to view or purchase them and many more from the Vietnam and Cambodia trip. Yesterday’s post featured Part I, and today’s post comprises Part II.

A wonderful visit to village of Buon Chuoi, home to the Kho Chil ethnic minority. We were among the very few foreigners ever to visit this hill tribe area. Kids are great fun to photograph. The key to making authentic portraits of kids, as of adults, is to make a personal connection before starting to shoot. Get to know your subjects first, be playful and interactive, and only then take out your gear.

School was not in session due to parent conferences when we visited the mountain village of Buon Chuoi, so many of the schoolkids were playing in the courtyard. I captured this portrait of a girl with her little brother during a game of marbles.

Visiting the village chief’s home in Buon Chuoi Village. His wife, in her eighties, still passes most days by weaving while smoking her pipe. This is one of my favorite portraits from the whole trip, because it truly captures the spirit of the subject, offers a rare view into rural Vietnamese village life, is illuminated by lovely natural light, and represents a memorable and striking image.

Kho Chil boys run after our tractor as we descend from Buon Chuoi Village. Not all portraits need to capture a stock-still subject. This portrait gains its vitality through the boys’ motion, and its jaunty, slightly off-kilter composition adds to the sense of kinetic energy.

Dalat is much cooler than the rest of Vietnam. This mom and her daughter are dressed appropriately for the higher elevations. Busy backgrounds can distract from a good portrait, but here I mitigated some of the distraction by using a shallow depth-of-field and by applying a bit of post-crop vignetting during post-processing.

In the courtyard of the Linh Phuoc Pagoda, Lady Buddha observes this young woman checking her text messages. Good street photography is characterized by capturing just the right viewpoint, framing, and moment (what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “The Decisive Moment”) when the people and the space come together, and I believe I caught that conjunction nicely here.

A young Buddhist monk-in-training. Often, the person appearing in a portrait is more colorful than the background elements, but here the opposite is the case.

At Saigon’s Post Office, I asked this lovely young woman to model the traditional Vietnamese costume, the ao dai. I made no attempt through depth-of-field, supplemental lighting, or vignetting, to set off the model from the cluttered background. That’s because I wanted to feature the glorious French colonial architecture of the post office as much as the model posing before it.

Preparing to board our sampan on the Mekong Delta. The weather was overcast and rainy, so I used a slower shutter speed (1/50 second) and fairly wide aperture (f/4) to saturate the colors.

Ben Tre Village is famous for its coconut plantations. We enjoyed coconut meat, coconut milk, coconut whiskey, and of course coconut candy. I used a small amount of fill flash to fill in the shadows on the subject’s face and to help set her off from the background.

A stall-keeper at Saigon’s bustling central market. I used a fast portrait lens at a wide aperture along with a high ISO setting in order to soften the busy background.

Very interesting learning about the wartime experiences of these former Viet Cong fighters. They lived for years in the Cu Chi Tunnels, which they considered much safer than being exposed to US bombing and infantry attacks above ground. This portrait is effective because it captures the officer in a candid moment with beautiful available lighting and sets him against a solid colored background.

We visited a farm outside Siem Reap, Cambodia, where women still thresh rice by hand. The farm family’s six-year-old daughter stopped by to check us out.

We are welcomed to a small village outside of Siem Reap by this elder. I made an environmental portrait showing her in the context of her work weaving baskets. The image works very well because the composition is intimate and engaging, telling the subject’s story in a concise way, and because the simple solid contrasting color of the wall behind her offsets her colorful clothes in a pleasing manner.

Visiting the floating village of Mechrey on the huge Tonle Sap Lake. I made this image of a local family in their houseboat as we sailed by. By placing the family in the context of their home and daily activities, the image serves to capture a slice of life rather than to feature any individual member of the household.

A monk pauses to reflect outside the Angkor Wat temple complex. I spoke with him (using our guide as a translator) to make a personal connection and to obtain his permission to make the portrait. The contrasting colors and textures of the monk and the temple buildings, as well as the leading lines that guide the viewer’s eye from front to back, make this a memorable portrait. I made the image using natural light only and incorporated a polarizing filter to deepen the colors and add drama to the sky.

At a home-hosted lunch in rural Kravan Village, I made portraits of the whole family. Here is the oldest daughter, Lia, a flight attendant and gracious hostess. Classic portrait techniques applied here: make a personal connection first, use a fast prime 85mm lens at a wide aperture, and light the subject with the most beautiful light available in the situation.

I arranged a visit to a performance of traditional Cambodian Apsara dance. In the days of Khmer empire, only the king and queen were allowed to see these dances. During live performances, use of flash is almost always prohibited (and almost always rude), so use a fast prime lens, a high ISO setting, and a steady hand.

We learned about the traditional folding of flowers to present at the Buddhist Ang Chorm Shrine in Siem Reap. The young daughter of the flower stall owner folded these flowers herself. While a bit on the busy side, this portrait succeeds by capturing a riot of colors and an intriguing story.

Have you visited Vietnam or Cambodia? What were your favorite photographic subjects? Please leave your thoughts here.

Want to read more posts about what to shoot while traveling? Find them all here: Posts about what to shoot.

All of these photos and many more from Vietnam and Cambodia are available for viewing or purchase here: Vietnam and Cambodia image gallery.

Missed Part I of this story in yesterday’s post? You can read it here: Part I of this story.

Faces of Vietnam and Cambodia, Part I [Encore Publication]: Showcasing the diversity of Vietnam and Cambodia’s people

Today’s and tomorrow’s posts showcase some of my favorite portraits, some of them not yet previously published, featuring a wide range of people we met during our adventure. The portraits will be presented as a photo essay, but I will include brief descriptions of each and occasionally some commentary about how they were made. You can click on any of these images to view or purchase them and many more from the Vietnam and Cambodia trip.

Here is Part I, and tomorrow’s post will feature Part II.

Street portrait of a little girl petting a small dog in a Hanoi store. While still a source a food in Vietnam, dogs are becoming more common as pets in urban areas. This image was shot from a cyclo-rickshaw, a great way to travel in urban areas of Southeast Asia and an especially good platform for street photography, as this way you travel at eye level of people on the street but will not be noticed as you pass by.

Motor scooters are the major form of transportation in Vietnam’s cities. Whole families of three, four, and even five people commonly share rides. I’m always looking for striking color palettes, and here I loved the family’s vibrant colored clothing, each person wearing a different colored mask.

Phan Tranh Liem is one of the few remaining practitioners of the 1000-year-old Vietnamese tradition of water puppetry. He makes his own puppets, creates the shows, and performs them with his wife. I made this environmental portrait of Mr. Phan, surrounded by a few of his puppet creations, in the workshop of his Hanoi home.

At a local market outside of Hanoi. Dog meat is a local delicacy (and quite pricey).

In the village of Tho Ha, 20 miles north of Hanoi, we visited the home of a family who make rice paper, the main occupation in the village. Spring rolls are extremely popular throughout Vietnam, so there is high demand for rice paper. An environmental portrait is framed to include not only the subject but also enough of the surroundings to give the viewer a sense of the subject’s life.

The head of the household plays a traditional Vietnamese stringed instrument.

In the village of Bat Trang outside of Hanoi, we visited the home of Mr. Duc and his wife. After the war, their homes were seized and they were persecuted as “landlord oppressors” even though they had never exploited others. They recovered one of their houses decades later. It can be a challenge to make a candid portrait of a couple. Here I used a fast normal (50mm) prime lens with a medium aperture so that both wife and husband would be rendered in fairly sharp focus but without requiring a very slow shutter speed or very high ISO setting.

En route to the Hanoi Airport for our flight to Hue, we stopped to say hello to several farmers harvesting rice by hand. A good portrait doesn’t need to include the face of the subject, nor even the subject’s head at all. This portrait works because of the strong composition and lovely color palette, and one feels a connection to the subject even without seeing her face.

We had a lovely visit with a Buddhist nun at the Dieu Thanh Pagoda in Hue. It was fascinating to learn about her life in the convent and her decision process to give up worldly life as a young teen. To make her portrait, preparation was important. I had my gear all set up while we were having our discussion, so that when we were comfortable together I could simply ask if it was okay to make her portrait and then shoot without interruption.

Aboard a “dragon boat” on Hue’s Perfume River, we attended a private performance of a cultural show featuring traditional Hue song and dance. A fast prime portrait lens (85mm) allowed me to shoot this musician using available light with a shallow depth-of-field to offset him from the background.

Hoi An is a charming city adorned everywhere with colorful lanterns. This bride and groom were posing for photos, so (with the permission of the couple and their photographer) I jumped in and captured this portrait.

I chatted with these twin three-year-old cuties and their Mom as we browsed in her shop. With young kids, it’s important they feel at ease before you start shooting, and you should then shoot many frames quickly in order to increase the likelihood of getting one that captures the mood well.

Hoi An’s central marketplace is a wonderful space to capture portraits of the many vendors selling traditional wares. The natural light was lovely, but required some finesse due to the bright background relative to the dim lighting on the subjects.

At My Son Sanctuary, site of the most significant ruins from the Champa Kingdom, we attended a performance of ancient Cham dance. I used a fast portrait lens at a wide aperture and a high ISO sensitivity setting so that I could capture the dancers using a fast shutter speed. In addition, I used a touch of off-camera fill-in flash, not as the primary light but to fill in the shadow areas and obtain more color saturation.

Outside our restaurant in Nha Trang, our waitress checks her messages. I was drawn to this framing because it succinctly captures the modern life of young working urban Vietnamese people.

Fascinating discussion with Xom Gio Village’s chief, a former South Vietnamese soldier and survivor of the re-education camps who managed to work his way up to a high-level position after the war. To capture this striking portrait, I used a fast prime lens almost wide-open to cast the background into soft focus, and I waited for dramatic moments during our conversation to shoot.

The wife of Xom Gio Village’s chief. I used the same technique, described above, as for the portrait of her husband. This portrait has a lovely color scheme, beautiful framing, and nice bokeh (the soft, out-of-focus parts of the background).

The beautiful city of Dalat, high in the mountains, has been a favorite escape from the tropical heat since French colonial times. We spent a lovely afternoon with students from Dalat University. I had the opportunity to get to know English teacher Trung and his bright young students Nhi , Diễm, and Giang. For this portrait, we were joined by my wife and several students she accompanied. To include yourself in a group portrait, first set up the camera carefully, then either mount it on a tripod and trigger it remotely or ask a trusted person to release the shutter for you.

A wonderful visit to village of Buon Chuoi, home to the Kho Chil ethnic minority. We were among the very few foreigners ever to visit this hill tribe area.

Have you visited Vietnam or Cambodia? What were your favorite photographic subjects? Please leave your thoughts here.

Want to read more posts about what to shoot while traveling? Find them all here: Posts about what to shoot.

All of these photos and many more from Vietnam and Cambodia are available for viewing or purchase here: Vietnam and Cambodia image gallery.

Look for Part II of this story in tomorrow’s post!

Focus on Morocco: A visual feast for all the senses

Our Moroccan adventure began in the capital city, Rabat. Rabat boasts a twelfth-century mosque and minaret that would have been the world’s largest had they been completed.

From Rabat we traveled to ancient Fez, with its rich Moroccan cultural legacy.

En route from the Sahara to the ancient and chaotic city of Marrakesh, we visited several villages and met some of their people.

Leaving Marrakesh behind, we traveled to Casablanca, our final stop before returning home.

You can see more of my images from our Morocco adventure here: https://www.kadlerphotography.com/Travel-Photography/Morocco.

Have you traveled and photographed in Morocco? Please share your experiences, and images, by commenting on this post!

Stripped Down to the Bare Essentials [Encore Publication]: Cupid’s Undie Run supports Children’s Tumor Foundation

I’m fortunate to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where fun, crazy, photogenic events–planned and spontaneous–occur nearly continuously. But the zany and colorful annual event known as Cupid’s Undie Run, for which participants strip down to their underwear and run through the city’s streets to raise money for Children’s Tumor Foundation, is actually held in dozens of cities around the world. The San Francisco version was quite small this year, in spite of 60-degree mostly sunny weather, but it was as energetic, irreverent, and just plain fun as ever. Today’s post features a few of my favorite images from this Valentine’s Day inspired event. This time, it’s just for fun; I’m not going to annotate the images with a lot of detailed information about how they were made. Enjoy, and consider supporting this valuable charitable cause: Children’s Tumor Foundation.

In between rounds of margaritas, a quick run along San Francisco’s waterfront. Buy this photo

Happily, the weather was unseasonably warm and dry. Buy this photo

The “finish line” is the front door of the pub. Buy this photo

It wouldn’t be Cupid’s Undie Run without Cupid. Buy this photo

Speaks for itself. Buy this photo

A quick reminder about how to make a stunning portrait: 1) find soft and appealing lighting, 2) get in close with a medium portrait lens, 3) select a wide aperture for shallow depth-of-field. Buy this photo

I love this town! Buy this photo

Look for this fun event in your town next year around Valentine’s Day. And, whether you’re traveling around the world or right in your home town, seek out those fun and quirky happenings that yield eye-catching images.

What are some of your favorite events to shoot, and why?

Want to read more posts about what to shoot while traveling or near home? Find them all here: Posts on What to Shoot.

Getting Oriented [Encore Publication]: Shooting vertically as well as horizontally expands your artistic vision

Who says a portrait image has to be shot in portrait orientation, or that a landscape photo must be shot using landscape orientation? Rules are meant to be broken, and they call it “artistic license” for a reason. I would estimate that a third of my people images are shot in landscape (horizontal) orientation, and that a third of my landscape images are shot in portrait (vertical) orientation. It’s always a good idea to shoot at least a few frames in both orientations so you can decide later which ones work best for your artistic vision. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Laura is one of my all-time favorite models (she also creates all her own costumes and does her own hair and makeup), and she looks great framed in any orientation, but I think her remarkable inventiveness is shown to good advantage in this composition using landscape orientation. Buy this photo

It’s a cliché that people pictures should be composed vertically, so that we can fill the whole frame with the model’s head or full body. A lot of the time this portrait orientation works well. But there are some good reasons to shoot people images using landscape orientation as well as portrait orientation.

First, sometimes the model’s pose or the environmental elements around the model favor a horizontal image. When traveling, I like to shoot environmental portraits that show us more than just the person by including elements of his or her home, livelihood, or lifestyle.

Second, we need to think about how the image will be used. If I’m shooting publicity photos for musicians, for example, I know they need horizontal images at least as often as vertical images, so as to meet the requirements for the venues and promoters with whom they work. Magazines and billboards often require landscape orientation, as well. Even more prosaic uses of our photos, such as Facebook or LinkedIn cover photos, must be oriented horizontally.

Third, some portraits just cry out artistically to be framed in landscape orientation. The image of the model Laura, above, for example, just works better to my eye in horizontal format, because the negative space behind her leads the viewer’s eye to admire her remarkably creative style, and leaving the lower part of her body and her dress out of the image allows us to focus on her expressive face.

By the same token, there are some good reasons to shoot landscape images in portrait orientation.

First, there could be some limitations to the left or right of the frame that, when shot horizontally, could distract from the power of the image we want to create. Think about a coastal landscape with a glorious sunset sky and delightful foreground elements such as rocks with water flowing around them, but to the left of our vantage point there’s an unattractive pile of litter. Frame the image in portrait orientation and avoid the problem.

Second, there are publication media where portrait orientation is required. Knowing where the image is likely to be published will dictate the orientation in which we shoot. A card or trifold brochure, for example, will likely require a vertical shot.

Third, again, consider your creative vision. This night landscape of the Milky Way over Yosemite National Park’s Half Dome also worked beautifully in the more traditional landscape orientation, but here I shot the same scene using portrait orientation to frame the granite mountains with a circle of trees and to create a leading line using the Milky Way’s galactic core to bring the viewer’s eye around the valley’s landforms and the night sky.

This night shot of the Milky Way over Yosemite Valley works especially well in portrait orientation because the pine trees create a frame around the leading line of the galactic core. Buy this photo

Whenever possible, remember to mix it up and shoot with the non-standard orientation for at least a few frames. You may find your best shots–and the most marketable ones for placement in certain forums–are the ones you make using the unconventional orientation.

Do you have a favorite image that you shot using the opposite orientation from the expected one? Please share your experiences here.

Want to learn some more photographic techniques? Here’s a list of all my posts dealing with the technical aspects of travel photography: http://www.to-travel-hopefully.com/category/techniques/

Every Day I Write the Book [Encore Publication]: Even in the digital world, there’s a place for a hardcover photo book from your trip

In the brave new digital world, we have a lot of ways to share our travel photos after (and sometimes even before) we return from the trip: social media, on-screen slideshows, video montages, and of course the enduringly popular paper print. Even with all of these very immediate sharing options, one of my favorite formats for preserving my travel images is the hardcopy photo book, and today there are more choices than ever before regarding how to create these wonderful keepsakes.

Our living room bookshelf and coffee table are home to more than a dozen photo books, each one showcasing the images and preserving the often fleeting memories of the details of a major trip we’ve taken. Here’s why I love this method of sharing travel photography and how to create your own photo books.

The leather cover of a photo book showcasing our recent travels in Turkey.

Why create a photo book? Over time, new digital formats replace existing ones, and the very old ones become obsolete. Within about 20 years, it is quite likely that none of our present formats of storing data will still be readable. The printed page has much more staying power. It is estimated that photos printed on high quality paper using high quality inks, and stored away from direct sunlight, can last for 100 years. I’m a big fan of framed prints, as well, but a photo book is more cost-effective and space-efficient as a means to preserve many more photos than we could easily hang on our walls. And because photo books can include customized captions to accompany the included images, they’re a great reference source for refreshing our memories about what we saw, when, and where. Finally, photo books look great and are fun conversation-starters to tell the story of our travels when friends and family come to visit.

How do you create a photo book? There are a number of methods, but unless you are a scrapbooker or handy with bookbinding, all of them involve sending your specifications and images to a vendor that will print the book, bind it, and mail it to you. Some software packages, including Lightroom, have built-in modules for creating photo books. And most photo sharing websites, including SmugMug (a fabulous site used by many professionals including me), Snapfish, Shutterfly, and Apple Photos, allow you to create and purchase photo books from your images. These services vary in features, price, and quality, so shop carefully. Most of my past photo books were created using Snapfish, but I am transitioning to using Lightroom’s and SmugMug’s services instead. I will report on the results in a future post.

Good book-creation software should allow you to choose from a wide range of formats on each page to display one or several photos plus text.

The basic process works similarly for any of these services. You specify the book size, cover material, paper quality, printing quality, and other basic parameters for your book. Then, you fill the pages of the book with your photos, specifying the layout you want for each page. You can add captions for individual images or series of images, and you may be able to add various special effects. At the end of the process, you place your order for the book to be printed and mailed to you. Using the service offered by Blurb, which is available via SmugMug and Lightroom, you can self-publish a large or small print run of books and make them available for sale on Amazon or directly on your own website.

The process of creating a photo book using Lightroom’s Book module (shown here) is fairly straightforward. It’s even more intuitive using an online service such as Snapfish or Shutterfly.

When you receive your photo book a few days after placing your order, you’ll have a keepsake suitable for sharing with visitors and for preserving your own precious travel memories.

A two-page spread in our Turkey photo book showcases several images of the incredible rock formations in the Cappadocia region.

Have you created photo books from your travel images? Which service did you use and how was your experience? Please share your thoughts here.

Interested in reading more posts about sharing your travel images? Click here to see them all: http://www.to-travel-hopefully.com/category/travel/share/.

Focus on How Weird Street Faire [Encore Publication]: A case study on simple techniques to capture winning images of festivals

As a professional travel photographer, I shoot regularly in nearly all genres of photography. A typical day on the road might include shooting landscapes, wildlife, cityscapes, portraits, action (sports, dance, performance), and nighttime photography. While I enjoy all types of shooting, my great joy as a photographer is capturing portraits of the people I meet. Whether close to home or halfway around the world, getting to know the people and learning about their culture through making portraits of them is a wonderful experience. And there’s no better way to capture images of many amazing people in a short time than by attending local festivals. People tend to be their best selves at special celebrations like festivals and street fairs. They dress exuberantly, dance with abandon, make new friends quickly, and (nearly always) are overjoyed to pose for photos.

I shoot about a hundred festivals and other special events every year, so I’ve learned a few tips about how to make the best images during these occasions. In today’s post I share some simple but effective techniques for capturing great portraits at festivals and other gatherings, using San Francisco’s recent How Weird Street Faire as a case study. How Weird is a vibrant and colorful, only-in-SF, annual celebration of individuality, tolerance, music, art, and hula hoops. Read on to see some of my favorite images from this year’s festival, presented along with some discussion of how they were made. To view more of my images, or to buy some, check out this gallery: How Weird photo gallery.

I see a lot of fellow photographers at events like How Weird shooting with huge telephotos and even tripods, like they’re after images of wildlife on a Kenyan safari. In my opinion, they are missing the point. We’re making portraits of people here, so use a normal or moderate telephoto portrait lens, preferably a fast prime lens, ditch the tripod and monopod at home, and get in close to chat with and get to know the people you’re photographing. When you interact with people, you get a sense of what makes them special, allowing both you and them to capture that special trait in your photos. Random sniping from far away with a long telephoto will yield far more bland and generic photos. All of my images at How Weird Street Faire were made with a single camera body and one lens, my trusty 85mm f/1.8 portrait lens. Sometimes simple is better, especially when it comes to capturing people at fast-moving events.

Larger groups can be challenging to capture in portraits, particularly in bustling spaces like those of a festival. When they couple I was chatting with suddenly ran into a friend and they had a group hug, I quickly stepped back a few paces and made this expressive and engaging portrait. It’s okay to break the rules sometimes–here, one of the subject’s faces is completely obscured and another’s is partially obscured, yet the portrait works because it captures the energy and affection of the moment.

When photographers argue that the “street photography” approach (candidly sneaking images of people who aren’t aware they’re present) is the best for capturing people’s true essence, I show them images like this one. This wholly genuine and unguarded moment of the girl dancing was made with her full knowledge and permission. The trick is to chat with the subject and get their permission for photography first, then to lay back for a while and let them go back to what they were doing. After a few minutes, they’ll nearly forget you’re there and they will reveal their true selves. But unlike shots you sneak without permission, now you have a subject happy to have you photographing them, and you can take your time and not have to rush your work in order to hide your shooting from them.

Often we see only the most obvious subjects at crowded, chaotic events like festivals. It’s easy to spend all our time shooting people dancing, partying, and displaying their costumes, but I try always to look for the more hidden people and infrastructure that support the event. This DJ was partially hidden atop the big dance stage and behind the banks of speakers, but she made a fun subject for this portrait.

Don’t be afraid to get in close. This portrait really pops because the tight composition allows us to focus our attention on the symmetry and color of the subject’s hair and costume.

The interactions between people are at least as much fun to observe and capture as the individuals themselves. I had chatted with and photographed a group of people for a few minutes when I observed this fun interaction, so I stepped back and framed some shots of the two young people together.

While post-processing my images after the shoot, I decided to render this one in monochrome to achieve a gritty urban street scene sort of feel. Often color can distract from the power of an image, so always consider which of your images could benefit from conversion to black-and-white.

In ordinary daily life, I find that perhaps two-thirds of people are willing to have their portrait made if the photographer spends some time getting to know them first and then asks politely. But at a festival, nearly everyone is excited about posing for portraits. The trick is to capture scenes where they show you their underlying personalities a bit, rather than just striking a cliched pose for the camera. To achieve that here, I spent a few minutes shooting, asking the couple to pose in different styles and have fun with it.

Putting it all together. Here’s a summary of the basic techniques I use when shooting portraits at festivals: 1) Use a fast prime normal or portrait lens. 2) Set your camera for a fast shutter speed (1/500 second or faster is good for dancing and other fast action), wide aperture (f/2.5 or wider is ideal except for large groups) to isolate the subject, and an ISO appropriate to the lighting of the scene (I used ISO 100 the whole day due to the bright outdoor light). 3) Get to know your subject before shooting, let them relax, and capture them during an authentic moment. 4) Try to compose the portrait with as uncluttered a background as possible; of course, this is often difficult at crowded festivals. 5) During post-processing, crop to clean up the scene and then vignette just a touch to further clean up busy backgrounds.

I hope this discussion of techniques to capture portraits during festivals has been helpful. The best way to learn these techniques and to find your own style is to shoot and shoot some more!

Please leave a comment with your own thoughts and tips about how to make great images of people at celebrations.

Want to read more posts about photographic techniques? Find them all here: Posts about techniques.

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