How to shoot your...
Steve Davey looks at how you can elevate your holiday pictures to portray a real sense of the atmosphere of your destination
Steve Davey
Steve Davey organizes and leads photography tours to some of the most entrancing parts of the world, with land arrangements provided by Intrepid Travel www.bettertravelphotography.com Forthcoming destinations include Madagascar, India and the hidden region of Upper Mustang in Nepal. You can find Steve’s portfolio on www.stevedavey.com
Many photographers find that their holiday pictures are lifeless and dull –a series of boring snapshots that do little to convey just how excited they were when visiting a location. What is missing from their pictures is any real sense of place – something that embodies the unique atmosphere and spirit of their destination.
Often, it is because they are so excited by being somewhere unfamiliar that they just rush into photographing what they think they should be pointing their camera at. Other times it is because they travel in away that cushions them from the real nature of a country, being whisked from monument to monument in an air-conditioned vehicle, then back to a comfortable hotel: never really engaging with the wider world around them or taking the time to feel anything.
Trying to capture a sense of place is an attempt to show the emotion of being somewhere, rather than just taking a record shot of what it looks like. What you should be aiming for is a picture that provokes an emotional response in the person looking at your picture, by conveying something of what you felt or
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One of the unfortunate unavoidable truths about photography is that you can only photograph what you see –if you miss something by turning up at the wrong time, then you simply won’t have any photographs of it! By the same token, if you are going to successfully capture a sense of place, then you will need to feel it first. If you don’t have that emotional engagement, then you won’t have anything meaningful to photograph.
Travel photography is a fairly unique strand of photography in that in order to truly experience and feel the emotion of what you are photographing, you have to physically get involved with it and engage. If you try a similar thing as a sports or wildlife photographer, it is unlikely to go well, as some level of distance is either required or advisable for the best results.
You need to engage yourself completely in your destination: to try everything in the quest to feel something significant. Regard yourself as a collector of experiences first, and a phot
