Sandra Petrowitz - The Traveling Photographer: A Guide to Great Travel Photography

A Guide to Great Travel Photography

Sandra Petrowitz

Sandra Petrowitz (www.sandrapetrowitz.com)

Editor: Joan Dixon

Project Editor and Copyeditor: Jocelyn Howell

Proofreader: Sue Irwin

Translator: David Schlesinger

Layout: Jrgen Gulbins

Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de

Cover Photo: Sandra Petrowitz

Printer: Friesens

Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-937538-33-0

1st Edition

2014 by Sandra Petrowitz

Rocky Nook Inc.

802 East Cota St., 3rd Floor

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

www.rockynook.com

Copyright 2012 by dpunkt.verlag GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany.

Title of the German original: Reisefotografie

ISBN: 978-3-86490-028-0

Translation Copyright 2014 by Rocky Nook. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Petrowitz, Sandra.

The traveling photographer : a guide to great travel photography / by Sandra Petrowitz.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-937538-33-0 (softcover : alk. paper)

1. Travel photography. 2. Photography--Technique. I. Title.
TR790.P485 2013
770--dc23
2013026817

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Traveling and photography go hand in hand youre never at a loss for subjects worthy of your attention. But it can be challenging to take pictures that stand apart from the familiar views of famous sites and attractions and to create images with your own accent.

The goal when photographing your travels is to create a picture that captures not only what you saw, but also how you saw it and what you felt at the time. Only these creative and personal elements your personal concept, perspective, angle of view, composition, and emotions will transform a plain visual reproduction into a unique photograph that exhibits your personal style.

This book is not an instruction manual for a camera nor is it a travel guide, but it does serve well as a complement to both. Its intended for anyone who is interested in advancing his or her photographic craft or who is looking for ways to create different, distinct, or better images. While this book is primarily directed toward beginning and intermediate photographers, those who arent satisfied with their travel photography or who are looking for suggestions on what to do differently will find it useful as well.

The following pages contain tangible recommendations for what to do when youre out and about whether for a brief trip in the city, an extended tour of a foreign country, or a weekend trip with friends to arrive at better pictures with simple equipment and little effort. The tips presented here are first and foremost steps to develop a conscious method of photography. If you take some time to consider why and how to take a picture, you wont snap away without purpose. Often its this indiscriminant torrent of snapshots that prevents you from achieving truly attractive and well-composed pictures.

Therefore, image composition and design is a big part of this book. I found it important to provide advice that is useful regardless of the type of camera youre using and that doesnt require you to purchase extra equipment. Whether you use a compact camera that fits nicely in your pocket or an advanced digital single-lens reflex camera, if you enjoy traveling and taking pictures, youll find countless recommendations, suggestions, and ideas for taking pictures while traveling on the following pages.

I hope you enjoy this book and your trip and, above all, I hope that you take pleasure in your photography wherever and whenever you reach for your camera. This is, and always will be, the most important prerequisite for creative, outstanding pictures.

Sandra Petrowitz

In rhythm with the savannah: A herd of elephants backlit at dawn moves through Amboseli National Park, Kenya. | Nikon D300 600 mm 1/800 s f/7.1 ISO 200

Take Your Time

At first glance, photography and traveling are a match made in heaven. What could be more perfect than capturing what you see and experience on your journey, both for yourself and for the people at home? It can be exciting and at the same time relaxing to take your favorite hobby with you to locations youve never visited before, where a fascination with the unknown and the magic of first encounters propels you onward. As photographers, who among us is not thrilled to use our camera to discover new worlds and energized when searching for new subjects and perspectives?

A closer look at the relationship between traveling and photography, however, reveals a potential for tension: travelers are always on the move. Taking a picture requires pausing, if only for a brief moment. A traveler generally wants to see as much as possible a quest thats limited by the time spent on location. A photographer, on the other hand, is interested in stopping, observing, waiting to discover and acquire a picture and the perfect moment for it. Good, creative, unique images rely to a large degree on a question of time. And time is something that you have to allow yourself. With this in mind, the first and maybe most important piece of advice for improving your images is simply to give yourself some time. Your pictures will thank you for it.

A few extra moments are enough to allow you to evaluate and improve the cameras settings and your composition. Taking a few minutes to chat with someone before photographing him or her will better your chances of capturing a great portrait. An anonymous snapshot taken in passing leaves neither side satisfied. The subject will feel strangely targeted and reduced to a photographic object, and youll know (or suspect) that you would have been able to produce a better photo with a little more effort. A few extra minutes will also give you time to search for a new angle of view, peer beyond a street corner, or explore a hidden courtyard. And a couple of hours will offer you practically limitless photographic possibilities almost everywhere in the world.