Innholdsfortegnelse for #7 Travel i Improve Your Photography

Multiple compositions Experiment with multiple angles. The majority of travel portraits are a one-time deal so make sure to really work the scene and get everything you can from it. This doesn’t mean rush but rather spend a little more time and make sure you nail it. Most people are more than happy to stick around for a pleasant experience. A difficult-to-interpret expression When shooting travel portraits, we first need to understand what makes a great portrait. For me this is a difficult-to-interpret expression. I want there to be multiple views on what my subject is thinking and who they really are. If you can capture this depth to a person’s personality you will have a very strong portrait. Environmental portraits Environmental portraits use the subject’s normal surroundings as the…

‘I’ve never ridden a horse,’ says Jane Hilton, matter of factly. The framed portraits of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood stare out from the bookshelf. Jane was ten years old when she first straddled a horse on a wet week in Wales, as school trips often were. While her friend Lynn bolted away and others trotted triumphantly around, Jane’s horse, Jet, stood firm. ‘Give it a good hard kick,’ suggested an instructor. Jane obliged and Jet took off with speed. Jane’s body didn’t and involuntary back-flipped on to the ground leaving her severely winded. For this wanna be cowboy, it wasn’t a good equine introduction. Jane’s fascination with cowboy culture began wedged between her family on their suburban home counties sofa, watching Westerns Bonanza and The Virginian. It culminated over…

‘It’s important for photographers everywhere that we find our style, find what we love to do. If you don’t find such a project, you wouldn’t go through with it. You need to care deeply. It makes my heart sing.’ Award-winning Norwegian photographer Anne Helene Gjelstad is talking about her reportage and book, Big Heart, Strong Hands published by Dewi Lewis. For several weeks at a time over 11 years, she has fastidiously documented the unique matriarchal society of old women living on the islands Kihnu and Manija, teardrops of mainland Estonia, isolated in the Baltic Sea. Anne Helene, with 25 years’ experience in fashion and design, had an idea for a book photographing the islanders and their handicrafts. While she was there, an old lady died and she was asked…

Take one look at Liam Wong’s night-time images of the city of Tokyo and you’re transported to a Blade Runner-like world, a nocturnal sci-fi playground that dazzles the eye and imprints itself on your brain. The obvious cinematic reference is no surprise as Wong cites key influences such as director Wong Kar-Wai and cinematographer Roger Deakins. He reveals, ‘My favourite photographer is Fan Ho – his 1950s and 1960s [work in] Hong Kong is incredible stuff. A main inspiration is Syd Mead, the Blade Runner and Tron visual artist. The colours, the composition, the content… everything about it… he had a graphic design background and you can see it inside his work.’ Wong was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but his journey into photography has only truly developed since 2015, when…

Projects don’t have to be about subjects that have never been shot before, says commercial photographer Jon Enoch, so long as you shoot them in an original way ‘I’ve been working as a commercial photographer for about ten years and previously couldn’t quite find my way with personal work. I’ve had loads of ideas for projects and I spent ages thinking about them, but sometimes thinking too long and hard makes me feel like I’ve done it and the excitement wears off,’ he says. ‘I also always wanted my project to be something that has never been done before, but that’s almost impossible and it really held me back. I’ve since come to realise that the subject itself doesn’t have to be completely original, but the way I approach it…

Travel broadens the mind, feeds the soul and ignites our creativity. Being in nature makes us feel connected to the world and boosts our mental health. As a photographer what could be better than finding yourself in a beautiful location filled with visual wonder? Well there is one thing better: being in that location with one of the world’s leading photographers whose sole purpose is to help you to develop your skills behind the camera. AP is thrilled to be able to offer readers an exciting programme of tours and workshops to a hand-picked selection of great photographic locations in the UK and great bucket-list destinations beyond, accompanied by the likes of National Geographic photographers Steve Winter and Mattias A Klum, Travel Photographer of the Year Philip Lee Harvey, world-renowned…

Zoom Photo Tours is the largest photo tour operator in the Nordic countries and one of Europe’s three largest. The company was established in 2013 and runs around 60 to 70 photo tours per year – from short two-day workshops to overseas tours all over the world. All of the tours are led by world-leading and award-winning photographers who are there to help the guests to improve their photography skills. Zoom Photo Tours has more than £120,000 in travel guarantee under the Travel Guarantee Act. www.zoomphototours.com More information For more details about AP Photo Tours, including tour prices, please visit our website or email us at ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk to go on our mailing list. www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-tours In the Shadow of Chernobyl With Mats Andersson 4-8 May, 2022 Decaying buildings slowly taken over…

An estimated quarter of a million people died in the Battle of Berlin in 1945 and the physical legacy of the fighting remains visible throughout the city. It is as much part of Berlin’s identity as the Wall, and a lot easier to find. Facades are pockmarked with bullet holes and shell shrapnel, especially around lower-floor windows where the German defenders set up firing positions. Chipped pillars, maimed statues and shell holes punched into steel stanchions tell the story of the last stand by regular Wehrmacht troops, SS forces, Hitler Youth and units of old men and boys aged as young as 13. In some cases, like the jagged tower of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church or the portico of Anhalter station, the ruins have been preserved as warnings from…

Photographer Laurin Schmid had never heard of Spomeniks until he visited a Croatian history museum in Zagreb. ‘I saw a short black and white movie focusing on two or three Spomeniks. There was one Spomenik showing a tower in Kozara, northern Bosnia, which is quite structured, this reminded me of the science fiction film Metropolis [by German expressionist Fritz Lang].’ Inspired, Laurin began to research the hundreds of monuments in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Josip Broz Tito, former head of state, had Spomeniks built across the entire national territory, which today includes Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo, to commemorate soldiers and civilians who died fighting the fascist occupying powers during the Second World War. The topic sat on Laurin’s desk for half…

Taking home the main prize in the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award is no mean feat. With a €25,000 prize and a Leica M10 camera up for grabs, as well as the enormous cachet that winning it brings, it’s easy to see why the competition attracts some of the very best contemporary photojournalism. Belgian photographer Max Pinckers shot this winning series a few years ago. Captured while he was on assignment in North Korea for The New Yorker with the American journalist Evan Osnos, it uses harsh ringlight flash to highlight the ‘unreality’ presented to the journalists. Speaking to us from Berlin, where the winning series was shown at the New School for Photography, Pinckers explains how the project came to him, having never worked for the magazine before. ‘I…

Founded in 1888 (four years after Amateur Photographer), National Geographic is one of the most iconic magazine brands in the world. For many wildlife and travel photographers, having their work published in such an illustrious publication is a lifelong dream. Its spin-off magazine National Geographic Traveler was launched in the USA in 1984, with a UK version following in 2010. It’s easy to imagine that working on assignment for a publication like this is exotic, glamorous and exciting. We spoke to two regular contributors to the magazine, as well as its art director, to discover the realities. Harry Skeggs AP: How did you become a wildlife photographer? HS: After some initial frustration [with photography], I began concentrating on capturing animals, particularly trying to encapsulate their emotions and how they interact…

With winter coming, many readers will be thinking about where to book their next photo holiday or shorter trip. The problem is we are spoiled for choice, as it’s never been easier to get to photogenic places. Problem number two is that every other photographer, be they a pro or less-exalted social media snapper, will often be heading to the same destination. Landscape pro Tom Mackie recently lamented having to queue for over an hour to enter a particularly ‘serene’ temple in Japan, only to find the place heaving with Instagrammers trying to get the same shot. To help you beat the hordes, we’ve asked some top travel photographers and AP readers to share their favourite photo locations off the beaten track. In terms of what gear to take, it…

In 1984, anxiety over nuclear war was at its peak. President Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars), intended to protect the USA from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons, was in development. The landmark TV film Threads, about the effects of a nuclear holocaust on Sheffield and eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilisation, disturbed the nation. The band Ultravox released Dancing With Tears In My Eyes. The video depicts frontman Midge Ure driving home after discovering that a nuclear explosion is imminent. It ends with the power plant exploding. I was 12 and terrified. And then it happened. At 1:23:58am (Moscow time) on 26 April 1986, a catastrophic nuclear accident occurred at the No 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat…

Move slowly With the fast-paced nature of most cities, it is easy to get caught up and move around too quickly. Take your time and look around to truly take in your surroundings. I guarantee you will find shots that you may otherwise have missed. Travel light In general photographing cities will include a lot of walking, so only pack the equipment you are going to need for that day. The last thing you need is to feel so exhausted from carrying a bag full of kit around with you that you don’t need, that you are too tired to shoot when the light is right. Shoot in bad weather Don’t be afraid of adverse conditions. Often, we photographers hate the rain but a wet, moody city can look just…

While the blue hour, around sunrise or sunset, is often best for atmospheric city break shots, don’t despair if your schedule means you have to shoot in the middle of the day. Yes, the strong sunlight can be very ‘blasty’ and unforgiving, but you can turn this to your advantage if you shoot in black & white or infrared. The strong shadows you get at midday can add mood and drama to a lot of street photography, for example, while a bright blue sky can look very dramatic against buildings. If you’re less confident when it comes to choosing subjects for black & white photography, try changing to the Monochrome mode if your camera supports it, so you can see if a scene has enough tone and contrast to work…

Selected by an international panel of photographers and imaging experts, including Eamonn McCabe and Michelle Jana Chan, these winners of the 15th Travel Photographer of the Year are inspirational. Photojournalist Alain Schroeder took the top spot with his atmospheric portfolios of Kushti wrestling in India (seen here) and the complex rituals associated with death in Toraja in Indonesia. Alain won £4,000 in cash, £750 to spend on Páramo clothing and a Plastic Sandwich personalised leather portfolio case. Photographers from 129 countries submitted more than 20,000 images to the competition. Entrants of note include 12-year-old Morgan Wolfers from Colorado, USA, who became one of the contest’s youngest winners. Her portfolio of aspen trees and leaves was created when she was just 11 and won her the title of Young Travel Photographer…

Harry Skeggs Kenya Explored the Mara and Laikipia – two of Kenya’s greatest wildlife areas, rich with photographic opportunities. India Travelled the wilds of central India tracking the majestic Bengal tiger, as well as the other fantastic wildlife of the Indian interior, including sloth bears and Asiatic leopards. Papua New Guinea Photographed the sensational birds of paradise and mysterious tribes, through to volcanoes and the mask festival. See skeggsphotography.com. Nori Jemil Patagonia and Cape Horn, On board the Australis, which sailed from Punta Arenas in Chile to Ushuaia in Argentina. As well as glaciers and penguins, there was the chance to explore the Darwinian range, Chilean fjords and Cape Horn, with on-board tuition between landings. See www.norijemil.com. Nori Jemil AP: Describe how you became a travel and landscape photographer? NJ:…

Some 350 years ago, the first young men of the British upper classes – accompanied by chaperones – made their way across their home continent on a trip that was designed to improve and educate them, particularly in their appreciation of the arts. Typically, the route would take these tourists through France and into Switzerland and Italy, crossing the Alps before heading south, usually towards Naples. More recently – in 2005 – architectural photographer Sue Barr was working on a book on European houses from the 1970s with historian David Heathcote. It was a project that took them across France, Switzerland and Italy, and a great deal of their time was spent driving. As they were heading back to the UK from Genoa, for the first time Sue really took…

‘I saw my first Sapeur when I was travelling by land from Morocco to South Africa in 2013,’ explains London-based photographer Tariq Zaidi. ‘I was fascinated by how he looked, especially given his surroundings. I promised myself I would come back and find out more about him and other Sapeurs.’ So, in 2017, Zaidi returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to photograph the Sapeurs. The Sapeurs are a fashion subculture of Kinshasa and Brazzaville: La Sape, Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Ambiance-Makers & Elegant People). Zaidi has been working on the project ever since, with a book recently published by Kehrer called Sapeurs: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo. By day, most Sapeurs come from humble backgrounds and work in regular jobs. However, as…

Winston Churchill once described Russia as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’. As a photographer, I’m always looking for exciting places to explore, and Moscow with all its romance and mystique seemed the ideal destination for my first Russian mission. I’ve been shooting digital for over 15 years. It’s convenient, automated, fast and predictable. However, I feel that this pixel perfection can sometimes lack the creative soul that I had grown to love with film. Digital photographers have tried various ways to emulate the look of film, however, in all honesty if you want the classic film look, the only real way is to shoot traditional film. I wanted my images of Moscow to be different from other stock shots I’d seen online. What better way to…

Why travel with AP Photo Tours? Amateur Photographer Photo Tours, in association with Zoom Photo Tours, offers unique photo adventures to amazing destinations around the globe, perfectly tailored specifically for photographers. • Personal guidance and tuition of world-leading and award-winning photographers including daily photo activities, image-editing workshops and lectures to help you improve your photography. • Always small groups. • High-quality food, accommodation and transportation throughout. • We always work with experienced local agents to ensure the smooth running of each tour. • A dedicated Tour Coordinator from Zoom Photo Tours takes care of the logistics and leaves the tutor free to concentrate on the photography. • Free cancellation up to 120 days before departure. • Full refund if tours have to be cancelled or rescheduled for any reason. Beginner’s…