Improve Your Travel Photography - Part 1

improve your travel photography part one

steve davey

Footprint Travel Photography is all that you will need to improve your travel photography. It takes you from the vital preparation and selecting of equipment before you go, to the ins-and-outs of being on the road. It exhaustively covers the technical and practical aspects of travel photography before looking at how to process and improve your pictures on a computer. There is even a section for those who want to make some money from their hobby.

Travel photography is about more that just technicalities: a travel photographer has to work in many styles and this guide has an extensive inspiration section, giving hints and tips for different picture taking scenarios you will encounter. It is not all hard work though: this book shows you how travel photography can enhance your travel experience.

This second edition has been completely revised to reflect new technology and software, with updated sections on composition, exposure, portraits and post-processing using Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud, Elements 11 and Lightroom 5. It features over 100 new photographs and over 50 revised illustrations.

The author is a great travel photogra-pher, and this book is loaded with beauti-ful images... [He] writes in a very con-versational style and gives lots of detail without getting over techie or trying to sound like he’s smarter than you. (He’s smarter than me, but he doesn’t rub it in your face.)

Scott Kelby - Photoshop Insider

“ “

Footprint Travel Photography 2e by Steve Davey

Published by

Footprint Handbooks

ISBN: 1906098425

Price £19.99

Welcome to the first part of the Better Travel Photography improve your travel photography pdf download. This is essentially a collection of blog posts and stories that I have written over the past few years. They have been updated and they have been collated into this guide. The guide comes in three parts, the next two will be emailed to you fortnightly.

Travel photography is a unique discipline. It involves mastering a sometimes bewildering range of styles and specialities, often in difficult and unfamiliar conditions. You might be photographing a busy festival one day, dangerous wildlife the next and maybe food and nightlife the day afterwards.

More than any other branch of photography, it involves a significant degree of transporting equipment, thriving in often and juggling the trials and tribulations of life on the road. The two strands – travel and photography – and intrinsically linked. You won’t get good pictures is you are not a good traveller; but being a good travel photographer will help you to get more out of your travels.

I am a great believer that although you will have to work hard as a travel photographer it should not be a chore. Rather it will help you to get more out of your travels and the people you meet along the way. It is both an excuse and a motivation to get involved, interact with local people and seize every moment of your precious time away.

Enjoy this guide, your travels and your photography!Steve Daveywww.BetterTravelPhotography.com

A note about copyright...This pdf and all of the text and images in this pdf are copyright © Steve Davey/bettertravelphotography.com. All rights are reserved.

This pdf is obviously provided as a marketing tool. It is useful for us to have people join our mailing list, and this is an inducement for them. Anyone is free to leave our mailing list at any time, and everything we send out has full unsubscribe details with it. It is important though for us to be able to email the parts of this pdf ourselves and include information about our range of travel photography tours and courses.

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Steve Davey (pictured here after the water and paint fights at Lao New Year in Luang Prabang) is the author and photographer of the BBC’s internationally bestselling Unforgettable Places to See Before You Die which has been translated into some 30 language editions.

Most recently Steve has written Footprint Travel Photography - the leading guide to travelling with a camera. To complement this book he has launched the Better Travel Photography website and an exclusive range of travel photography tours and courses.

Steve continues to work as a photographer and writer, for a range of publications worldwide. His professional website can be found on www.stevedavey.com

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improve you travel photography - part one4

Join us on one of our exclusive London photography courses and we will teach you to ‘see’ the pictures that other people miss!

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© Steve Davey/BetterTravelPhotography.com 2012 5

contentsP6: mastering exposure P8: shooting movement

P10: understanding aperture P12: understanding white balance

P14: mastering sensitivity P16: superlong exposures

P18: mastering composition P20: using poor light

P22: shooting wideangle P24: telephoto shooting

P26: mastering tripods P28: in your camera bag

Click on an im

age to jump to that page


Without getting too technical there are a number of things that you can do to improve the exposure of your pictures. The first thing is to understand just how an expensive and complicated camera gets it so wrong in the first place.

Basically, no matter how much you spend on your camera it is essentially quite stupid. Except for a few top flight professional models, the camera has no idea of the colour of you are photographing and will just assume that every subject approximates to an average midtone. Most of the time these subjects will balance themselves out and the exposure will be correct, but for more extreme subjects the camera will get confused. If you are photographing a light subject – such as a polar bear in the snow – the camera will think that it is an average subject, in very bright light, and give it less exposure making it come out too dark and under-exposed.

If you are photographing a darker than average subject – such as a black gorilla in the shade – then the camera will assume that it is an average subject in low light and will give more exposure and the subject will be too light and over-exposed. Even relatively dark subjects such a foliage or

even grass, can be dark enough to confuse the camera into over-exposing the picture.

Also some degree of incorrect exposure can be sorted in post-processing (especially if you are shooting the high quality and more versatile RAW format), it will still have an affect on your pictures. Over-exposure can bleach out the highlights, loosing detail completely. Even if it is just the darker areas of the picture that are over-exposed, this might cause your camera to use a wider aperture or slower shutter-speed leading to issues with depth of field or the possibility of camera-shake.

Under-exposure can loose all detail in the shadows, and correcting it can cause shadow noise, which is the same random speckling that is given by shooting with high sensitivities.

If you have light sources in the picture, such as a fire, or strong backlighting from having the sun in the picture, then this can also confuse the camera, making the subject appear too dark.

What can you do about itMost people shoot in one of the automatic exposure modes, where the camera sets either the aperture, shutter speed or both. To change the exposure, you can use the

mastering exposureWe have all been there: you shoot that perfect picture, but when you look at the results they are either far too light, or far to dark. Faces might disappear into deep shadow, or stunning rainforests appear washed out. The problem is that you, or more correctly your camera, has messed up the exposure.


exposure compensation feature, where you instruct the camera to give more or less exposure.

If you picture is too light, dial in -1 stop or more. If it is too dark, dial in +1 stop. If you are photographing snow then you could well need to select + 2 or +3 stops. If you are photographing dark foliage try -1.5 stops. The gorilla example might need -2 stops of exposure.

The good news with digital photography is that you can review the image on the LCD screen to check the exposure, and also to see if you need more or less compensation to get the correct exposure.

Choosing the correct picture scene mode will also help to customise the exposure. For instance, a Snow mode will let the camera know that you are photographing a white subject and will force the camera to automatically compensate the exposure.

When the contrast is too greatIf you have a wide range of contrasts in your image, such as one person standing in the shade and another in bright sunlight, your camera will not be able to photograph them both, and one or even both will be too light or too dark.

If you can get your subjects to move into the same lighting condition, then this will help to balance the exposure. For relatively small areas of shadow, close to the camera, you can use a technique called fill-in flash, where you force the flash to fire, lighting the dark bits of the picture. If you can’t move the subject or use flash, the best option is to recompose the picture so that either the shadow, or sunlight parts of the picture fill the frame.

Image captions:TL : Mountain Gorilla, Republic of Congo. If you photograph a dark subject, then your camera meter will be confused into thinking it is a midtone subject in dark conditions and allow more light to reach the sensor causing over-exposure. Reshoot with -1.5 to -2 stops to correctly expose.

TR : Truck on the highway, Ladakh, India. Large areas of shadow will confuse your camera into overexposing the picture. You will need to reduce the exposure by possibly -2 stops or even -3 stops to correct this.

MR : Polar Bear, Svalbard. If you photograph a light subject, then your camera meter will be confused into thinking it is a midtone subject in bright conditions and allow less light to reach the sensor causing under-exposure. Correct the exposure by approx. +2 stops to render your whites white!

BR : Lao New Year waterfight, Luang Prabang, Laos. Strong backlighting will cause the camera meter to under-exposure the image. You will need to allow considerably more light (possibly +1 or +2 stops).


If there is any movement in your picture, then the most creative thing that you can do is to use your shutter speed to control how this movement is reproduced in the picture.

Freezing movementTo freeze the movement, you will need to select a fast shutter speed. This is easy to do if you are using a DSLR in manual or on shutter-priority. If you are using a compact camera, then you can select the sport or action picture scene mode, which will customise the settings for you.

The actual shutter speed that you will need will depend on the action, but you will need at least 1/500th second, preferably faster. Use as fast a speed as you can to completely freeze any motion. If there isn’t enough light to get a fast enough speed, then increase the camera sensitivity (ISO).

To actually capture the right moment, you will need to trip the shutter a fraction of a second earlier than you think or else you can miss it. Many photographers will also use the drive function to shoot a rapid series of images, but some level of anticipation is still useful.

If you are shooting with a compact there is often a significant delay before the picture is taken. You can minimise this by

pre-focussing. Half-press the shutter release whilst pointing the camera at the place that the action will occur, and then keep the button held down to hold that focus. When the action happens simply complete pressing the shutter release.

Some subjects don’t suit being photographed in this way. If you freeze the motion of a speeding car it can look parked!

Blurring actionIf you use a slow shutter speed then your subject will move during the exposure, causing it to blur. This can be really effective with subjects without much detail like waterfalls and relatively slow moving subjects. If something is very fast moving and blurs too much then it will be completely unrecognisable!

If you use a slow enough speed then even subjects like crowds can be blurred in your image.

Blurred subjects look more effective if there are parts of the picture that are completely sharp. This is best achieved if you put the camera on a tripod to minimise the chance of camera shake.

Experiment with the shutter speed to get different amounts of blur and review the image to see which gives the best results.

Movement can come in all guises when you travel: you might want to photograph a horse race, a waterfall, a speeding tuk tuk or even the running of the bulls in Pamplona. How you decide to do this, can make or break your image. Stylistic you have essentially have three options: freeze, blur or pan!

shooting movement


PanningFor subjects like cars that look stationary if you freeze them, or unrecognisable if you blur them, then there is a third option: panning. This is when you use a relatively slow shutter speed and move the camera to follow the motion of your subject. Your subject will stay relatively sharp, but the background will show motion blur.

If you use a telephoto lens and are perpendicular to the action, then you will get a very flat pan, with little distortion. If you shoot with a wideangle lens and the action is coming towards you then you will get an exploding effect with lots of distortion. As with blur, experiment with the shutter-speed you use, depending on the speed of the action. Generally between 1 and 1/15 second is a good starting point.

With all of these techniques, remember that when you change the shutter-speed you will need to correspondingly adjust either the aperture or the sensitivity (ISO) so that you get the same exposure.

Image captions:TL : Monks on their alms round, Luang Prabang, Laos. If there is any movement in the scene at all, then you can use a slow shutter speed to introduce blur into the picture. Here the subjects were moving very slowly, and so I used a speed of a couple of seconds, with the camera on a tripod to make sure that the non-moving parts of the image are sharp.

TR : Polo game, Chitral, Pakistan. Using a very fast shutter speed will help to freeze the action - often leaving people and animals in seemingly impossible positions, that you would never be able to appreciate with the naked eye. The aim is to completely freeze the action with no blurring at all.

MR : Horseman, Mongolia. If you shoot at right-angles to the motion and pan with a telephoto lens then you get a very flat panning effect. This will keep the subject sharp but blur the background. You will need a relatively slow speed, depending on the speed of the movement - in this case, around 1/15th second.

BR : Speeding tuk tuk, Chiang Mai, Thailand. If the direction of motion is towards you, and you pan with a wideangle les, you get a very dynamic ‘exploding’ effect. The background is still more blurred than the subject, but the subject is distorted.


The depth of field is the amount of the scene on either side of the focus point that is also in focus. This simple thing can dramatically affect the look and effectiveness of your picture.

The aperture is the main thing that controls depth of field, although it is also affected by the focal length of the lens. You essentially have two options: you can have a shallow depth of field where only a small part of the picture is in focus, or a broad depth of field where most, if not all of your picture is in focus.

Being shallowA shallow depth of field is more easy to perceive. This is given by using a wider aperture (the smaller numbers on the aperture scale). If you shoot a portrait and use a wide aperture then you can make sure that only the subject is in focus, and the background is blurred. This avoids a distracting background, and also helps to concentrate the attention of the person looking at the picture.

By having just a part of the picture in focus, you can in effect tell them where to look, and what you think is important in the picture. It can be a bit like standing next to them and pointing at something!

The downside of a shallow depth of field, is that if you are forced to use a wide aperture because of low light levels or to allow a fast shutter speed to freeze motion, then parts of the picture that you want to be sharp will render out of focus - which can ruin an otherwise great image.

Keeping it sharpA picture with a broad depth of field is more difficult to recognise, but anyone looking at the picture should be struck by an overall feeling of quality. Whether you are shooting a landscape, or a cityscape, what you want to achieve is a picture where everything from the foreground, as far as the eye can see is in focus.

To achieve this, you will need to use one of the smallest apertures (using one of the larger numbers on the aperture scale). This might involve using a commensurately slow shutter-speed and so you might need to use a tripod to avoid camera shake.

You can also maximise the depth of field by controlling where you focus. A good rule of thumb us that the depth of field stretches twice as far behind the focus point as it does in front, so if you focus 1/3 of the way into the scene you will get the maximum depth of field for a given aperture.

In the previous article on shooting movement I said that if there is any movement in the scene, then the most creative thing that you can do is to control how that movement is reproduced through the shutter speed. If there is no movement then the most creative thing is to control the depth of field.

understanding aperture


Other things to considerOther factors that influence the depth of field are focal length and also the subject distance. Focussing on close subjects gives much less depth of field than objects that are further away.

Another thing that affects depth of field is the sensor size. A telephoto lens has much less depth of field at a given aperture than a wideangle lens. The smaller sensors and lack of control over the aperture in compact cameras make it much more difficult to achieve a shallow depth of field, but using a more telephoto setting and selecting a sport or action picture scene mode will help.

If you want a broad depth of field, then using a wider zoom setting and selecting the landscape picture scene mode will easily achieve this.

One other important thing to remember is that if you are not using an automatic mode then you will have to balance any aperture selection with a corresponding shutter-speed otherwise you will affect the exposure.

Image captions:TL : Making a clay statue, Kolkata, India. If you use a wide aperture of around f4, then you will get a very shallow depth of field that can isolate a subject from the background. The effect is a lot like pointing something out to the person looking at the picture. The background is out of focus, but still recognisable. It gives a context to the picture, but without distracting from the main subject.

TR : Tea plantation, Kerala, India. Shooting with a wideangle lens and using a relatively narrow aperture has meant that all odf the scene, from the very foreground to the horizon is in focus. Setting the focus point to about a third of the way into the scene has maximised the depth of field.

MR : Monk at Shey Gompa, Ladakh, India. When shooting a protrait, a telephoto lens and a wide aperture can render the background out of focus so that it is recognisable, but doesn’t distract from the subject. Experiment with different apertures to vary the degree of blur until you get the effect that you want.

BR : Bas-reliefs, Angkor Wat, Cambodia. To maximise the depth of field I shot with a very wideangle lens of 17mm and used the smallest aperture possible. This meant that I had to select a shutter speed of a couple of seconds, and so had to use a tripod to avoid camera shake. Alsouth not as obvious an effect as a shallow depth of field, the perception given by this image is one of quality and detail.


The reason that we see light as white is that our brain automatically compensates for any cast, based upon our knowledge of the world around us. We know that a white wall is white, and so our brains will ignore any more obvious casts.

The main colour range that you will find on your images is from deep red, through to a cool blue. It is measured in degrees kelvin. The reddest light is from fires or candles (1600°K). This moves to a deep orange at sunset, then a distinctly yellow cast from incandescent light (2800°K). White daylight is defined as that which occurs around midday (5500°K). Light from overcast days has a blue tinge, moving to a deeper cast in the shadows (7000°K), or when reflected from snow.

Off this scale, most fluorescent light renders with a nasty green cast. This is somewhat sickly, and most of the times you will want to filter this out, but sometimes it can be left in as a special effect.

Auto White BalanceLuckily, your camera has the same functionality as your brain when it comes to correcting any unwanted colour casts. If you switch on the Auto White Balance (AWB), then your camera will do you it’s best to

neutralise any colour casts in your image. But this is only half the story! To really get the best pictures sometime you will not always want to remove the colour casts. Sometimes you will want to preserve them, and at other times even enhance them.

If you are shooting a sunset, then you will want to set your camera to the daylight setting. This will preserve the warm tones that make up the red sky.

White balance with JPEGIf you are shooting in the JPEG format, then the best bet is to get everything right in camera. You can correct this on a computer, but this will result in a loss of quality. If you simply switch on the Auto White Balance function, then your camera will seek to remove every colour cast, whereas you will want to preserve some. My advice is to switch the white balance to daylight. This means that the camera will emulate an old film camera. Sunsets won’t be neutralised, and if you get up in the morning then the warm tones will be preserved.

If you shoot in any artificial light, then select the incandescent, or fluorescent settings. To warm up the picture, use the cloudy or the more pronounced shade setting. This would be a good setting

Like many things in this world, light is not quite what it seems. What passes for white light is often far from it when photographed. Light has a temperature, which gives it a colour cast. Shadows and cloudy light have a blue tinge. Light from candles or incandescent bulbs have a warm tinge.

understanding

white balance


for shooting in snow or at the top of a mountain. The problem with this, is that you have to remember to unset any of these settings once you move into a different type of light or everything will go horribly wrong. These presets also don’t allow you any easy way to fine-tune without delving into the depths of the settings.

White balance with RAWIf you are shooting with RAW format, then you can adjust the white balance later on a computer, without any loss of quality. This has a lot of advantages. You can make slight corrections in controlled conditions, and not by squinting at the screen on the back of the camera in direct sunshine. You can also make sure that the colours are precisely how you want them: subtly warming up a snow shot, enhancing the colours of a sunset, and removing most of the colour cast from candlelight, but leaving enough for it to still have warmth.

If you are shooting RAW, then you can just leave the camera set to the Auto White Balance function, as you can adjust this later. Alternatively, set the camera to daylight, and make any changes in the same way as with JPEGs. This will mean that your pictures are closer to how you remember them, which can help during RAW processing. The good thing about RAW though, is that if you gorget to change anything, it really doesn’t matter. You can change it later with no loss of quality.

Image captions:TL : Polar bear family, Svalbard. Snow tends to reflect more of the blue wavelengths of light, leading to a pronounced blue tinge. To negate this, set your camera to the cloudy or even shade setting to bring a touch af warmth back to the image.

TR : Sweet sellar, Marrakech. This image is lit by artifical light, which gives an orange cast to the image. This can be controlled by using the auto WB setting, but you will get more control if you shoot RAW and adjust the white balance precisely on a computer.

MR : Pilgrims an the Ujjain Kumbh Mela, India. This scene was lit with fluorescent light, giving a horrible green cast. This can be filtered out uding the camera WB presets but as with any artificial source, you will get better results shooting RAW and adjusting white balance later.

BR : Sunrise over Lake Huangshan, China. If you shoot a sunset or sunrise with the camera set to Auto White Balance, your camera will filter out some of the warmth that got you up early in the first place! Use a daylight setting, or even a sunset picture scene mode if you are shooting with a compact camera.


Sensitivity is essentially a measure of the amount of light needed to make a correct exposure. The greater the sensitivity of your camera, the less light is needed. Measured in ISO, the higher the number, the greater the sensitivity. This all sounds very technical, but in practice, it gives you greater freedom to take pictures and to experiment with settings.

Most cameras start at a base sensitivity of around ISO 200. Every time you double the ISO you need half the amount of light. In photographic terms this is called a stop, and is the same as a whole click of aperture or a doubling or halving of the shutter-speed. So increasing the ISO from 200 to 800 could make the difference between a potentially shaky 1/15 second and 1/60 second.

Why alter the sensitivityThe main reason for increasing sensitivity is to be able to use a faster shutter-speed. This can avoid camera shake, allowing you to take pictures in situations where you would otherwise need a flash, or a tripod.

You can also increase the ISO to stop allow you to use a faster shutter speed, to prevent fast moving subjects from blurring in your picture.

Finally, increasing the sensitivity will let you use a smaller aperture: giving more depth of field, so more of the subject in front of you will be in focus. This can be perfect when photographing interiors, or even landscapes in poor light!

Controlling the way that movement renders in your images and managing the depth of field of the picture are two of the most creative things that you can master with your photography. Combine this with the ability to shoot using natural light, and you can see that changing sensitivity is one of the key foundations of digital photography.

Drawbacks of high ISO As with car manufacturers and their speedometers, camera manufacturers often put wildly inflated maximum ISO capabilities on their cameras. Although on paper, they are capable of certain sensitivities, in practical terms quality implications render them unusable.

The main issue is so-called high ISO noise. This is a random speckling and stray coloured pixels that can spoil an image. Ugly and distracting, it can obscure detail and light up dark areas of the picture with random bright and coloured dots.

Mastering sensitivity is not a call to embrace your feminine side, rather to learn about one of the most powerful capabilities of your camera: the ability to change the sensitivity of the camera and handle different levels of light on a shot-by-shot basis.

mastering sensitivity


With early digital cameras this used to be a much greater problem, even at relatively low ISOs. Modern cameras though have much better high ISO capabilities. Bear in mind that the size of the sensor also has an effect. The smaller the sensor, the greater the noise at a given sensitivity.

Higher sensitivities are also not as good at handling contrast, and in general, whilst you should raise the ISO whenever you need to, it is best to keep the ISO as low as is practical.

It is also worth experimenting with your camera to find the maximum ISO that you are happy with. This will vary by camera, by subject and even by your own personal preferences.

Auto ISOMany cameras have an Auto ISO setting that will raise or lower the ISO within set parameters. This can be a useful feature in lower light levels, but can take away creativity and control when you want to use a slower speed for blur or for creative reasons. My preference is to leave this switched off, and make changes myself, but if you don’t want to delve into your camera settings then Auto ISO might help you to get more images that don’t show camera shake if you forget to change the settings yourself.

Image captions:TL : Monks at morning prayers, Hemis Gompa, Ladakh, India. Using a high sensitivity of around ISO 2000 has allowed me to shoot in the very low light levels of this monastery without haveing to use an intrusive flash, that would also ruin the soft natural light.

TR : Kon-tiki Museum, Oslo, Norway. There are many museums and interiors where you are not allowed to use a tripod, or flash. In these cases your only option is to shoot with a high ISO to avoid camera shake.

MR : Evening Prayers, Varanasi, India. Flash light only works in one plane. This means that if the foreground of the picture is correctly exposed, the background can be far too dark. Similarly, if the background is correctly expiosed, then the foreground can be over-exposed and bleached out. Shooting with a high ISO and using available light will allow the light to be more balanced and natural.

BR : Amusement Park, Copenhagen, Denmark. Even in situations when you are able to use a tripod, shooting with a high ISO can avoid any subject blur, which is caused by movement during long exposures. Using a high ISO doesn’t exactly freeze the movement, it will make it far more recognisable and non-blurred.


The first thing to say is that shooting super-long exposures isn’t for everyone. At least shooting super-long exposures isn’t for every camera! Many simple cameras simply can’t do it. In general, you will need a fairly sophisticated compact, or a DSLR to have the level of control, and of course the range of shutter speeds available.

The length of the shutter speed needed will depend on the speed of the subject and also how blurred you want the subject to be. As a guide though, you should look at any thing from a few seconds to 30 minutes or more. Obviously the slower moving the subject – such as star trails – will need much longer exposure times.

Even sophisticated cameras will only have programmable shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds. For anything greater than this, you will need to use a locking remote release, and set the camera to the BULB setting which keeps the shutter open for as long as the button is locked down.

Expose yourselfYou will need to balance the exposure. Each doubling of the shutter speed (for instance from 2 to 4 seconds) lets in twice as much light into the camera. To avoid overexposure and your picture being too light, you will

need to balance this by closing the aperture by an entire stop (for instance from f8 to f11).

The overall exposure can usually be metered using the built-in camera meter, but take a few different versions using different exposures, and different shutter speeds to have a range of effects. You can assess the results on the LCD screen to check that things are going right.

Sometimes the ambient light will be too bright to allow a slow enough shutter speed to be used without overexposure. In these cases you will need to use a Neutral Density (ND) filter to reduce the overall light levels by a given number of stops.

A few practicalitiesIt might sound obvious, but you will also need a tripod. Super-long exposures will only work when a part of the picture is kept perfectly still and non-blurred. The longer the exposure, the most stable (and usually heavy) the tripod you will need. You can see more about shooting with a tripod here.

Most DSLRs have a Long Exposure Noise Reduction mode, which attempts to map out random noise on the picture that results from very long exposures. This creates a much higher quality image, but

All photography is an abstraction, creating something that looks a bit like the real world, but is changed by the photographic process. One technique is to use a super-long exposure which allows even the slowest moving subject to move during the exposure rendering it completely blurred and indistinct!

superlong exposures


the downside is a doubling of the effective exposure time. Leave this setting switched on, and your camera will automatically use it when the shutter speed is long enough for it to be effective. This is usually anything longer than a few seconds.

Blurred subjectsOne of the most favourite subjects for creating long-exposure blur is water. It can look a little clichéd, but waterfalls, coasts and rivers can all be shot with a long shutter-speed to create an ethereal misty blur. These are all the more effective when there are rocks or other objects in the water that are perfectly sharp.

If you are taking night photographs, then moving vehicles – whether it is the lights from traffic or even flying planes – can be used to fill the dark space with long trails of light. The longer the shutter speed the longer and smoother the light trails.

You don’t need great movement to create blur. It is possible to even create star trails at night, with just the rotation of the planet supplying the motion. Depending on the shutter speed this can create vast arcs of star trails.

Image captions:TL : Pilgrims on the Barkhor, Lhasa, Tibet. I wanted t take a shot that showed the streams of pilgrims who flood around the Barkhor pilgrimage circuit in Lhasa, Tibet. Locating a suitable vantage point, I used an exposure of around 20 seconds to allow the people to blur.

TR : Iguassu Falls, Argentina. This is quite a clched way to photograph waterfalls, but it is quite a difficult technique to master – especially in very bright light. I needed to use a could of neutral density (ND) filters to reduce the light enough to allow a shutter speed of a few seconds, even with a narrow aperture of f22. A good tripod was vital, as the buffeting of the wind pushed by all of that water threatened camera shake.

MR : Star trails over Ait Benhaddhou, Morocco. To renderstar trails this long I had to use a shutter speed of almost 30 minutes! Combined with the long exposure noise reduction, this lead to a total exposure time of almost an hour. The start trails are in a circle as the North Star happened to be right above this ancient ruined kasbah.

BR : Religious paintings inside a cave monastery, Ethiopia.The interior of this cave monastery was so dark, I could barely see to focus. The exposure time on film was about 4 seconds, and this brought out all of the colours in the pictures.


Travel photography often involves taking pictures of some incredible people and things. There is a tendency – especially when looking at one of the great travel icons – to be so blown away by what you are photographing that you completely forget about creativity, just point the camera and ‘click’. The result is so often a badly composed picture, with the subject dumped in the middle of the frame, and too much dead space at the top or bottom of the frame.

This is exacerbated by the fact that many cameras have a focus sensor that is dead in the middle of the frame, causing you to sub-consciously place the subject in the centre of the photo.

All is not lost though, if you follow these few simple rules, and pause to think a little bit about composition before taking a picture, then you can come away with more shots that you will be proud of.

Rule of thirdsPhotographic convention says that instead of placing something in the middle of the picture, you should mentally divide the image into thirds, and place the image on one of the third lines. This could mean placing the subject of a portrait one third

of the way into the frame from the left or placing the horizon of a landscape a third of the way up a picture, and letting the sky fill the top two thirds.

If you can place the subject on one of the intersections where the third lines meet then your image will be particularly well balanced!

Rule of not centredThe problem with the rule of thirds is that it can be somewhat predictable and repetitive. I prefer to follow my own rule – the rule of not centred, which says that you can put the subject anywhere, as long as it isn’t in the middle of the picture!

This allows you to exaggerate the rule of thirds by placing the subject at the very edge of the frame. Sometimes to emphasise something in the image, such as scale, other times to create a more striking image.

Direct into the frameYou picture will look more balanced if you direct things into and not out of the frame. This might involve having someone facing inwards, or making sure that any movement is directed into the frame by leaving more space in front of a moving subject than behind it.

It doesn’t matter what camera you use, you can dramatically improve your pictures by thinking about the composition. This can make your photos more balanced and visually pleasing, so that they are

mastering composition


Use diagonalsStrong diagonals can lead the eye of the viewer of your picture into the frame and towards the subject of the picture. Diagonals or even powerful curves occur far more often in real life than you might imagine. The trick is to notice them and then compose the picture in order to accentuate the effect.

Frame your subjectsBy shooting through arches or even windows you can frame your subject in a way that makes the picture more visually exciting. You will need to be careful about the exposure as large dark areas can fool the camera exposure meter. The best way around this is to use a spot meter and only meter the lit parts of the image.

You can also frame an image with overhanging foliage or branches. This can be a fantastic way to crop out an overcast and lacklustre sky.

Image captions:TL : Leather tannery, Fes, Morocco. Always leave space for motion in your picture, whether this is actual movement, or just the way that someone is looking. This will make your picture look more balanced.

TR : Doges Palace, Venice. This picture uses two different compositional devices. The subject is placed right at the edge of the scene (following my ‘rule of not centred’) and there is a strong diagonal leading the viewers eye to the subject.

MR : Framed Taj Mahal, India. Strong frames can be a useful compositional device concentrating the eye on the subject. It can be a good technique to mask an uninteresting sky or cut peripheral clutter from your picture.

BR : Si Phan Don, Laos. On the face of it this picture follows the rule of thirds, which states that a picture will look more balanced if the subject or the horizon lies on one of the third lines on a picture – as can be seen fromthe overlaid lines. For me though, the real subject is the small boat, which follows my ‘rule of not centred’.


I can virtually guarantee that the majority of the most beautiful and striking pictures that you see of many subjects, especially landscapes, will have been taken at the beginning or end of the day.

Some times though you won’t be able to avoid taking pictures during the worst hours at midday. You might be on an organised tour, or on the sort of schedule that won’t let you be around for the atmospheric morning or evening light. Depending on the topography of the subject you are photographing, this can result in deep areas of shadow in places where the contrast between the lit an unlit parts of the picture will be too great for the camera to handle. In other parts of the picture the lighting will be bland and flat, with little or no definition, and often a smattering of unattractive blue haze!

What to do?Luckily, there are a few things that you can do to mitigate this, but it is worth remembering that in essence, as the saying goes, you can’t make a purse out of a sow’s ear! If the light is poor, then your pictures will show poor light!

One of the best ways to mask poor midday light is to avoid large sweeping

landscapes altogether. Close ups, especially those that manage to cut out the sky, will avoid showing the quality of the light, especially if you focus on areas sunlight, as opposed to all-obliterating shadow! This doesn’t have to be an extreme close-up of a plant or a tree, just cropping out a part of a landscape using a telephoto lens can make your picture more visually pleasing.

Another good way to come away with good pictures is to have an object such as a tree or an animal in the foreground, with the landscape in the background. This will make the poor light on the landscape less prominent and the overall shot more interesting and complex.

If you are shooting digital, then consider shooting the more versatile RAW format. This will allow you to reduce the contrast by filling in the shadows slightly, warm-up the picture using the white balance function and also boost the saturation to make the colours more vibrant when you process the RAW file.

One thing to always remember, is that sometime memories are more important than prize-winning photographs! Don’t miss out on the chance of photographing one of the wonders of the world, just because you are only there at noon.

To some extent, the old photographer’s maxim about only taking pictures in the so-called Golden Hours – the first and last hours of the day – rings true. The light is soft, warm and directional, but without the harsh shadows that are often seen during the midday hours, when the sun is directly overhead.

using poor light


Use the negativesSometimes it will be the weather that counts against you. The light might be overcast and hazy or there might be rainy or stormy skies obscuring your subject.

In these circumstances, try to photograph the conditions, don’t try to photograph in spite of the conditions. Your pictures will be more dramatic and unique than the plethora of sunny-day pictures that are out there.

Stormy skies can provide a dramatic backdrop to a picture. You also have the chance that a beam of sunlight will break through the clouds, lighting up a part of the scene.

If there are overcast skies, try to shoot into the light. This will give your pictures light and shadow, and make the image look less dull.

If there is bad weather then use it in the photograph. Some places are defined by rain. Think of Vietnamese paddy fields or the Indian monsoon. You might need to protect your camera with a raincover, but it can give dramatic and atmospheric images.

Image captions:TL : Machu Picchu under stormy skies, Peru. Don’t ever give up on the light. Even the darkest sky can let through a beam of sunlight that will lift a dull picture. I spent a whole day in the rain waiting for the sky to clear, and was rewarded for a brief moment by this scene. The result is a unique image that very few people will see if the visit this site.

TR : Rain on the sea, Croatia. If the light is so bad then photograph it. Tweak the white balance to make the blue tint more blue. Your picture will be more atmospheric and will have a feeling of coldness to it.

MR : Detail of a Chinese temple, Leshan. If the light is too bad and dull to photograph wide or long shots, then look out for characterisitc details. Photographing these up close will disguise the fact that the light is poor.

BR : Stormy sky over Botswana. Stormy skies can make for a dramatic and unique picture that will often be more striking than a picture shot under ‘perfect’ sunny conditions. Compose the picture to accentuate the part of the picture that is the most important: in this case the sky.


Most people are comfortable with using a telephoto lens, to make something appear bigger in the picture, and this tends to make pictures more dramatic, but the wideangle settings tend to be largely ignored or misused.

Lens choice is about more than just crop. Each style of lens has it’s own unique characteristics. As wideangle lenses tend to cram more of the scene in the frame and have a wider angle of view than the human eye, they tend to distort the image. Some people dislike this effect, but I love this effect and often compose my pictures to exaggerate it.

Get in closeShooting with a wideangle lens will allow you to get closer to the subject. This has a number of advantages. It allows you to interact with the subject, and makes it much harder for anyone to get in between you and the subject. This is perfect for busy and crowded situations like festivals. It will make your pictures seem more engaged and dramatic.

To exaggerate the distortion effect of a wideangle lens, try to shoot closer to the subject. This gives a more dynamic distorted effect. I often get much closer to the thing

I am photographing than I need to be and zoom to a wider setting, just to magnify the effect.

Wideangle for portraitsConventional logic says that you should use a mild telephoto lens for shooting portraits, as it gives a pleasing perspective on the face. In many cases this is true, but if you shoot a little closer, and use a mildly wideangle lens, then you can get a more engaging portrait. This effect is magnified if the subject of the portrait is leaning towards you slightly.

A wideangle lens is also perfect for shooting an environmental portrait. You can get on close to your subject, in order to preserve the feeling of connection and empathy, but still be able to show enough of the scene to give a sense of context to the portrait. This style of shooting will also give your picture depth: with a foreground and a background.

Most people would advocate shooting candid portraits with a telephoto lens, but you can also shoot them with a wide lens. Point the camera slightly away from the subject, at an interesting or significant object and you can still have the subject of the portrait in the corner of the frame.

People use different lenses to make things bigger or smaller in the frame, right? So for something big, like a landscape, then you should use the widest zoom setting! This is the accepted logic, but it misses out on one of the most creative aspects of photography: a lens’ creative effect on your pictures.

shooting wideangle


You can also accentuate distortion by tilting the camera upwards or downwards. This will cause the subject to narrow at the top or bottom, further distorting it, and creating a more dynamic effect.

Accentuate perspectiveA wideangle lens will seemingly exaggerate the perspective: making things in the frame appear further apart then they are in reality. This can be used to make the subject stand out from the background, effectively making the subject larger compared to the background – effectively making the background smaller relative to the subject.

This can be a great technique for making the subject of a portrait stand out from crowds behind, or from a landscape. This effect can be magnified by shooting closer with a wider lens.

Image captions:TL : Monastery festival, Lake Tsomoriri, Ladakh. As a part of this festival, the monastery yak is realeased for merit. It was quite feisty and charged the crowd,. The pilgrims were finding it hard restraining it. I shot up close with a wide lens, which meant that no-one could stand in front of me and get in the way. It also gave a degree of distortion which adds to the dynamism and atmosphere of the image.

TR : Elephant at the Sonepur Mela, India. This elephant is an a livestock market and religious festival in India. I wanted to create a dynamic and distored effect where the elephant stood out from the many crowds and so got up close and shot with a super-wide 14mm lens. I have to be careful as the trunk was in rage of this very expensive lens, but the image is quite striking.

MR : Beggar, Varanasi, India. This small boy was dressed up as a Hindu god and sent out to beg in the backstreets of Varanasi. I wanted to take a picture that showed his frailty, and so stood right over him, with a wideangle lens. The distortion accentuates how small he is.

BR : Madrassa, Marrakech, Morocco. Shooting this interior courtyard of this detailled madrassa in Marrakech with a wideangle lens and tilting the camera has created significant distortion that makes the image appear more graphic.


One of the main drawbacks of the powerful telephoto zoom lenses is the aperture. This is the hole that lets the light into the camera. Large professional lenses - like the ones you see lined up at sports events - have large front elements and relatively wide apertures to let more light in. This allows faster shutter speeds to be used,which avoids camera shake where the camera moves during the exposure.

Compact cameras and the amateur super-zooms tend to have much smaller apertures, which let far less light into the camera - especially at the telephoto settings. This can mean that they are only really usable in strong lighting conditions - especially if you combine the small aperture with the fact that a telephoto lens magnifies any camera shake, as well as magnifying the subject.

Using a powerful telephoto lens takes a whole new way of seeing. On the simplest level, this involves standing in front of an entire scene - like a massive landscape - and spotting a small part that you will then isolate and magnify with your telephoto lens. This can often be a more effective way of showing a mountain range or a significant detail like a farm building in a field, than trying to show the entire vista.

A different realityA telephoto lens will have the effect of altering the apparent perspective of your image, changing the relationship between objects in the frame. Whereas a wideangle lens makes objects in the frame appear further apart, exaggerating the perspective, a telephoto lens makes objects in the frame appear closer together - flattening the apparent perspective.

This can be a fantastic way to make your subject appear closer to the background and make that background appear larger in the image. This can be used to create a link with the subject and a significant background; make two objects appear linked even though they are quite far away and especially to make crowds appear more packed and more crowded!

Shooting with a powerful telephoto lens is really effective at making the sun appear larger when creating a silhouette with a sunset, but be careful of looking at the sun with a telephoto lens as it can permanently damage your sight.

A telephoto lens has inherently less depth of field than a wideangle lens. The more powerful the lens, the less the depth of field. This is the amount of the scene in

These days, even a lot of compact cameras have powerful telephoto lenses built in. These can have the magnification power of some quite massive professional lenses, and camera manufacturers are jostling with each other to compare sizes! But as we are all regularly told: size isn’t everything.

telephoto shooting


front of and behind the subject that are also in focus. You can exploit this effect by using a telephoto lens to make you subject stand out from an out of focus background.

Keep it stillA telephoto lens won’t just magnify the subject: it will also magnify any camera shake. This can make it tricky to handhold. A good rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed faster than the power of the lens. So to handhold a 300mm lens, use a speed of 1/400 second or more.

Some lenses have a built in vibrations reduction or image stablisation system that can help you to handhold at slower speeds.

Accessorise!There are a couple of thing that can help when shooting with a telephoto lens: a lens hood will help prevent flare (reflections on the lens that affect picture quality), and a tripod or monopod can help prevent camera shake.

Image captions:TL : Crowds at the Kumbh Mela, India. Shooting crowds or jumbled buildings from a high vantage point using a telephoto lens is perfect for compressing the apparant perspective and making them look closer together. Crowds will lookmore crowded and jumbled buildings more crowded.

TR : Praying pilgrim, Varanasi, India. Shooting from a distance using a telephoto lens will compress the apparant perspective making the subject appear closer to objects in the background.

MR : Fisherman walking on a lagoon, Socotra, Yemen. A telephoto lens has made this shot look flatter and more painterly. Sometimes isolating a part of a landscape can be more effective than shooting the whole scene with a wideangle lens.

BR : Polar Bear eating a bearded seal, Svalbard. Sometimes a telephoto lens is simply useful for making a subject appear closer! Especially when you are shooting a subject that is difficult to approach!


At it’s simplest, a tripod will help you to shoot in low light levels without increasing the sensitivity, and not get camera shake on your pictures. But it will also open a number of creative options for you.

Even in daylight you will sometimes need to use a narrow aperture to get the maximum depth of field. It will allow you to shoot panoramas, where you combine a number of shots in order to produce either a wide image. Lastly, it can allow you to shoot star trails where you need a massive exposure of 20 minutes or more, or images where you deliberately use a long shutter speed to allow a moving subject to blur.

Choosing a tripodChoosing a tripod is always a trade-off between weight and stability. A large heavy tripod will be perfect for keeping your camera still, but if it is too heavy, you will just never want to carry it with you. The third variable is cost: some of the best tripods for the travel photographer, are lightweight carbon-fibre models, but these are quite costly. It is better to buy one expensive tripod though than a number of useless cheap ones.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all recommendation. It really does depend

on the camera and lens combination you use – or rather the combination that you are aiming to buy in the future. If you have long and heavy lenses, you will need a bigger, more stable tripod.

There is no substitute for trying out a tripod in a store. Tap the end of the lens lightly: if it moves at all, then you risk camera shake when you use it in the field, especially if there is any wind at all.

It is the tripod head that is arguably more important then the legs. Although I have a carbon fibre tripod, I use a standard steel head as I found the recommended magnesium head to unstable in anything but the merest zephyr – especially when using a 300mm telephoto lens.

You will usually have a choice between a ball and socket style head, and a 3-way head. I prefer the latter as you can adjust each axis separately. If you are planning on shooting panoramas, then get one with a spirit level on the body of the tripod as well as the head. Both will need to be lined up for a panorama to work.

If your tripod has a quick-release plate, that fits to the camera allowing you to take the camera on and off quickly, then make sure you have a spare with you. If you loose it, then your tripod is just ballast!

A tripod is a surprisingly emotive issue. I regularly encounter travellers who have built up an irrational hatred of their tripod. Either because it is too flimsy and won’t keep the camera still, or because it is just too heavy. Buying the wrong tripod will serious damage your holiday.

mastering tripods


Using a tripodExtend the tripod as little as possible: it will be more stable. Ignore the centre column that will raise up the head further. Using this will make the tripod very shaky. If you are tall, and don’t want to bend your legs: buy a taller tripod!

If there is any wind, then take the strap off the camera. If it waves around in the wind, it will cause camera shake.

You will need some sort of remote or cable release to avoid camera shake when you press the release button. Some cameras also have a mirror lock-up facility to minimise shake. If your camera has one - use it!

Alternatives to a tripodIn truth, the high ISO of most modern digital has progressed to a level where you would need to be quite a keen photographer to even think about a tripod. There are some quality trade-offs, such as noise on the images, but it is worth considering if you really do need a tripod.

If not, here are a few alternatives. None will give you the full flexibility of a tripod, but they will be easier to carry.

Monopod – a one-legged tripod! Great for keeping long telephoto lenses still.Beanbag – Similar job to a monopod, but you need something to rest it on!Table-top tripod – Will keep a small camera still, but very short!Clamp-support – Fixes to a solid object, allowing you to mount a camera.

mastering tripods

Image captions:TL : Djemaa el Fna at night. If you are shooting in low light levels, such as night photography then a tripod will help you to avoid camera shake. This can also be done by increasing the ISO, but using a tripod will let you use a lower ISO for quality.

TR : Prayer Wheels at Alchi, Ladakh. A tripod has allowed a slow shutter speed which has introduced blur into the spinning prayer wheel. The corresponding narrow aperture has given a wide depth of field.

MR : Taman Negara Rainforest, Malaysia. Using a tripod will allow you to use a narrow aperture in low light levels to get the maximum depth of field. This will make the picture sharp from front to back, and give an overall impressions of sharpness and quality.

BR : Thai wat at Sunrise. If you are shooting a reflection and using a neutral density filter to balance the sky with the reflection, then a tripod will allow you to line up the filter.


If you are serious about photography and have a DSLR with a number of lenses, then you will need some sort of camera bag to lug it all around with you. Camera bags are a trade-off between portability and access. If you have a lot of gear then a backpack-style camera bag is great for carrying lots of equipment.

A shoulder style bag is great for walking around taking pictures, as you can easily access stuff. I use a combination of both: a backpack for transporting and a small shoulder style bag for day-to-day use.

Cards and card caseCamera memory has never been so cheap. Make sure that you have plenty of cards and you won’t have to skimp on those memories. It is also worth having a decent card case to organise all of the cards, so you know which have been used.

Backup driveDigital photographs are inherently ephemeral: they can be easily deleted, corrupted and lost forever. However, they can also be easily copied and so it is easy to make a back-up. I will always carry a laptop and external hard disc, and make three copies before I erase and re-use a memory

card. If you don’t go to this level, I would recommend a stand-alone backup drive and enough memory cards that you don’t have to reuse them so you will have two copies.The Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA has a screen and can copy cards direct without use of a computer.

Remote releaseIf you are going to shoot with a tripod, then you will need some sort of remote release to avoid camera shake by touching it directly. Many cameras have a bundled remote release. If not you can pick up a wireless remote from Ebay. Get one that has a bulb facility for unlimited exposures.

Spirit levelIf you are going to shoot panoramas using a tripod, then you will need to make sure that the camera is totally level, otherwise the images won’t line up. A good way is to use a mini spirit level, which will sit on the camera’s hotshoe. Unbranded on Amazon these cost just a few pounds.

Polarising filterYou should have a UV filter on every lens to reduce UV haze, and also to protect the lens. It is also worth having a polarising

A comprehensive kit is about more than just camera and lenses: you will need some other equipment. The secret though is to pack as small and effectively as possible. You don’t want to take too much - but neither do you want to find out on top of a mountain that you have left something vital behind!

in your camera bag


filter. Under certain conditions these can reduce reflections, cut out haze and also make washed out blue skies more intense.

Camera cleaningA blower is useful to clean the camera and lenses, including blowing on the sensor to remove dust. Never use compressed air inside the camera, and never touch the sensor with a blower brush.

If your camera doesn’t have a sensor cleaning function, consider one of the Visible Dust sensor brushes. These will statically charge and lift dust from the sensor, but use with great care!

Washable micropore cloths are great for cleaning lenses.

Universal adaptorA good electrical adaptor will allow you to charge equipment everywhere, and also if it has a fuse, will protect against electrical surges. One with a USB port allows devices to be charged direct.

As a professional photographer, I carry a bunch of other things. This includes a reflector for lightening shadows by reflecting light when shooting portraits, a GPS tagger so I have the precise location embedded into pictures to help with captioning, a ring-flash adaptor to get even light when using a flash and even a calibration target to calibrate my cameras on the road! There does seem to be no limit to what you can sell a photographer, and then watch them try to carry it all!

Image captions:TL : Range of accessories. You will need a lot of different accessories as a travel photographer, but be careful of taking too much as this will weigh you down! Go for the smallest and lightest things that you can find. I always get electrical devices with two-pin Euro plugs as these are the smallest.

TR : Memory card case. The last thing that you want to do is loose a full memory card. Get a good card case and make sure that it has a system for identifying which cards have been used and which are empty.

MR : Camera cleaning kit. Even if your camera has a vibration cleaning system you will need to have a cleaning kit. I use a blower brush and micropore cloths for lenses. I also pack a sensor cleaning brush in case the blower doesn’t shift any stubborn dust from the sensor.

BR : The Swiss Travel Adaptor is fused to protect valuable equipment from power surges. It will fit just about every electrical socket and even has a USB adaptor to charge devices directly. Remember to bring a couple of spare fuses just in case!

The Better Travel Photography range of travel photography tours are bespoke photographic holidays, designed and lead by Steve Davey with land arrangements by some of the biggest names in the adventure travel industry. They draw on Steve’s years of experience and intimate knowledge of some of the most fascinating and evocative parts of our planet.

One of our trips will benefit your photography in a number of ways. Firstly you will be exploring some of the most incredible and photogenic parts of the world on a tour designed around photography and maximising your photographic opportunities. You will travelling in the company of other keen photographers, benefitting from their enthusiasm and experience and certainly not look down upon for wanting to spend time taking pictures.

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Travel Photography Tours with Steve Davey

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Testimonials for past travel photography tours with Steve Davey...

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The land arrangements for these tours are provided by some of the most established names in the adventure travel industry, giving you the security of having your travel arrangements provided by a large company with an extensive back-up network; yet still enjoying the personal touch, enthusiasm and drive of a small operator.

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The key for these trips is coming up with unique and stimulating travel photography experiences, so the itineraries and destinations will regularly change. Each of these photo trips explores the highlights of the area and we aim to organise our schedule in order to visit a different festival or unique cultural event with each departure: giving us the greatest possible cultural experience, as well as a fantastic opportunity for shooting portraits and local colour.

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Travel Photography Tours with Steve Davey

My trip to Morocco with Steve Davey was truly inspirational and one of the best trips I have ever

been one... Steve gave me a great insight into what it takes to be a great travel photographer.

He willing shared his expertise with all the group throughout the day whilst we took photographs and gave talks most evenings. Personally, Steve has help me improve my photography both tech-nically and artistically – I particularly remember him pointing out a great photo opportunity in

Casablanca which he taught me to anticipate and take the photo I want... On top of all of this, Steve is a very charismatic and funny guy who is great

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Testimonials for past travel photography tours with Steve Davey...

www.bettertravelphotography.com

http://www.BetterTravelPhotography.com/phototours

Footprint Travel Photography is all that you will need to improve your travel photography. It takes you from the vital preparation and selecting of equipment before you go, to the ins-and-outs of

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Footprint Travel Photography 2e by Steve Davey

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ISBN: 1906098425

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The author is a great travel photographer, and this book is loaded with beautiful images... [He] writes in a very conversational style and gives lots of detail without getting over techie or trying to sound like he’s smarter than you. (He’s smarter than me, but he doesn’t rub it in your face.)

Scott Kelby - Photoshop Insider

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Documents

Improve Your Travel Photography - Part 1