Selasa, 19 Oktober 2010

Tips & Tricks: Travel Photography

menjulang
menjulang
the famous lighthouse of Lengkuas Island, Belitung, Indonesia.

Never can't wait for my next travel trip. Yes i love traveling. I enjoyed traveling before photography. Then just realized that photographs could become my voice to speak out about anything interesting that exist on the trip. But it's not a walk in a park and should admit that I'm still learning. So, as a student of traveling and photography, here are some lessons that I found in the curriculum:


1. Bring your arsenal, but travel light.
Yes, to make a good photograph you are going to need the right tools. And different situation will require different tools to capture it perfectly. You need wide-angle lens to capture great landscape. You need tele lens to capture an eagle fly over nearby hill. You need natural density filter for slow speed technique. And the list could go on and on, then you start to consider a lot bigger camera bag. But believe me, even if you got gigantic bag to fit them all, you'll be exhausted to carry it around in those traveling days. No fun.
So before you go, just do your homework. Learn about the region first. Does it have wonderful nature? Is the nightlife interesting? Does it have beautiful architecture? These kind of information can help you to decide what gears worth carry around.

messy breaks
messy breaks
taken at Tanjung Layar, Sawarna, Indonesia.


2. Everything could be interesting but pay attention on lighting condition.
So you already there, at a region that fill your dream in the past year and years. Everything looks so unique and adorable like in postcards and flyers. This fantastic coastal line, that famous building, an old lady in her kiosk, a beautiful flower
which you don't have a clue about it's name that grows on rock, you want it all, sure no problemo. But before fill up your gigabyte memory card with data, understand this first, all you want is a good photo, if possible, each one of it. And a good photo needs light.
Pay attention on where light comes from and how this light affects on your subject. Does it give glows to your subject? Does it create an interesting shadow? Does it make your subject to pitch their eyes? And if you think that these lighting condition is good enough and take a few shots, always move your feet around your subject and take another shots. And you can see by changing your position around also affect on how light illuminate your subject and also gives variant to the background.

warung sederhana
warung sederhana
Taken at Gading Food Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia.

3. Before hit the shutter, try to give simple title for the shot just on your mind.
This habit actually helps improving my photographs big time. You could say this simple title as idea. I don't mind. But these words should become an instant trigger about how to execute the subject. And try to avoid noun words for the title, use verb or adjective instead, and phrase should be the best.
Of course after you get back and watch all photos from computer, you already forgot most of simple title you made before. It doesn't matter. Just examine. Because some photos has their own story to tell you about.

So happy traveling folks and wish you fantastic photographs. :)