Sanjeev Verma
A photograph is an x-ray of the mind of the photographer.
Everybody loves to travel to all the exotic places in the world. In the same breath, everybody loves to capture those memories for a future bout of nostalgia as well. We buy expensive phones, even cameras and watch endless photography videos to pick up tips on photography. We even take workshops from experts, whose photographs leave us gasping for breath, in the hope of picking some magic tricks that will help us click our masterpieces in our next outing.
But something always seems missing, as we return with hundreds and thousands of pictures that we do not even have patience to scan through. And when we do get to flip through them, the cropped heads, the missed expressions, the unexpected photobombers, too bright or too dark photos or missing to capture the dome at the top of that monument, discourages us even more. Always wondering what is it that we are missing, as we start to stock our cameras at the back of our cupboards, forgetting to even take it with us in our next trip. The clue is not in the camera settings though. The clue is in the stuff behind our eyes …. Our mindset
It is impossible to click great pictures without having the appropriate mindset for it. Happy mindset equals happy pictures. Frustrated mindset equals frustrating pictures
There are a few guidelines to improve the quality of our travel photographs, presented later in the article. The foundation, however, to getting to the right mindset is to dissociate the experience part of the travel from the memory part of the travel.
When we are visiting say, a great location with waterfalls, our senses are inundated with the sound of water, the caress of cool humid air, fragrance of the flora and fauna around. We are overwhelmed by the enormity of the sensual pleasure as we approach the water falls. This experience is great for rejuvenating our hearts and minds and is exactly the reason why we love to travel in the first place.
This state of experiencing the bliss however is the worst time to take pictures as our mind is pre-occupied with the sensory overwhelm. We are sure to get hazy, tilted, out of focus and uninspiring pictures of people around us. Once we live through that experience and we return to a state where we can observe objectively, that is the time to take the camera out
It is always advisable to experience the travel part first and the go back to that place to take pictures with an objective mind. In many cases going back to a place may not be possible, for example the inside of a shrine or a museum, which is fine. In most cases, one wouldnt be allowed to click pictures in such places anyway. Even if we are allowed to, as we practice with the five guiodelines as presented below, we will take better pictures in places where we only get one shot at them
I would highly recommend the following five guidelines for anyone interested in improving their travel photography.
People vs Place relationship - one of the common pattern i see in many travel photographs is that the people posing for the photographs stand too close to the walls of a monument. Common tendency for people visiting monuments is to touch or lean on walls or even hug them. But that produces a dilemma for the photographer. If we take a wide shot to capture the whole building then your friend will look too tiny. And if you size the photograph according to your friend, then you will miss the grandisoity of the monument.
The most balanced approach is to shoot wide to capture the entire length and breadth of the monument and have your friend stand closer to the camera somewhere near the middle of the frame. Keeping distance between the people and the monument yields the best results of getting both the people and the place in the same frame
Time of the day - Experts rave about the golden hour (an hour just after sunrise) and blue hour (an hour before the sunset) being the best time to take outdoor pictures and that advice is spot on. The color quality and the deep blue skies you get during the golden and the blue hour are unparalleled. As a bonus, you the places of interest are less crowded around these times and you get the place to yourself.
Timing of the click - This is about recognising that precise moment to capture that gives the most aesthetic outcome. It may take a lifetime for someone to perfect that precise moment, however we can make a start and that too a jumpstart.
The key is to start observing activities and anticipating that precise magic moment around you. Some of the observations i have made in my photography journey in pursuit of anticipating those moments are as follows
When taking picture of someone smoking a cigarette, the magic moment is 2 seconds after they have puffed out
The mouth watering pictures of food is at the instance of it being served
The most flattering moment for capturing someone laughing out loud, is towards the end of their laughter.
The best part is that as you start to become better in anticipating the moment, you will start to enjoy the process more and will be inspired to click more and better pictures.
Physics for Deep Blue Skies - ever wondered how do expert photographers get deep saturated blue skies in the middle of the day? Yes, some of them use filters. But you can get a similar effect by just pointing your camera in a different direction. This effect is called polarization of the light. All you have to do is to point your camera towards north or south (perpendicular to the direction of travel for Sun) and you will immediately see the colors of sky changing to deep blue, especially if you are clicking with your phone camera. That does mean, that we have to be creative in our efforts to capture the points of interest from North and South direction only, but the results are worth the effort
Scan a space - One of the biggest challenges as a travel photographer is dealing with the inner mental chatter. The pressure to click unique angles and better views than the ones you have seen on the internet takes the center stage in your mind. And in an attempt to get “better” pictures, you might miss some other fantastic photo opportunities. There might be a tea vendor dressed in traditional colorful clothes right next to the arch you are so desperately trying to click.
During my last trip to the historic renaissance city of Florence, I did not click a single picture of the gorgeous monuments there. All my pictures, which have featured in many magazines and exhibitions, were clicked in back alleys of that town. And to top it all, all the people involved in that trip have happy memories of every photo we clicked.
When you are taking pictures during your travels, you are collecting material that has the potential to inspire you for the rest of your life. Imagine you are heading to a very important meeting one day and you happen to take a look at a great shot you took six months ago during your vacation. The brilliance of that shot and how you took it, can lift you up and inspire you to give your best in that meeting. Isn't that what our hobbies are for? Arent our hobbies meant to enrich the life we live on a day to day basis or during our vacations? Such pursuits will keep pushing us to perfect our craft day after day
