Travel photographer Graeme Green has spent the past 15 years journeying the globe, capturing high-quality snapshots and reporting tales for international newspapers and magazines and The Sunday Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, and National Geographic. He gave us his five Secrets to Taking Great Photos in an earlier column. I spoke with Green again about approximately 5 Ways to Improve Your Travel Photography.
Graeme, what is the most unusual mistake that newbie travel photographers make?
I see loads of humans arrive someplace with their cameras, and they´re so excited about all the new and different things around them that they are attempting to picture almost the whole lot they see. That´s now not honestly engaging with an area significantly, and after they get home, loads of those photos received won’t mean a lot to them or everybody else.
Slow down, transfer your mind on, and walk around and search, perhaps even earlier than taking an unmarried image. Think approximately what you truly find individually thrilling in a place. It’ll make for an extra-centered, extra-interesting pix.
Rushing around photographing the whole thing, you’re now not spending much time composing each photo, in all likelihood. Less is virtually extra. A set of 20 authentic, striking images, which you certainly centered your mind on, will be more interesting to look at than two hundred hurriedly taken snaps. Certainly, editors are curious about a hard and fast of innovative pix that say something about a place, in place of masses of photos that say nothing.
If I want terrific pix, do I need to ditch the telephone and put money into a real camera?
I hardly ever use a phone for photography. However, that’s particularly because I don’t seem able to move for several months on the road without smashing mine. Camera phones can soak up coloration and light incredibly nicely, and you may attain proper results, especially if you get creative and avoid simply taking quick images on the move.
But using an amazing digicam opens up a world of creativity, and, in case you make investments a bit, it needs to assist you in getting better outcomes. It’s now not pretty much the digicam body; however, I am also buying excellent lenses, which make a huge distinction. Travel images may be a highly-priced commercial enterprise. It’s worth discovering considerably before spending some grand on gear and, if viable, testing out a digital camera or lens before buying it.
All that stated, I’ve bnbeen given pictures I took years ago on antique, reasonably-priced, battered cameras and even on a plastic disposable that I’m happy with. A badly taken image on a pinnacle-of-the-variety camera is still a terrible picture. No amount of costly gear can replace creativity, an excellent eye, and difficult work.
How do I avoid taking clichéd journey pix?
Especially by way of being privy to what the clichés are. The Holi festival in India or dawn at Angkor Wat, for instance, had been finished to demise, so in case you’re going to picture nicely-worn subjects, it can pay to have a look at what’s been done before and try to discover an original, non-public take.
I try toto avoid topics that have already been hammered and instead try to find out humans, locations, animals, and landscapes that aren’t completely over-acquainted. In our over-photographed world, that’s getting extra tough. Still, once I can, I like to get to foreign places or journey a piece further to discover something exciting and new to me, and that regularly results in indefinitely exciting image opportunities.
Ultimately, it’s about figuring out your pursuits and pushing yourself to take snapshots that you’re honestly glad about. Looking at books using fantastic photographers can factor you in new guidelines or help you parent out what you do and don’t like in other humans’ paintings, which you may observe on your own. BIt’s about being creative and growing your fashion through the years.
