Now that we are still on vacation, many of us have probably practiced travel photography, a popular discipline that can be very harsh if done professionally. The pressure of time and the need to familiarize yourself with an environment and create good images of the place are a unique challenge for this type of photographers that are not available to most of us. However, Jim Richardson, a photographer from National Geographic, he explains to us in this video recommendations to improve our travel photographs.
As you have seen, Jim offers a list of five tips for anyone considering becoming a professional travel photographer. The recipes he gives are various, starting with the fact that a good travel photographer should not limit himself to capturing a beautiful site, but rather research about it, photograph it from different points of view and try to think less about achieving a great individual photo and more about the set of images that describe the place.
In this same sense, it tells how To be a good travel photographer you need to combine many disciplines to be able to show the places, capture the people who live there and the atmosphere of the place and even catch some action; therefore, we must be able to face different types of photography (and, therefore, train ourselves in those that are the worst to us).
He also talks about how the photographs they must be varied and seek to surprise the viewer When you turn the page of the magazine, and how when taking the photos, you also have to think about the needs of the format in which they are to be published. For example, for a paper magazine (we recall that Jim works for the National Geographic Magazine) We have to take vertical shots (and with space at the top for the logo of the magazine) that may be likely to appear on the cover of the magazine; and to cover a double page it is important that the main subject of the image is not right in the center of the photo.
However, if the images are to be published on Instagram we should think about using the square format that characterizes this popular social network.In short, we must try anticipate the final result of the product to be illustrated with our images.
Finally, the photographer recommends returning to the sites already visited at different times and conditions to see them with another light, other weather conditions and to be able to get the best photo that can be taken of that place. That is why he advises always return to the sites, although we did not like them on the first visit, and try to take a better photo than the one we already took.
Obviously they are advice very focused on who wants to be a professional travel photographer, but the truth is that they can also be very useful for those who consider making a report … let’s say “serious” about a site visited. By the way, Jim Richardson appeared in our list of 100 phrases for posterity said by photographers with a revealing phrase: “If you want to be a better photographer, put yourself in front of more interesting things”.
Jim richardson | Website | Instagram
Via | FStoppers
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