Travel Plans

From my years of experience as a professional travel photographer, I've learned that the more planning I do, the smoother my trips. So before each trip I read about my intended destinations and their cultures. I view as many images of the destinations as possible by reviewing past issues of travel magazines, and I visit one or more of the major agencies' websites—like Corbis or Getty—and search for images of the specific cities and areas I'll be visiting. This visual preview allows me to become visually informed while doing some advance location scouting from the comfort of my office chair.

Gearing Up
Next I make a checklist of essential camera equipment so I won’t forget any crucial item. I always bring along extras of key items like CF cards, adaptor plugs, batteries, cleaning cloths, chargers, download devices and model release forms in the local languages. For every trip I pack at least two camera bodies, several lenses, rain covers for my cameras and bag, a circular polarizer, graduated neutral density filters, a tripod, a cable release and my laptop.

Familiarity Fosters Flexibility
One of the things I love about travel photography is that every day on the job I'm faced with new challenges. I know that one of the reasons I'm able to react quickly to new situations is that I'm very comfortable with my cameras. Learning to use them quickly and easily so I can shoot under pressure has served me well. It seems that nearly every shoot is a time-pressured set of circumstances as I deal with changing light, unforgiving backgrounds and surrounding crowds.

Take time to become familiar with your equipment and at least the basics of photography. The better you understand exposure, the quicker you can make minor changes. Learn to use your camera intuitively and you'll be in control of challenging and changing situations in which there's not a lot of time to do anything other than shoot a few quick frames.

Strategy Sessions
Some of the best travel images happen at unexpected times and are the result of quick reactions, but I've found that most occur because of advance planning and the specific strategies I use on the road. Using photographs I took with my Nikon D200 on a recent trip to Tibet, let's talk about some specific circumstances and the strategies that worked for them.

• Image 1. You may need to return to a site to get the shot, so try to keep your schedule flexible. I toured this ancient monastery in the afternoon when it was too early for the light to be soft enough to create the sort of image I wanted. Knowing that the clouds would likely accumulate and possibly create more interesting light, I returned a few hours later and made this image in which the monastery seems to jump out of the darkness.
  
  
• Image 2. Keep your camera with you at all times; you never know when an opportunity to shoot will arise. I got this shot just after lunch in a local restaurant. If my camera had been in the vehicle, I never would have had the time to get it.
  
  
• Image 3. Don’t let inertia take over. While on my way to a monastery, I glanced out the car window, saw the red door, then noticed the ancient woman in front. Rather than think, well, that would have been a nice image, I asked the driver to stop. I got out of the car, approached, smiled and indicated that I'd like to take her photo. She obliged and I shot until she relaxed, ultimately getting this image after about two minutes. As it turned out I got my favorite image of the entire trip because I made the effort to stop rather than just hurry on to the next destination. Sometimes the best destination is exactly where you are at the moment.
  
  
• Image 4. Be open to a new plan. In Gyantse the idea was to shoot at an architecturally interesting monastery. The dreary weather wasn't going to cooperate, so I came up with a new plan: to take a walk with my guide and travel companion and see what I could find that would work. I ended up meeting a local woman who introduced me to several of her friends, one of whom is shown in this image, one of a series of environmental portraits I made in the soft light of this overcast day.
  
  
• Image 5. Shoot what you can, when you can. I'd hoped for an image of gorgeous morning light shining on the Potala Palace in Lhasa, but each day heavy morning clouds made that impossible; worse, the clouds stuck around. But one day they broke and I jumped in a cab and rushed to the site. I didn’t get my morning light shot, but I got this image on the only day of my five-day visit in which there was any blue sky in Lhasa.
  
  
• Image 6. Choose your subject carefully. I walked around outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa and carefully observed various rituals. I chose the one I thought would make the most compelling shot: a woman praying with colorful beads and grains. I approached her, gestured that I would like to take some photos and began shooting as her hands moved. Once things lined up as I had hoped, I shot in continuous mode to get as many shots with varying gestures as I could so I could choose the best one later.
  
  
• Image 7. When all else fails, look for the details. I visited the Samye courtyard near Lhasa on a day when the monks were supposed to debate. Unfortunately, that day the debates were cancelled. Rather than leave, I took some time to look around and was able to get this detail shot of a door handle in soft light. This is not to say that details should always be Plan B, but in this case they gave me a good subject when the original idea wasn't going to happen.

Of course, hard work, perseverance, vision and creativity play big parts in successful travel photography, but when you begin with planning, preparation and strategies, your journey's off to a great start.