Chapter 3. Preparing for Your Photographic Adventure
Knowing that the steam from the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park is more visible in the cool morning air can help you plan to be there at the right time. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
A photographic journey is 80 percent preparation and 20 percent vacation. Planning the perfect trip requires a bit of mental elbow grease and a lot of time finding resources, looking up information, and managing logistics. In the end, work you do before you go pays off in spades when you see your photographs (previous page).
Years ago, planning a vacation was a straightforward yet inaccurate affair for the novice travel photographer. Few resources existed besides travel agents, a handful of travel books, and a few travel-related magazines such as National Geographic.
Today, there are almost unlimited ways to find information about your destination. This can make it easier to plan your trip, but it can also bog you down with useless reams of data on nonphotographic topics.
Doing Your Research
Few people wake up in the morning and think, “I’d like to find an exotic locale in which to take pictures!” Instead most people have some general ideas in mind for photographic destinations (Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1. A photo trip to India is almost guaranteed to produce good pictures. Photographing these spires at sunset, the photographer got lucky when a bird decided to land on one. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
Whether you’ve got a destination in mind or you’re one of the few who is starting from scratch with nothing more than a plan to shoot in some foreign city, you’re in luck. Resources abound for the photographer seized by wanderlust.
Blue Pixel photographer Reed Hoffmann, having cut his teeth as a newspaper photographer, is always prepared for the unexpected. “For me, part of the challenge is seeing something with a new eye and making the most of it,” says Hoffmann.
With decades of experience under his belt, Hoffmann is the Eagle Scout to your average travel photography Cub Scout. In other words, it takes a lot of years of preparation and planning to be able to travel without any preparation and planning.
Using Search Engines and Photo Blogs
It’s not called the World Wide Web for nothing. In fact, it’s rarely called that these days, but the Web is a terrific information resource. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Metacrawler, and others can save you a considerable amount of time when preparing for your trip. But they can also deliver an overwhelming quantity of information, not all of it directly relevant. Most search engines offer tips and techniques to help you separate the useful from the useless. Look for the words “Advanced Web Search” or something similar in a central location on the site’s home page. Clicking on the phrase takes you to a well-organized page that guides you through a fill-in-the-blanks approach to searching for information. Using that page will aid you in refining and narrowing your search and save you a lot of time. Also, for search tips and a couple of online tutorials on how to get the most out of your search engine of choice, check out the Search Engine Showdown Web site’s “Learning About Searching” page (http://searchengineshowdown.com/strat/).
As useful as the search engines are, I think the myriad online photo blogging communities are also an excellent place to start your research. A blog, short for Web log, is an online journal, and a photographic blog is a site where people post photographs as their journal entries. Some of the hottest photoblogs are www.flickr.com and www.textamerica.com (though dozens more exist) where thousands and thousands of photographers worldwide post images every day. Photoblogs.org (www.photoblogs.org), “a resource designed to help people find all kinds of photoblogs,” is an excellent, frequently updated directory of photoblogs.
Finding what you’re looking for on a photoblog is straightforward. In the search box on a photoblog site, type the name of a city, country, or region you’d like to visit; what comes back is a photographic collage—a patchwork mosaic of any place you’d ever want to travel. Though nowhere near exhaustive, these blogs not only give you an idea of what an area is like, but what sort of images people take when they go there. Best of all, these are interactive communities, so you can post questions to the photographers and get firsthand feedback on your destination.
Beginning Your Trip with Magazines, Books, and Libraries
Despite the wealth of electronic information online (or maybe because of it), books and magazines have flourished in this digital age (Figure 3.2).
Figure 3.2. Despite the abundance of online material, you’ll also want to visit your local library and bookstore to research the area you’ll be visiting. Having a guidebook to take along can be invaluable. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
Even I—so into technology that I should have a USB cable running out of my noggin—spend most of my pretrip hours poring over books and magazines. Not to say I don’t use the Web—I couldn’t get anywhere without it—but I like to start researching destinations the old-fashioned way.
If you’re like me, to get started, head to the library or megabookstore and look over books like the Lonely Planet guides (chock-full of insider tips for someone who wants to travel like a local) and Let’s Go (designed for college students on a budget, but also full of excellent tips); then turn to more traditional guidebook series such as Frommer’s and Rick Steves’.
In the periodicals section, you can find any number of travel magazines, including Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Men’s Journal, and more, all of which cater to the traveler and provide specific information on destinations, such as the best ways to get there and the best things to do while you’re there.
Many of these magazines have extensive Web sites with articles from back issues, travel guides, and forums in which readers discuss their trips and upcoming adventures.
Blue Pixel shooter Bill Durrence has an interesting approach to travel resources. When he’s planning a trip, he rounds up postcards for the area and checks them out. A postcard is the prepackaged version of what an area has to offer. This not only helps him figure out what the local resources are but it gives him an idea of what kinds of photographs are overplayed. See, every postcard looks just about the same. A photograph of a landmark shot in a certain way on one card means that dozens or hundreds more have the exact same shot. If you want a photo that looks like a postcard, buy the postcard.
The active travel photographer should also flip through the pages of sports magazines such as Bicycling, Backpacker, Paddler, and other publications that cater to the outdoor sports enthusiast. Each month they usually feature a location guide full of travel tips.
Board-Certified Help
Some of the most helpful (and often overlooked) travel resources are the tourist boards and chambers of commerce of both US and foreign cities and states. Usually paid for by tax dollars, these entities exist solely to provide information and assistance to the visitor. They’re able to provide maps and guides, connections to local hotels, tour guides, and more.
Some tourist boards are able to book plane travel and in-country reservations, which can be particularly helpful if you’re headed to a country with a language you don’t speak. Because they’re essentially paid to market their country, these organizations stay up to date on all the activities and events that might make photographic subjects (Figure 3.3).
Figure 3.3. There’s a Bridge Day festival every year in West Virginia where people are allowed to parachute off the New River Gorge Bridge. It’s a great place to make unusual photos. A tourist board can help you find these types of events. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
The easiest way to find a foreign tourist board is to search for it on the Web, though most travel books and travel agents have contact information for them as well.
In the United States, the local version of the tourist board can provide an amazing amount of assistance, hooking up photographers with locals who can help charter vehicles, plan sightseeing trips, and more. Even if you don’t contact these agencies before you leave, keep their numbers handy in case you need assistance when you’re on your trip. Just remember, these people are often busy. They’ll be better able to help you if they know you’re coming.
Don’t Forget Travel Agents
It might seem as if they are holdovers from a bygone era, but professional travel agents are still among the best resources around. Professional travel agents know the best locations to visit and to avoid, they’re able to book travel on planes, trains, and rickshaws, and they can produce an itinerary that includes detailed plans for every step of your journey.
Figure 3.4. Ask in the town you’re visiting if there’s a local market. Those are always good places for photos, and the souk in Marrakech is no exception. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
Sometimes it pays to check out nontraditional resources too. When Reed Hoffmann heads to a new location, he calls up the photo desk of the local paper and asks for guidance. No one knows an area like the journalists who cover it, and most of them are happy to share their knowledge.
Next time you’re headed to a new city, give the local paper a call and ask for the photo desk. Let them know you’re a photographer coming to the area for fun, and ask for any tips they can give. You’ll be surprised at the leads you turn up.
Not everyone likes to work with a travel agent (and some agents get consideration from hotels and destinations if they recommend certain properties), but if you like the idea of having an actual human sit down with you and help you plan your trip, the travel agent is for you.
The Junket Junkie
Not only are there photographers who travel, there are trips designed specifically for the photographer. These travel junkets take photographers to unique and foreign locales expressly for the purpose of taking great photographs (Figure 3.5).
Figure 3.5. This compelling photo of an Indian woman and child was taken during an arranged village visit on an American Photo Mentor Trek. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
Many photography travel junkets are scheduled like fancy group vacations with tours and visitations to photographic locations. Others are educational seminars, with classes and photography critiques.
The photo junket is a fantastic way to go on a vacation that is guaranteed to be photographically interesting. Many of these seminars are sponsored by camera manufacturers and digital photography gear companies that provide materials for hands-on instruction, thus giving you an opportunity to practice photography while using some of the newest and coolest tools on the market. You can usually experiment with some of best of what’s available for the photographer, from carbon fiber tripods to lenses, to inkjet printers.
Photo instruction trips aren’t for everyone, and different junkets are tailored for different types of students. Some of these trips require all the participants to travel together to different locations, which limits the amount of independent photography time, but ensures that everyone has a chance to see the “classic” shooting scenes. It’s slower to move as a group, and you’re less likely to be able to spend a few hours lingering over something that you find particularly interesting. On the other hand, there are more photographers around to interact with and it’s a more social experience.
Figure 3.6. Reviewing pictures at the end of the day during a photo instruction trip.
Other trips (especially those aimed primarily at pros) require participants to research their own subjects and travel on their own to shoots. The classroom portion of such trips can be an intense experience with guest speakers and instructors drawn from all over the professional world.
And of course there are junkets in the middle, trips that provide a bit of hand-holding but also a range of freedom. That’s why it’s important to research a photographic seminar with almost the same vigor that you’d use to plan your own itinerary. These trips are often advertised in photographic magazines and in adventure sports publications, or at camera stores. And information can also be found online using a search or at Web sites such as www.photographyseminar.com, “a global network directory of photography seminars.”
Once you find a seminar you’re interested in, check out the list of instructors and seek out examples of the work done by students. Look on the Web and see if you can find anyone who has taken the classes and what they have to say.
Any good photographic seminar should be happy to provide you with a list of contacts for previous students and should be able to answer any questions you might have about the trip. If you don’t get your questions answered, don’t choose that seminar.
Family Matters
What about the family? Not everyone has a good time taking pictures, so make sure your travel plans include activities for the nonphotographers amongst you. Some photo junkets plan for family members, providing activities for everyone. Junkets on cruises are especially good for a traveling family because there’s something for everyone onboard, and plenty to see in port.
Even if you’re not on a junket, be sure to plan for your family or travel companions. Your average sightseer moves at a different (usually faster) pace than photographers, who often take their time examining every detail looking for good shots.
The trip you choose also affects your packing choices—a junket with gear provided by a camera manufacturer might be the perfect excuse to leave your bulky gear at home and try out some new equipment, as long as you’re willing to be flexible with the results from equipment you’re not familiar with. Better to pack like a minimalist (see Chapter 2) so that you can shoot no matter what, and try out some new gear during your session as well.
Planning Beyond the Basics
Now that you’ve got an idea of where to look when planning your photographic trip, you’ll want to figure out what to look for. Sure, you’ll need to nail down little things like how you’re getting there, where you’re going to stay, and how you’re going to get around. But you’ve also got to figure out what you’ll want to shoot and what the conditions will be like (Figure 3.7).
Figure 3.7. For a trip to New York’s Adirondack Mountains in winter, you’ll need snowshoes to get away from the crowds. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
Some photographers try to avoid being overwhelmed in a new city or country by picking a subject before they hit the road. Often they’ll give themselves an assignment like “I’d like to photograph landscape and wildlife” before heading to a national park, or they’ll look for “portraits in urban landscapes.” This allows them to focus on certain things they want to capture and prevents the overload that comes from trying to photograph everything wherever they go.
There are certain conditions that can affect your travels, the gear you pack, and even the photographs you end up taking. Heading to the desert means that you’ll be able to leave your raincoat at home, right? Not if you’re headed somewhere during the rainy season, where flash floods and torrential rain can wreak havoc on gear. And if you’re looking to photograph a religious festival, it’s a good idea to make sure that cameras are allowed during the ceremonies.
Although it’s impossible to plan for every possibility, there are a few key things to consider. Some of these only apply when you’re traveling outside the United States, but they’re all good to keep in mind.
• Seasonal issues. The cherry blossoms in Washington DC only bloom at a certain time of year. Hurricanes in the Caribbean make travel less expensive but can be forceful enough to blow your hotel down. Getting an idea about what to expect at the time you plan to travel helps you pack your bags and helps prevent some nasty surprises.
There are hundreds of weather Web sites and many of the major news sites have a search function that lets you enter a zip code or city name to see current conditions and predictions. For US weather, check out the National Weather Service (www.nws.noaa.gov) or, for both national and international weather, the Weather Channel (www.weather.com). Any of the better travel guidebooks—Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Moon, and others—usually provide information about weather and seasonal conditions. And for more weather information than you could ever want, refer to the University of Michigan’s amazing “WeatherSites” page, which its compilers describe as “The list that made us famous...the most comprehensive weather index on the Internet” (http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet/servers.html).
Keep in mind that you can take advantage of seasonal changes to get a better deal, have a better time, and get better pictures. Everyone photographs the Eiffel Tower in spring and summer, but that happens to be the prime season for thousands of tourists trying to head up the same crammed elevators. Visit Paris in the winter and you get a much more personal look at the city, for a fraction of the price.
• Astronomical conditions. Partly an offshoot of seasonal issues, it’s important to know when the sun will rise and set in an area, what the weather will be like, and if any unusual occurrences will happen during your trip. Doing a localized weather search on one of the news Web sites is often the easiest way to get this information.
Figure 3.8. In the early summer in Yellowstone, the animals feed on fresh growth and can be easier to find than at other times of the year. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
Figure 3.9. When visiting Joshua Tree National Park, you simply must come away with a nice photo of a Joshua tree. Knowing sunrise and sunset times will help you be in the right place at the right time. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
• Local events. Even if you do a lot of research, you’ll never know when you might run into some little festival or event at a church or on a local street. These will be little photographic gems, and when you stumble on them you’ll be thrilled. The larger events and festivals are usually listed in travel resources online and in print by chambers of commerce and travel boards. Planning for these can help you take great local-color photographs and can eliminate the headache of getting your rental car stuck at a parade route when you’re trying to drive to some other shoot.
• Local resources. Venice has its canals, Holland has its tulips, Punxsu-tawney has its groundhog. Some places are just known for certain things. Find out what they are before you go and you’ll have an idea of what objects shape a landscape and where all the tourists are going to be.
• Religion and politics. We’ve got a neat little thing in this country called the First Amendment. Free speech isn’t a right everywhere, even in other democracies. Be sure you know a country’s legal positions and cultural customs on photography, journalism, and the media (Figure 3.10).
Figure 3.10. Polite questions about local customs and cultures can result in invitations to see and learn more. While admiring a Sikh temple in India from the street, Blue Pixel’s Reed Hoffmann was invited inside for a tour and his hosts were happy to be photographed. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
You might not work for a newspaper, but if you’re caught up in a political demonstration with camera gear, you’re going to be treated like a member of the press. Sometimes this will work to your benefit, but often the police are nicer to people they think are foreign tourists on vacation than those they think are foreign journalists in the country to stir up trouble.
• Local laws. Before you go to a country, find out about any special laws regarding photography in that area. Major tourist destinations like France, Italy, Spain, and so on, are very open to tourists, but some regions are decidedly less so.
It’s a good idea to make note of or even memorize the phone number and address for the US Embassy in the country you’re in. The US State Department maintains a list of problem areas and can provide contact numbers for embassies in foreign countries. All US embassies and consulates have their own Web sites, which are listed with links on a single page of the State Department’s Web site (http://usembassy.state.gov/). And the Department’s Web site travel page (www.state.gov/travel) is an excellent resource for a variety of information on international travel. Another very thorough and up-to-date online resource for basic information about, well, every country on earth is The World Factbook compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook). You can order a print version on the Web site.
Giving Your Gear a Dry Run
You’ve assembled your photographic gear, you’ve planned a trip, and you’re ready to head out on your photographic voyage. There’s still one last thing to do. It’s time to try everything out and see how it works.
There’s nothing worse than getting to your destination and realizing your camera bag is too small or some piece of equipment doesn’t work. A few weeks before your trip, pack up everything and hop in the car.
Spend a day in your town or city pretending to be a tourist, photographing the local attractions. Check out each piece of gear to see if it works. When you get home, take out all of your chargers and plug them in, making sure each one works.
If you’ve got anything that’s broken or doesn’t work the way you’d like, you still have time to replace it before you leave on your trip.
Taking Your Show on the Road
There’s probably nothing more exhausting than travel. How on earth are you supposed to enjoy going some place when the act of getting there takes so much of out you? These days, airplane travel is worse than ever. The lines are longer, the security is tighter, and the aggravation is out of this world (Figure 3.11).
Figure 3.11. These days airplane travel is fraught with long lines and tight security—especially if you are traveling with a lot of gear. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
If you’re traveling domestically, you can save yourself a bit of hassle by shipping some of your materials to and from your destination. You can ship big bulky items such as tripods and other camera supports with no problems, and doing so cuts down on the number of bags you carry with you.
Often a photographer will ship ahead a change of clothing and a set of consumables (blank DVDs and CDs). This frees up the suitcase for photographic items you might need, but still allows you wardrobe flexibility. Insure the package, and if it gets lost in transit you can even head out to a shop and buy yourself some new clothes, which is easier to do than replacing an expensive piece of camera gear that gets lost in transit.
Reducing the number of bags you bring along is a good idea regardless of your destination. Airlines are paying closer attention to both the number of pieces and the weight of luggage and are levying hefty extra charges for excessive weight or pieces. Many photographers I know ship their clothing to their destination, using the allowed weight for more important travel gear.
If you’re traveling to a hotel, call ahead and ask if you can ship packages care of the hotel for your arrival. Almost all will happily oblige, as long as you write your name and your check-in date on the box.
These days the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows one carry-on item and one personal item (think purse, briefcase, or small computer bag) per passenger, but that could change at any moment. This doesn’t leave a lot of room for your camera gear. You always want to transport fragile items with you as carry on, so pack everything else in luggage that can be checked.
International flights have even stricter regulations about weight, and many won’t let you board a plane if your gear exceeds their weight limits by so much as an ounce.
When traveling internationally, bring extra cash along to help deal with any billing emergencies. “It once cost me about $400 in excess baggage charges to get out of Kenya,” explained Blue Pixel photographer Bill Durrence. “In part, the problem was a crooked gate agent who ripped me off by lowering the weight amount allowed on the plane. I had no choice but to pay the extra or leave the gear there.”
Screening Room
Increased security at the airport is great for everyone, but it slows down travel. If you’re traveling with camera gear, show up two hours early, and be prepared to wait around. Most Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials have never seen the types of pro camera gear some people take along on flights, and they may ask you to show them that everything works. Be friendly and polite, do not joke around, and be sure to cheerfully do anything you’re asked to do. As you get to the metal detectors, take off your shoes and coat and put them in one of those ubiquitous gray plastic bins along with any metal you might have (don’t forget your belt). Your laptop goes in its own bin; remember to put it through last so that it comes out at the same time you pass through the detectors.
Figure 3.12. Security and metal detectors are now a part of travel from airlines to cruise ships. Be prepared for the extra time and trouble involved. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann)
The TSA personnel are doing their jobs, and they have an easier time doing that when you’re prepared and ready to go when it’s your turn. If you have an issue, ask to speak to a supervisor, but remember that you’re unlikely to get your way, and you’ll end up delaying your trip. Information on TSA regulations and programs can be found at www.tsa.gov/public, and those for the FAA can be found at www.faa.gov.
Practically Speaking
Every piece of equipment you travel with should be written down on a piece of paper, along with the serial numbers of anything expensive. Should you need to file a police report due to theft or loss, it’ll be much easier if you have the serial numbers. If you’re traveling to a country that sells the same equipment you’re bringing into the country, travel with copies of your original sales receipts so you’re not asked to pay duties by an overzealous customs agent.
It’s also vital to carry a photocopy of your passport’s cover and main pages; this will facilitate a replacement if you lose your passport. Leave another copy with someone who has a fax machine back home, so they can fax it to you if you lose your copy.
Information on international travel regulations is available at the State Department’s Web site. Check with the Department about any visas needed for your trip, and stay up to date on documentation you need to cross borders. Rules about international crossings can change daily. On one trip I was required to show a passport to enter Canada, but no one checked my documents when I crossed from Germany into Holland.
Vaccinations and Travel Health
Many hospitals, larger clinics, and county health services have a travel health department that can advise you regarding vaccinations you will need when traveling to particular destinations, and also give you the vaccinations. The two best Internet resources for travel heath information are the Web sites of the Center for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov/travel) and the World Health Organization (www.who.int/ith/en).
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation
Proper preparation can make the difference in a fantastic travel experience and an unmitigated disaster. You’ll still need to think on your feet to handle the unexpected (which I’ll cover in the next chapter), but if you take the time to plan a perfect trip, you’ll be ready to shoot before you even get there.