Travel Blog with Andrew Newey part 3 – 10 top tips for aspiring travel photographers

Andrew Newey reveals his top 10 tips to help you improve your travel photography

Travel photography is a very competitive field so you need to work hard to produce images that will help you stand out from the crowd. This week I thought I would share with you my top 10 tips to help you improve your travel photography.

1. Do your research. Don’t just travel to a destination without having done your homework before hand otherwise you could end up missing some great photo opportunities. I will start to do my research weeks, maybe months in advance in order to plan the best itinerary and the best time of year to get there. More often than not the best festivals to photograph are at the worst possible time of year to visit the country, but this will be a test of your dedication to your craft.

2. Decide on what market you aim to sell to. This will dramatically influence what you shoot and when. If you are shooting stock photography then you can afford to be less selective of what you shoot and when. For example, many picture buyers are happy with images taken in the middle of the day, whereas if you are thinking of exhibiting your work, or selling it through fine art photography outlets, then you need to be highly selective of the subject matter and shoot it in the best light possible.

3. Try not to shoot on the first day you arrive. Settle in to your surroundings, go out for a walk and make mental notes of potential scenes to photograph, look at postcards, books ect.. to get an idea of what has been shot before and try to improve on it, then return when the light is at it’s best – you all know when that is right?

4. The 3 day rule. I generally try to stay in each location for a minimum of 3 days. This will give you time to scout for photogenic locations, wait for the right light, and feel relaxed and comfortable enough to shoot some great portraits, street scenes ect..

5. Get up close. As Robert Capa famously said “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”. Use a telephoto lens for portraits and interesting details. My 70-200mm lens is my most used lens on the road, because of the narrow field of view and the way it drops the background out of focus at it’s largest aperture. However, if you have built up enough of a rapport with your subject then you could get up close and use a wider focal length, but remember the closer you are to the subject, the more accurate your focusing skills need to be.

6. Carry release forms. If you plan on selling your images to advertising agencies or through images libraries like Getty Images, then you will need to ensure you have a model release form signed by the person/s in the picture, otherwise you could potentially have a lawsuit on your hands. Likewise, a property release for will need to be signed before you can use images of certain properties for advertising.

7. Backup regularly. If you intend to make money from your travel images, the last thing you want is to lose valuable shots. Backup as soon as you have a productive shoot, which will obviously vary from day to day. My backup system on the road consists of 2 portable backup devices (1 for each bag) which I backup my images to via my mini laptop. This also means I can have a third copy of all the images on the laptop. When I know for sure I have some winners, then I will even copy them to a spare 8GB memory card, which I keep on me at all times.

8. Be respectful. Always try to respect the people you photograph and don’t force your lens in their face. If they do not want you to take a picture and a bit of friendly banter does not help the situation, then leave them alone. Remember you are a visitor in their country and it is not fair to them or fellow travel photographers to shoot them anyway just for a picture, whether you are on a commission/assignment or not.

9. Keep up the research. Even after doing my research prior to hitting the road, I will always use any down time to trawl the internet in search of great pictures of my current destination. The higher the quality of images for can find, the higher your standards will be for your own photography.

10. Passion and dedication. To get the best shots you will need to be up before sunrise and out until after sunset. This requires a high level of passion and dedication for your travel photography, but will reward you with quality images.

To check out more of Andrew Newey’s photographs and advice, head over to www.travelphotography.org.uk