with about 500 boring photos of churches whose names I can't remember. ... Few
would talk about travel photography in terms of the last three examples above.
Photographing to Explore
a handbook for travelers
Doug Reilly Sharon Walsh
Center for Global Education Hobart and William Smith Colleges 1
Table of Contents About This Guide...2 Part One: Why Photograph?...4 Part Two: Recipe for a Photograph...9 Part Three: How Cameras Make Photographs...21 Part Four: Issues of Representation...27 Part Five: Exercises for Exploration...33 Part Six: Genre Tips...35 Part Seven: What to Do With Your Photographs...39 About This Guide The camera is as ubiquitous a human tool as the automobile, and yet few of us receive any formal training on how to operate cameras and make images. Photography is a skill that has to be learned and thoughtfully practiced. Many students purchase cameras (if they don’t already have one) as they prepare for their study abroad experience. Most of them have no formal or informal training in the art, and not all students return pleased with the images they have created. Doug Reilly, one of the authors of this guide, is a case in point: “I studied abroad Seville, Spain. I had an old SLR camera that my Dad took home from his office. I had even taken two photography courses in high school. In Spain, I took pictures of things that impressed me at the moment, but not what I thought I’d want to see and remember in the future. I ended up with about 500 boring photos of churches whose names I can’t remember. There were very few that showed Spanish people or the things that made up my daily life there, and not a single photograph of the one person that made the entire experience unforgettable: Margarita, my Spanish host mother.”
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The primary goal of Photographing to Explore is for students to take photographs abroad that are, and will remain, meaningful to them and to their viewers. More meaningful photographs are better photographs. While photography contains an element of luck (right place at the right time), there are some basic ideas and skills that can help you improve—sometimes dramatically. Take a look at these anonymous photographs found by Googling the phrase “in front of the Eiffel Tower.” The first three examples all look alike, and the only thing they communicate is that yes, these folks were really (and precisely) in front of the Eiffel Tower. The last one, however, tells a unique story. The viewer doesn’t need to see the top of the tower to know what it is. And the couple is a little off to the side: we still believe they were there. What this guide is not is a camera manual. Photographic technology has been transformed by digital cameras in the last few years, and the brands, models and variations of cameras are now seemingly infinite. All of these cameras work on the same principles and all share some features. Each camera, however, often has its own unique interface and quirks. This guide will help you with your camera and your photography, but it will not replace your camera’s manual.
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Part One: Why Photograph? In general, humans make photographs to: preserve memories (in case memory fails) communicate experiences (tell stories) make something beautiful (art) learn how to see better (observation) understand the relationship between things (reflection) interact with the environment (exploration) Most students would likely choose the first or second reason if asked why they wanted to make photographs while abroad. A few would be in it for the creative art of it. Few would talk about travel photography in terms of the last three examples above. But there’s good reason to think about travel photography in exactly those terms. Below are three quotes which get to the heart of photography: All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this—as in other ways—they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it. -John Berger Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. -Edward Steichen If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things. -Sebastiao Salgado
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Observation Good photography forces you to really look at the world around you: to be aware of color and light, the way the sun interacts with the red sandstone of a building or how a sea of umbrellas looks in the rain. It challenges you to be observant of people and the things that make up their daily lives: their newspapers and cups of coffee and markets and street corners and libraries and kitchens. Becoming a better photographer necessitates learning how to see the world around you in a more intense, purposeful way than you’ve ever looked at it before. As a traveler, it involves tuning your eyes to see culture. A good photograph can also help you understand the world around you, and can help you better communicate that understanding to others. The subject of Otto Foerster’s image below is a line of notes written to God by Muslims in India. The closeup reflects the intimacy of the messages and the personal nature of the God of Islam. The image Otto constructed challenges us to see religion not in abstract terms, but in personal ones.
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Reflection This image, by Casey Cronin, of Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, communicates some interesting truths about student experience abroad: the person frozen in time in a landscape of sublime beauty, how often students must be hit with the feeling of a perfect instant that may never come again, the way the magnificence of nature can stop us in our tracks. Casey’s photo doesn’t say this implicitly, but what it does is capture a moment that can cause us, the viewers, and perhaps Casey, the photographer, to reflect on wider themes.
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Exploration Photography is a tool for exploring the world around you, and it’s often the experience of making photographs that allows knowledge to be created. Photography is a creative process that will force you to interact with your immediate environment. Here is William Allan Allard on his creative process. If a subject has a delicate surface to it, you do not want to go charging in there. You need to establish some kind of presence and understanding. I will say, “Try to forget I’m here. I won’t ask you to pose, I won’t ask you to do anything.” It’s important that I just be allowed to be around, to be present. Photographing people requires a willingness to be rejected. So, I think the best approach is to be honest and direct. Very often, I tell them, “You don’t know me. There’s no reason why you should trust me...the only thing I can promise is that I’ll try to do the most honest work I can.” Ultimately, it comes down to somehow being able to instill confidence. I don’t think you can bullshit your way into that, because a lot of these people can see through walls. If you want to photograph people, you’d better know something about them. I like to explore, to be sensitive to the rhythms of the moment. Exploration means seeking out what I think is there, and yet often finding something finer, something closer to the center, that no amount of research could have led me to. I tend to react more than direct. You have to be receptive. You have to care. You can’t do good work if you don’t care. That’s not necessarily a strength, but it gives you strength. -William Albert Allard
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Leidy Sanchez’s subject—a young accordion player in Florence—knew he was being photographed. The expression of resignation, and the evidence of a hard life, is all over his face, and all over the pock-marked wall behind him. Did they have a conversation before she took this photograph? Did they talk afterwards? Did she put any money into his cup? What does that exchange say about power relationships? Did this encounter change the way Leidy looked at street perfomers or the Gypsies? These touch upon key questions for the photographer, some of which we’ll return to in Part Four. The photograph forced the photographer to interact with her environment, to work with it in creating an image. She made it in cooperation with others: the boy, the artists who drew on the walls and garbage cans, the decision-makers who created the economic system whereby a certain portion of every population has to be unemployed.
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Part Two: Recipe for a Photograph You don’t take a photograph, you make it. -Ansel Adams
Pictures are not sitting there like fossils or bugs waiting to be plucked and put into a collection. They are not found, or even taken: they are constructed out of space, time, and light. Space. You look at the camera screen or through the viewfinder: what do you include, and what do you exclude? Where do you place the elements in the photograph? How are these elements related? Photographers compose images by choosing what to show, what not to show, and how the various elements of an image should relate visually. Time. The photographer chooses the decisive moment to push the shutter button, when the light is perfect or the expression is priceless or some other combination of factors comes together. Light. If there’s no light being reflected by objects in front of the camera, there’s no photograph. The light falls onto the objects from the source (sun or artificial light) and is reflected back (creating perceptions of color and texture), is gathered and focused by a lens onto film or chip, and is finally recorded. Light can be bright, causing harsh shadows, rendering subjects in sharp relief. Or it can be diffuse or muted, rendering the world in soft tones instead of hard edges. Becoming a connoisseur of light conditions and quality is the work of a photographer as well as a painter.
Composition 1: The Rule of Thirds If you only know one rule of composition, this is it. Few concepts can improve a person’s photographs
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more than the rule of thirds. Best of all, it’s simple. Imaginary lines are drawn dividing the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically. You place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect.
The photograph below, by Oliver Majer, makes good use of the Rule of Thirds. Notice how the line of men is positioned along the right 1/3 line and that closest man’s feet and head are roughly at the intersections. Also note that he is not directly centered on that line. Neither is he directly in the center of the frame. Keeping important elements from dead center is what it’s about.
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Composition 2: Faraway so close If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough. -Robert Capa
Try getting closer to your subject. Often new photographers try too hard to get everything into a photograph. Put in the frame only what is important. If that’s a person’s face, then get as close as you can. If it’s a person’s face reacting to something his grandfather is saying, then make sure to include the person and his grandfather. Similarly, exclude from your image anything you think detracts from the theme, or that will draw the viewer’s attention away from what is really important in your image.
Another of Otto’s images from India illustrates this point well. In this case, Otto zoomed in—or walked closer—to capture the feet of these worshippers before entering a temple. By doing so, Otto juxtaposes youth and old age, as the full scene might not have done.
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Composition 2(a): Stepping Back On the other hand, don’t be afraid to zoom out or step back (look behind you!) in order to get more into the frame. But pay attention to what you’re letting into that frame. Wide-angle photographs often look best when the different elements in the frame are interacting or have an obvious relationship. In this image of a musical performance during Ramadan festivities in Istanbul, the photographer chose to include as much as possible. The audience’s attention was locked onto the folk singer and the photographer (Doug Reilly) wanted to depict the dynamic between the performer and the audience. Ataturk, the leader who helped create modern Turkey, also became a character in the composition, watching over the singer, audience and photographer. For Doug, the moment was about shared bonds of identity.
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Composition 3: Changing Perspective Few things can make a photograph better, and a photographer more capable, than learning to see from different perspectives. Seeing differently, and seeing difference, are both also goals of the study abroad program you will embark upon. Try making a picture from a crouched-down-low position. Try to get above your subject. Turn the camera a little bit to skew the perspective. The most important thing is to experiment with different angles. Patrick Allen’s image of Cao Dai worshippers in Vietnam (above) is an excellent example of skillful use of perspective. Anna Lockwood’s image of a street in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil (overleaf) makes use of a worm’s eye view. Anna actually rested her camera on the cobblestone road to get this shot, which accentuates the rolling hills the city is built upon, as well as juxtaposes the textures of the rough road against the smoother building facades and the pedestrians’ clothes.
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Light Light is the photographer’s currency. Learn to study it. All light is not created equal! Bright sun is not necessarily the best light in which to photograph. Generally, people look better in shade or under overcast skies. The evening or morning sun often produces long, softer and more dramatic shadows give everything a romantic, coppery tone. Magdalena Piascik’s image from Denmark illustrates this last point: the long shadows serve to draw attention to the bikers crossing the street and adds interest to the image. The short time before and after sunset and sunrise (sometimes called twilight or half-light) often produces the deepest colors on film or digital sensor, with colorful objects appearing to glow from within. Look through this handbook and you’ll see plenty of excellent examples of different kinds of light and their uses. Each loca-
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tion has its own unique light signature and it might take time to get to know what light is where and when, and what it works well for. Travellers often bemoan cloudy days, but for many kinds of photography, the soft light that filters down from clouds works better than the harsh shadows and highlights of direct sunlight. Portraits and other photographs of people work well in such conditions.
Texture Texture refers to how different surfaces and materials reflect light. Many photographers don’t pay attention to texture. Texture is something that black and white images tend to capture really well. Photographing for texture is a totally different way to make images, and it’s worth trying, especially if you’re thinking about doing some close-ups. Sharon Walsh’s image of cutlery on a bed of beans (from a British antique shop’s display window) illustrates a great use of texture. The smooth surface of the steel is contrasted against the rough surface formed by the beans.
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Jeff Roffman’s image of a lotus flower from China also makes great use of texture, from the smooth satin of the petals to the shiny reflections of the dew drops. (Roffman also got closer.)
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The Decisive Moment The words and images below are by Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), one of the giants of 20th century photojournalism. Cartier-Bresson’s philosophy downplayed the technical aspects of making images, and instead focused on the photographer’s decision of when to capture the image with the camera: “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms that give that event its proper expression.”
“There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative: Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”
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Part Three: How Cameras Make Pictures The camera is a complex tool based on a simple concept: light from a scene is focused onto a light-sensitive medium (film or a digital chip). The camera controls how much light gets through the lens to the medium, and for how long it strikes the medium. The final result is an image. In the case of film, the focused light chemically reacts with the emulsion on the film, which is later made visible and stable by the development process. With the chip, the focused light activates tiny sensors on the chips, which turn that information into a digital file. When that digital file is accessed by the proper program, we see a digital image which can be manipulated, stored and printed. The variables in the photograph-making process are called exposure. Exposure = Aperture + Shutter Speed + ISO/Film Speed Aperture is the camera’s way of controlling how much light hits the medium. Usually aperture is controlled by a set of 5 or more blades which form an iris (below, left) that the camera can open
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or close. It functions just like the iris in your eye (previous page). The aperture should be larger in dimmer scenes and smaller in brighter scenes. Sometimes the aperture is controlled by you, sometimes by the camera. Aperture sizes are referred to by “f/numbers”, and a typical range might be 2, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22. The difference between each of these numbers is called a stop. Each lower number allows in twice as much as light as the next higher number. In other words, F/2 lets in twice as much light as f/4, and so on. To turn this around, f/22 lets in half as much light as f/16. The aperture control is often on the camera lens, or is accessible by menu and a control knob or up/down buttons on a digital camera. The shutter, like the aperture, is also a kind of door. But this door only has two positions, opened or closed. The variable here is shutter speed, or how long the door is open. Darker scenes might require the shutter to be open longer (referred to as lower speeds, for example, 1/8 second.). Brighter scenes require higher speeds, or shorter exposure times (for example, 1/500 second). Note: 1/30 second or longer often blurs the photograph because of camera shake. Typical shutter speeds are expressed as fractions of a second and include: 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 and 1/500, and 1/1000. These are often shortened to 4, 8, 16, 30, 60, 125 and 500, and 1000. The difference between each of these is called a stop. 1/500 is twice as fast as 1/250, and so on. Shutter speed is typically changed by a wheel (see above) on film cameras, and up/down buttons on digicams. The ISO/Film Speed is how sensitive the medium (film or chip) is, or, in other words, how long the medium takes to record an
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image. Film comes in speeds like 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. The difference between each speed is also called a stop. 400 speed film is twice as fast as 200, etc. Most digital cameras emulate film speed with an ISO setting.
So, for the scene above, the correct exposure might be (time, aperture and ISO): 1/60
f/8
ISO100
The same exposure is also given by this variation: 1/30
f/11
ISO100
Notice that the shutter speed went down by one stop (one stop slower or twice as long a shutter speed), the aperture went up by one stop (half as much light), and the ISO remained the same. One more example of the same exposure: 1/60
f/11
ISO200
If this is compared to the preceding example, the half less light let in by the higher f/number (or, smaller aperture) is made up for by the fact that the film speed/ISO is twice as high.
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To achieve the same exposure, a change in one parameter must be combined with an opposite but equal change in another parameter. Why do you need to know all this? Most modern cameras measure the light in a scene and set the aperture and shutter speed automatically given the film speed being used or the ISO set on the digital camera. Often the photographer never has to think about these variables. However, knowing about them, and how to manipulate them, can also allow the photographer considerable control over how the final image appears. How you set aperture and shutter speed— and how sensitive your film or digital sensor is—has an impact on your final image.
Aperture controls depth of field Depth of field is a term that describes how much of the photographic image is in focus. If only a thin slice is in focus, we call that “shallow depth of field.” If it’s all (or almost all) in focus, we call that “wide depth of field.” The basic rule here is that very wide apertures (f/2 for example) will produce very shallow depths of field. In Doug Reilly’s portrait of Claire Morgan, above, a shallow depth of field is used to focus on Claire, and to
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give the image a greater sense of depth. When using low f/ numbers, it’s critical that you focus your camera on what you want to actually appear in focus on the final image. There are many times when you want as much in focus as possible. Using a higher f/number, like f/8, would allow a greater depth of field. At f/16 and f/22, almost everything will be in focus.
Shutter speed can stop or blur movement If you use a high shutter speed, you can freeze action, as in Casey Cronin’s Ha Long Bay photograph above. (Notice also the depth of field is quite long: everything is in focus, from the clouds miles away to the women in the foreground.) Lower (longer) shutter speeds will mean that anything moving will be blurred, as in Paul Fathallah’s image of an electric tram in Prague (overleaf).
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ISO/Film Speed Effects Film Speed/ISO is changed to provide flexibility to the photographer in different lighting situations. If a photographer is going out to a café and knows it’ll be dark, he or she can choose a higher-speed film. With digital cameras, ISO becomes something that can be changed with each image, just like aperture and shutter speed, though often the menu commands are a little clumsy to do this often on most digicams. Digital SLRs usually have more straightforward controls in this regard. ISO/Film Speed also controls how much film grain or digital noise is in an image. High speed films tend to be grainier. High ISO images on digital cameras, especially point and shoot models with small chips, tend to be very noisy (or grainylooking) and often look better when converted to grayscale images than in color. If you’re shooting film, a good all-around speed is 400. Use 100 if you plan on shooting a lot in daylight, use 800 or 1600 if you’re going to be shooting in very dim locations. With your digicam or DSLR, experiment with the ISO settings: each camera acts differently in this regard.
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Part Four: Issues of Representation The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth. -Harold Evans
Armed with the tools presented in Recipe for a Photograph, you set out to make images while you are abroad. But everything we’ve talked about thus far is about technique. Photography is also art. And moreover, it’s art practiced in the social sphere, and its practice has social ramifications. In the beginning of this handbook we stated as our goal that everyone abroad should be bringing back to campus photographs that have meaning. It is likely that most photographers believe they are recording the objective truth. But is this accurate? Or does the camera record the perception of truth in a way so realistic that most people mistake the crafted image for reality? With each image, the photographer presents a version of reality. That reality may or may not be the same as the actual objective scene before the photographer’s eye. Here’s an example.
This photograph tells a certain story.
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This photograph is of the same scene, but as you can see, it tells a dramatically different story. Now there’s a little girl watching the person play the piano. As the photographer, you are creating the reality your audience will see. So the question for the photographer becomes: what do I want to show people? All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. -Richard Avedon
You’ll note that several times above we use the word “story” to refer to the message of a photograph. Photographers are storytellers. And, as you know, storytellers don’t always tell the truth! They embellish, they change, they gloss over. They obscure some details so that the audience can focus on other aspects of the story. They leave things out if it gets too complicated. Photographers do the same thing. Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be. -Duane Michals
The images on the next page were all taken by study abroad students. The locations are typical destinations: India, Denmark, Australia. Can you guess where each photograph was taken?
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The above images are all very good photographs technically. And insofar as they are a portrait, an architectural study and a wildlife photograph, they are also artistically well done. But they are not just that: they are also representations of the reality of a country by the students studying and photographing abroad. And that makes them interesting. Over the past five years we’ve noticed that students tend to bring back images typical of each location—images like the ones above. Broadly speaking, students traveling to Asia often bring back images of the exotic: brown-skinned people in colorful traditional clothes, teeming city streets with all manner of transportation, ancient temples and mosques. For students in Europe, the focus is on architecture: churches and castles, but also cobblestone streets, and occasionally a preserved agrarian countryside. People are often not present. Students returning from Australia overwhelmingly bring back photographs of nature: the bush, Ayers Rock, kangaroos and other exotic wildlife, like the above image of a shark, taken while diving on the Great Barrier Reef. People and architecture (except of the Sydney Opera House) are usually not present. Students studying in Africa bring back images similar to the Indian taxi portrait (exotic people) or the shark photograph (exotic nature). Architecture, modern technology and modern people in western dress are often not present. Why is this? Does Denmark have nature? Does Australia have people at all? Does Asia have people wearing modern, western clothes and talking on cellphones? Yes, but we rarely receive images of them from students studying in these locations. The images above are examples of travel photography cliché. This kind of cliché exists for two reasons. The clichéd images are often the most obvious examples of difference that travel-
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ers see immediately. The tourist industry trades in clichés (ones that are condescending if not outright chauvanist) to sell the idea of places to potential tourists. Think of any ad you’ve ever seen about a cruise. You get the same main idea: a floating party that occasionally drops anchor on a “pristine” island beach where the only “locals” are there to serve you food or play music. African safaris are sold with a similar racism: a vast landscape populated by exotic animals and relatively few (black) people who only drive the land rovers or sing in polyphony at the home camp. There are many other less insidious but no less cliched examples: a couple kissing on a gondola in Venice; a Bavarian in lederhosen hoisting an unrealistically large mug of beer with an idiotic grin; a Japanese monk in a “pristine” environment with mist and rocks that somehow suggests ancient wisdom. Consider what such images erase or omit. Among other things, all of these clichés obscure the real places with real people living real lives full of real problems as well as real joy. To get beyond travel cliché, play with the conventional images and open your eyes to what is obscured. Do regular Venetians use gondolas day-to-day? Get out of the amusement park of Old Town Prague and see where most city residents live and spend their days. Try to get to know Japanese people: where do they work, what do they do for fun, how do they live? Do their homes have tatami mats or tables and chairs? Try to find out where the African park ranger lives, where his children go to school, what his economic, social and political reality is. Concentrate on the
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day-to-day lives of the local people: this is the difference between studying abroad and taking a package tour. Thinking critically about representation shouldn’t dissuade student photographers from making the images that strike them. But it should lead student photographers to ask some questions about their own perceptions: am I only seeing one part of the reality? Is there something worthwhile in a wider view? Student photographers also have a responsibility to their audience back home. For some of their family and friends the images they make may be the only representation of the country they ever see. What do you want to show them? Do you want people to believe that India has no cellphones, computers, modern cars or internet? Do you want to present Europe as all cobbled lanes and rolling hills? Is there nothing of interest beyond nature in Australia, and don’t native Australians interact with their environment in interesting ways? Your photographs, taken collectively, will be a statement: This is (enter location here). Think about the power you have to (mis)represent that place, and the responsibility you have to present a balanced perspective. Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long. -Walker Evans
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Part Five: Exercises for Exploration
people watcher Set yourself up in a café, restaurant or other public place and photograph the people who pass by. You could do this discreetly and on the sly, but why not just be open about it? Ask the people you see if they would let you take thir photo, either posed or as they go about their business. Some may say no, but many will say yes.
prisoner of the plaza Confine yourself to a public space (plaza, café, market, etc) for one hour and just make photographs. Start by photographing the space itself and the boundaries you have set. Then just concentrate on being aware of what’s happening around you— and documenting it.
color focus Choose a color and photograph examples of it during an entire day. The idea is to become aware of something you may have overlooked before, and build a series of images that are linked and yet present an interesting slice of a more diverse reality.
daily life Document your daily routine, almost as if you were illustrating it for friends and family at home. Remember that they don’t know the place where you are living, so be sure to photograph in some detail things that wouldn’t be obvious or clear.
brand loyalty Choose your favorite local product (the one you think you’ll miss the most) and photograph it in as many different ways as you can think of.
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recipe Ask your host-mother, a waiter at a restaurant, or a person at the marketplace how they prepare a certain dish or type of food, and ask if you can photograph the process. It helps if it’s a food you really like!
Adam Kohnstam
small pleasures Find out what local people do for diversion, and take part. Then, photograph the activity. What does the choice of activity say about the people?
self-portraits Self-portraits are hard photographs to take. Your goal is to capture something of the essence and character of the subject— in this case, yourself. Think about these things: What does change mean for you? How have you changed over the course of your term abroad? This is a great topic to reflect upon and write about, not only as your experience comes to a close, but also along the way. How do you feel different? What new values have you developed? What old values are you now starting to reject? Try to make a series of images that help define these changes.
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Part Six: Genre Tips Obviously, genres are not completely discrete categories. A photograph could be both a still life and a portrait, and all photographs could in some way be considered “documentary.” Take a look back at the images in this manual as you read the descriptions below. How would you categorize each image?
Portrait A strong portrait is more than a likeness-it captures the personality, attitude, or quirks of character that convey something meaningful about a person. Often portraits consist of a simple head shot, but more inclusive shots might be appropriate if the surroundings provide colorful detail about the person. If you are taking a photo of a Flamenco dancer in Spain, for instance, you may want to take a full-length shot, as the dancer’s costume will be an important part of the overall effect. A portrait of a market vendor in Vietnam might be enhanced and tell more of a story by including the goods she is selling. With head shots, you will need to work harder to convey the person’s character, perhaps by using light and shadow to show texture or convey mood, or by capturing a particularly characteristic expression that reveals something about the subject’s personality.
Still life A still life is a thoughtful study of objects that brings out their shape, color, texture, arrangement or some other quality that captures your eye. It may show a relationship between the objects depicted and usually has some particularly striking visual interest. Most people have seen the use of still life in painting: the bowl of fruit, the wine bottle, etc. Still life in photography might include an unusual arrangement of stones on a beach, a display of cherries in an outdoor market, or a croissant and cup of espresso on a café table. You will need to
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carefully consider lighting when shooting a still life. Afternoon sunlight might be used to achieve saturated colors, while taking a photo in morning or evening light will give a mellower, more muted effect.
Landscape A good landscape photograph captures mood and a sense of place. It might be a shot of an approaching storm, dramatic coastal cliffs or an open stretch of road. Think carefully about composition and try experimenting with the ratio of sky to land to create different results. Light is also an important factor – midday light is the harshest, while sunrise and sunset produce a very warm light that tends to result in better landscape shots. Using a wide-angle lens can create a sense of depth in your photo; having a focal point in the foreground intensifies this effect and tends to “lead the eye” through the various layers of the landscape creating an image with greater impact. You might also want to consider a broader definition of landscape by considering, for instance, the “landscape” of the city, which might include a full frame view of skyscrapers or a shot of an urban neighborhood scene.
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Alana Santaro
Architecture To capture the architectural flavor of the places you visit, you may decide to take photos of grand public buildings, modest local dwellings, quirky museums or your favorite local cafés or restaurants. You may want to focus on specific architectural details like doorways, windows or roof lines. A wide angle lens can be useful when photographing architecture in order to get the entire building in the shot without being too far away and thus decreasing the odds of having unwanted objects or people in the frame. Be aware, however, that too wide an angle can cause distortion in the final image. Another option is to use a longer telephoto lens and take the picture from further away, which often gives a more natural perspective. The telephoto lens also allows you to capture specific details like close-ups of the sculpture on the Acropolis or the detailed scrollwork on a temple balcony in China. When taking architectural photos, you also need to consider depth of field, or how much of the photo you want to be in focus. Normally with architectural shots you want the entire building or detail to be in focus. Remember that the larger your f/stop number, the more of the photo will be in focus.
Documentary Documentary, or photojournalistic, photography normally records a human interest scene that comments on or tells a story about a social issue or a breaking news event. Documentary photography requires a keen eye and the ability to see and convey a story in a single image or series of images. This might include a photo of a political rally in South Africa, images of homeless teens in Brazil or a shot of an armed soldier patrolling the streets in Northern Ireland. If you are trying to capture a moving image or passing scene, you may not have time to consider issues such as lighting or f/stop settings so you may need to use the automatic setting on your camera, if it has one. If you are taking photos of individuals who are clearly aware that you are photographing them, it is best to ask their permission, and perhaps offer to give them a copy of the finished
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photo if this is possible. Documentary images can be powerful reminders of the social or political issues of the countries you have visited.
Genre exercise Expand your photographic horizons by taking photos of a wide variety of people, places and things while you’re abroad. Be creative so that you come home with more than clichéd views of famous monuments and shots of 25 churches you can’t distinguish from each other. Here are some ideas to get you started: Store window displays Close-ups of the bricks or stones that make up the local buildings Children playing Wheels: bicycles, cars, subways, machinery Peoples’ shoes Fruit and vegetables Unusual views of familiar landmarks: take the photo from above or below or tilt the camera for a different p.o.v. Animals Reflections in windows Interesting signs Cool or unusual architectural details (Look UP as you walk down the street.) Locals working: the butcher, the mail carrier, the street vendor, the person who works at your favorite bakery Crouch down and take photos at street level Graffiti Train and subway stations Street musicians Rooftops Wrought-iron fences Nighttime views
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The authors would like to thank the students of Union College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges for their photographs, and Magdalena Piascik (WS ‘06) for help organizing this manual and the accompanying workshop.
Part Seven: What to Do With Your Photogrpahs? So, you come back from abroad with 3000 digital images or 37 rolls of film in a big ziploc bag. What do you do with your images? Many students like to make albums (online or in book form), and it’s always a good idea to label your photographs while the information is still fresh. Believe it or not, in 10 years you might forget where that picture was taken, or who is in it. Other than showing your photos to your friends and family, you can also: 1.) submit your best photos to publications like Abroad View (www.abroadviewmagazine.com) or Glimpse (www.glimpseabroad.com). 2) enter your work into your campus photo contest. 3) Apply to exhibit your photographs (or yours along with some other photographers) at one of your on-campus gallery spaces. 4) submit your photos to your campus newspaper, or put them together into a photo-essay for publication.
Photographing to Explore: a handbook for travellers (c) 2008 All Rights Reserved Published by the Center for Global Education Hobart and William Smith Colleges Geneva, NY 14456
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Front Cover Photograph: Boy in Market, India, Tobias Leeger Back Cover Photograph: Gypsy, by Leidy Sanchez
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