Travel

This past weekend, I spent numerous hours with my partner looking through garden seed catalogs selecting and ordering what we wanted to grow this season. I wanted anything with "dragon" in the name. She wanted some unique looking poppies. We both wanted some cool looking "Black Tomatoes." But when I later Googled "black tomatoes," I found something else. I found that you can now pay someone to go on vacation with you and follow you around with a drone to document the trip. What?

Last year, I came up with an idea. A far fetched idea though it may have been, it was something I really wanted to do. I wanted to combine all of the things I love into one project, and make it a reality. Those things were photography, helping those less fortunate than myself, physical printing, travel, traditional cultures, and the sharing of knowledge. The culmination of these would be both a hardcover and a softcover book. The publication of the results would be self-published using funds from a Kickstarter campaign. It might seem like a crazy undertaking for one person, but it's very doable if you plan it right.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent hours browsing sites like B&H Photo Video comparing different tripods, tripod heads, and their features. You may also take it a step further by watching reviews until your eyes burn before you decide to finally make that decisive click and add one to your shopping cart. It’s an understandable practice if you ask me. Perhaps you’re in the market for the best travel tripod money can buy. If that’s the case, you’d be hard pressed to find a better option than the Gitzo GT1545T Series 1 Traveler Carbon Fiber Tripod.

Photography has a different meaning to almost every photographer. We may learn from one another but it is our style and vision that makes us unique to the the others out there. In this video, Paul Zizka travels out to Greenland to photograph the beauty of the "big white island," a place that not many get to see.

Tis the season. Around the time of December, photography websites worldwide recap last year with their selection of the cream of the crop. To many photographers, National Geographic is a well-respected media platform to get your work selected and exposed. And now they have made their selection curated from 91 photographers, 107 stories, and 2,290,225 photographs.

If I'm brutally honest, I felt as if I'd become a bit numb to time-lapses. There's a sense in which the bar has been raised so high of late, that it's difficult to create anything that's likely to capture my attention (not that anyone's trying to). However, if there's one place that can deliver over and over again, it's the frozen tundra that feels as if it has been designed by a landscape photographer: Iceland.

Our friends at ViewBug teamed up with Discovery Photo Tours to offer an unforgettable Italy photo adventure to one lucky photographer. Submit your image to the completely free “Around the World” photo contest and you could win a seat on Discovery Photo Tours' Spring 2017 Italy Photo Tour! This all-inclusive, eight-day tour will be an incredible journey through the heart of Italy. Start in Rome and wind through the Tuscan countryside, into Florence, and end in Cinque Terre.

The idea of a travel tripod causes hesitation. On one hand, you have a size that makes bringing a tripod on location no longer a physical strain. On the other, these tripods tend to be thin, causing them to be less sturdy than larger, thicker tubed tripods. The key to a good travel tripod is striking a balance of size and strength. For the past few years, MeFOTO has been the leading brand in travel tripods with their wide selection of sizes. Their introductory line of tripods offered everything from tabletop height to a full size 64" tripod. With their newest release, they seem to be pushing the boundaries of how small a tripod can really be.

London-based photographer Harry Skeggs began his love affair with traveling at the age of 17 with what he describes as a "rubbish little camera." He says it was his disappointment with the quality of the images that pushed him to seek out better. Here, we take a look at some of his finest wildlife images from around the world.

Wedding photography has evolved into a stunning genre of photography. Photographers across the globe are bringing a level of creativity to wedding photography that elevates the images into something more than just photo-documentation.

Last week we reported on one of the most extreme cases of a photographer having their work ripped off. The story was that of Lauren Bullen, a travel photographer who allegedly discovered one of her followers was quite literally travelling the globe in order to replicate her images. Seem far-fetched? These new clues suggest the whole thing may have been a hoax.

If you've ever booked an out-of-town photography gig and needed to catch a flight to get there, you might have run into this problem: you get on the plane, lift up your roller bag to put it into the overhead bin, and it just doesn't fit. You push, you squeeze, you try taking out the laptop, but nothing works. You hang your head in shame and walk back up to the front, and ask the flight attendant for help. As always, Think Tank Photo is here to help.

The sequel to the BBC-produced nature documentary series, "Planet Earth II," released a few clips into the wild recently to promote its U.S. release in January. You may have noticed one of these scenes making the rounds on social media in the last few days, which was a masterfully edited clip that features snakes chasing an iguana. If you were curious how they filmed some of this material, there are a few behind-the-scenes clips out that show how it was done.

Most photographers have experienced some kind of image theft, or had someone take a little too much inspiration from their work, and just straight up replicate their photo. But in a case I recently discovered through an article on Retouchist, travel photographers Jack Morris and Lauren Bullen have fallen victim to a copycat. The difference being that their apparent number one fan actually travels the globe in order to mimic their images.

Creating an image that appears “sharp” is something I struggled with for a LONG time. I read countless articles on the topic and invested heavily in gear thinking that was the cure. While gear can certainly help, I believe there are a few key areas to focus on in order to create images that are tack sharp.

Travel is both an important and frustrating part of being a photographer. Many photographers judge their success by how many miles they've flown or days spent on the road. Others dream about getting the chance to fly around the world taking photos. No matter how much you travel, for a lot of us, being in airports and flying in general is a necessary evil. Thankfully, creative people keep coming up with great tools to try to make our time spent in airports less painful.

Like many photographers, I decided to stop shooting weddings as soon as I was able to. They were sometimes fun, and they could pay well, but they just weren’t for me. In 2013, I finally booked my last one: a destination wedding in early 2014 in Bolivia. Going out with style, for sure.

It's already Tuesday, but if you're like me – always open to sponge up as much learning and information as possible – you'll still be in time to get on with a free course on LinkedIn through their "Week of Learning," available until October 31. Last year, LinkedIn bought educational site, Lynda.com, one of the largest online training and tutorial networks. Even though LinkedIn isn't one of the networks that members of the creative industries are most active on, there's still a lot of useful information, and the workshops and tutorials are actually very well produced.

Benjamin Von Wong is back with another magnificent set from his latest series, ‘Surreal Lava Portraits,’ where he ventures out on the Big Island of Hawaii to photograph some lava flows with his team and models. If this was anyone else, I would jump to the conclusion that this is all composited together to make the final image. But with Von Wong, this is all real.

Affectionately known as the Land of Fire and Ice, Iceland has become a widely popular photography hotspot. It seems like everywhere you turn, there are photographers and videographers talking, fantasizing, planning, and shooting all things Iceland. But what's with all the fuss? For those who have yet to pack their photo gear and travel to the island, the recently released short film, "Ice and Fire," shows what you are missing and continues to kindle Iceland's "photo rush."

Photographing skylines and cityscapes takes a lot of technical ability, both in knowing what gear to bring and how to capture a variety of lighting conditions. Many photographers have made careers out of perfecting this genre, taking it even further by mixing in astrophotography, light painting, and even motion. Whether you're looking to explore your own backyard or get more out of traveling, shooting skylines can open your eyes to new possibilities no matter what type of photography you shoot.

Travel photographers seem to be going crazy for far-flung locations on Instagram. If you follow a bunch of them, you are bound to come across stunning photographs of some amazing places they’ve been making images of. It seems like everyone has caught the Scandinavian bug, seeing so many photographers flocking to Iceland or the Faroe Islands to capture those breathtaking landscapes. In this article, I will list the most popular locations for travel photographers on Instagram, but also include a few places you may not have considered.

Photographer Jimmy Nelson has spent over 30 years traveling around the globe taking pictures, mostly photographing indigenous cultures by using his camera as a tool to make contact and build relationships with unknown communities around the planet. In this video, Nelson shares seven life lessons that he has personally learned through his photography experiences during his worldwide adventures.

Recently, I took a trip to Wichita, Kansas to see my sister get married. I packed up my camera, a few flashes, and my tripod for this trip with hopes of doing some photoshoots while in town. My two kids came out with me for this journey, and we ventured around the city.

Traveling as a photographer can be difficult. The issue we always seem to encounter is a lot like G.A.S.; we want to have the right lens for every shot, and we don't want to miss out. The key to circumventing this issue is planning. While some of the best shots can be unexpected, you have to have an idea of what you're looking for. When planning my recent trip to New York City, I had to find a way to pack the camera gear I wanted for a variety of work in a small, comfortable bag. Enter the ThinkTank Photo Turnstyle 20, the best small travel bag I've ever seen.

I recently funded the printing of my first book via Kickstarter. It was the wonderful culmination of a year of hard work on the project itself and almost six months of preparation and promotion for the funding campaign. In the end, it was funded well beyond my goal. The whole process of creating, funding, and then realizing the project was quite surreal. I am still pinching myself from time to time as I pack the books ready for shipping to my backers and the recipients of the project. I wrote a while back about changing your mindset, knuckling down, and just doing things. Today, I'd like to talk a little about another thing that makes work happen: the word "yes."

Back in July of 2016, Adobe released a major update to Lightroom Mobile for iOS that allows it to work directly with any and all raw files supported by the desktop version and to also sync them seamlessly with the desktop. But what does this actually mean for real-world use? What problem are we actually solving? Let's go on a trip with epic travel photographer Elia Locardi and find out.

A photograph that does not tell a story, is a lifeless picture – it’s a failure to capture the viewer and therefore, his heart. One single photograph can inspire a person if a photographer knows how to tell a good story. Because photographer Paul Choy wanted to find out the truth for himself behind media headlines, and because he wanted to tell the individual stories of each refugee, he set out for the refugees’ camps in Calais and Greece with his camera. The result is the ‘Faceless, Forgotten’ – a photo essay and a documentary about the struggles of refugees.

David Guttenfelder shot for the Associated Press for 20 years, based in Nairobi, Abidjan, New Delhi, and Tokyo, but it wasn't until he helped open the AP's North Korean bureau in 2011 that he became truly famous. His Instagram account has nearly a million followers and is filled with stunning iPhone photos from around the world. He was one of the first photographers to publish images shot on his phone, which caused a bit of a stir at the time.

During a two-day trip to the magnificent city that is Rome, photographer Milán Rácmolnár came up with the brilliant idea of photographing Rome in infrared. The result is a different and pink perspective on the cityscapes.

Imagine a spectacular, rugged landscape. Pine forests that stretch for hundreds of miles, vivid lakes and countless waterfalls. This is central Norway; bear country. While I am packing my camera bag for a two week photography trip honeymoon to Iceland, I relive a memory that answered the question if we really need to travel for better photographs.

Something that happened last week really hit home for me. Everyone probably already has heard, as it has been reported by almost every single news agency in the world; Australian photographer Brett Costello was robbed of $40,000 of camera gear in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last week while in town to cover the Olympics. However, this article isn't about him specifically.

Photographer Greg Florent has made images that capture Budapest in a new light. The images are made by taking them at the transition of daylight into sunset and then nighttime until the lights come on and the city's evening starts. He spends around four hours at a location taking one shot, making sure he gets the whole transition and changes of light to produce the images in post.

The filmmakers of “The Muir Project,” known for their first documentary, “Mile… Mile and a Half,” have just released their latest film, “Noatak: Return to the Arctic.” I interviewed Director Ric Serena who told me about the production challenges his team faced when working on a remote river deep in Alaska and why they chose to go with the Canon 1DC as their camera of choice.