A perpetual challenge for landscape and travel photographers is capturing original images. One photographer went underground in pursuit of that challenge. His images will inspire you to look deeper on your next photography trip.
Photographer Tomas Sentpetery recently collaborated with Nikon Europe on a photography project called Look Deeper to encourage and inspire travel photographers to seek out new perspectives in instantly-familiar locations. Sentpetery traveled to five popular European destinations, London, Paris, Krakow, Naples, and the southern coast of Spain and captured images both above and below ground.
Sentpetery contrasted the views choosing to create a vibrant, colorful style for the above ground images and a starker, more desolate look for the underground shots. He wanted to showcase the tourist-free nature of the underground sites, especially in comparison to the world-famous views above such as Big Ben and Parliament in London and the Eiffel Tower as seen from Trocadero in Paris. He chose underground sites that are all open to the general public as the goal was to find places that were not well known but still accessible. Sentpetery told me that he found it particularly enjoyable working with local guides as they were excited to show off places that were not often visited by tourists.
Sentpetery used a couple of Nikon camera bodies and a variety of NIKKOR lenses for the project including the D850, D7500, 14-24mm f/2.8, 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5, and 24-70mm f/2.8. While he didn't find the underground shooting to be technically challenging, he did utilize flash guns and external lights at times for illumination and in order to better capture the look he pre-visualized. He also tried to explore as much as possible underground in order to find unique angles. Sentpetery was constantly amazed at the dichotomy between being by himself in a place like the Wieliczka salt mines versus being surrounded by tour groups above ground in Krakow.
Sentpetery's main take-away from this project was to constantly push himself to seek out new locations and angles from which to product beautiful images. He says, "There are hidden worlds all around us and I wanted to show there is more to popular tourist destinations than we might expect. Do your research before you travel and don’t be afraid to look deeper. With the right kit and a thirst for adventure it’s possible to deliver stand-out travel photography.”
For more information on the project, you can check out the Nikkon Look Deeper page or check out this short video:
Images used with permission of Tomas Sentpetery and Nikon Europe.
D7500, NOT D750. One less nit to pick! ;-)
Good catch, Sam - thank you!
Very nice!
This was already posted everywhere weeks ago and got lots of negative comments because none of the locations actually match. The Catacombes in Paris are miles from the Trocadéro and so are all other locations. To me, this is an interesting idea but selling it as the underground view of famous tourist spots is really dishonest. Also, stating that he went for off the beaten path locations is really misinformed as most of these places are quite famous. In the end, I do not understand why this got so much praise and why you took the time to entertain the project with such a long article.
As one possible answer to your last statement, some of us enjoyed it and I, for one, don't think your complaints, while valid, sufficient to detract from the project or article. To each, their own, I guess.
Remy:
I agree with you. I've noticed several articles on Fstoppers that were actually months old re-runs.
As for mis-leading information, I don't see how that can be rationalized as "while valid, (not) sufficient to detract from the project or article."
Personally I'm not worried if this is a months old repost, as it's new to me. :-)
That said, the posturing of the article is misleading. I like the concept, but the execution seemed contrived and misleading. I wouldn't have this complaint if the article made clear that the above/below images are not connected, except by being in the same city.
As for "off the beaten path"... I don't know. I'm prepared to give the author a pass on this one, they could simply mean not as well visited as the more famous spots. An example from my own city (Auckland, New Zealand): Everybody visits the Sky Tower, but Wynyard Quarter isn't on the tourist trail. That said, most tourists who see the Sky Tower will visit Wynyard Q, as it's only a short walk away and a good place to eat...
This is cool and well done, but travel photography means different things to different people. I’m a commercial travel photographer. It is my job to create images to inspire people to travel. As great as these underground shots are, they don’t really inspire me to travel.
Usually what pays the bills is unusual takes on the usual views.
Well put, Jonathan and I have no argument with this. As you mentioned, different things appeal to different people. To a lot of people, inspiration comes from seeing an amazing shot of Oia or Kirkjufell - to most landscape/travel photographers who see the same images from these places constantly, it can get a bit tired. Seeing new locations ("new" being a relative term of course) like some of these underground shots can certainly propel more seasoned travelers to further explore. Thanks for reading and commenting!