1. 2 GETAWAY MARCH 2013
DEPARTURE LOUNGE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY By Cameron Ewart-Smith @JustCam
Ilearnt to scuba-dive many
years ago, before the arrival
of dive computers. In those
days, we followed an adage to
ensure we didn’t run into
decompression time and end
up killing ourselves: plan the
dive, dive the plan.
I can’t help but think this
theory works just as well in
photography. Plan the shoot,
shoot the plan. This thought
occurred to me during a talk by
award-winning photojournalist
Sam Owen at last year’s Wild
Shots Wildlife Photography
Symposium in Cape Town.
Sam was talking about her
photo of penguins being
released after having been
cleaned following an oil spill.
She described her prepara-
tions, which ranged from prac-
tising on a toy penguin to
THE SHOT
IN YOUR HEAD
Most photographers I know have one great image
they’re dying to shoot, but getting it in the can is often
another matter entirely. What you need is a plan…
sketching the shot she wanted,
and then told how she had
jumped into the water and cap-
tured what she’d had in mind.
Of course, this is vastly
different from your average
holiday snap, but some meas-
ure of planning can go a long
way to improving your travel
photography.
Find out what time the
sun rises and sets.
Look up the dates of local
events and festivals.
Search Google for images
of your destination to see what
pictures have been shot before.
Contact local photographers
or journalists through Twitter.
Compile a list of what you
want to shoot.
SamOwen