Tandem Flying

If you are brand new to paragliding photography or paragliding in general, it is best to create aerial shots while using the help of a tandem pilot. You may not be able to get exactly where you want but should be able to get most of the angles you are looking for. Also without having to worry about the controls it gives you complete freedom to be able to focus on the camera.

Learn to fly solo

Developing aerial photos while flying isn’t easy. The first tip is to simply learn how to fly well solo. When taking your hands off of the controls in order to use a camera with two hands you will be fully accelerating the parachute. In order to be able to do this you must have the right conditions. If there is a lot of turbulence, fully accelerating the parachute may lead to you losing control.

For those of you that always want to have slight control of your flight, learning to fly with one hand is the way to go. You will find very quickly that you do not have the same control, however it is all in all safer.

You are much more agile and maneuverable in a one person parachute than a tandem.

Fly Safe – Don’t get too close

Remember if you are shooting someone in particular don’t get too close to other fliers. In this type of action photography, a gust of wind could make you crash with your subject. Bring radios with you so you can be in contact at all times. It also makes for a more enjoyable experience where you are not screaming and shouting at each other.

Camera Settings

For paragliding photography as well as action photography in general you are typically capturing moving objects. Therefore you will want to be using a higher shutter speed, typically from 1/500s to 1/1000s. Also use a smaller aperture of around f/8 to f/11, depending on the light of the day.

Basic and Final Tips

At the end of the day you can make most paragliding shots look interesting even if you are brand new to photography. The main thing is to get out there, start flying and surrounding yourself in the paragliding culture. As for most types of action photography, the first and most important skill to learn is the activity you are doing.

And remember, shooting from the ground can always make your job 10 times easier.

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When traveling to a specific location to shoot travel photography, always remember to do your research before arriving. Know what cultural customs are in the area in order to not stick out like a sore thumb. Also what type of moments you will be capturing so you can plan accordingly and take the right type of equipment with you.

In this article we are giving some hints and tips on different types of travel photography. Keep in mind as a traveler you will have to be a jack-of-all-trades and know how to develop high quality images of all types of different styles.

Photographing Friends and Family Members

Whenever you go on vacation with friends and family around the world, you will want to capture these moments. It is a great souvenir to bring home with you but also a way to add more power to certain shots.

When photographic friends and family members remember that they are only a piece of the photograph. If you focus on them too much you will lose perspective of the location. On the other spectrum you don’t want them to be at such a distance that they become a spec in the background. Find some balance.

Also keep in mind you don’t have to take a specific portrait shot for someone to be recognizable.

Notice here how you can use someone’s unique features to make them recognizable while still maintaining good representation of the background

Landscape Photography

From the Andes to the Amazons or The Saharan Desert to the Galapagos Islands; all landscape photography is different and very much set by the scene you will be shooting.

Landscape photography is not just limited to what you are seeing with your eyes. It is also a representation of emotion or the thoughts you may feel when arriving to a place.

When traveling to different destinations, it is a good idea to bring a small notebook with you. This will allow you to jot down some emotions you may have when you first arrive to a location. These notes can help a lot when editing photos later.

Photography Tip

If you arrive to the rainforest in the thick of a storm capture that moment. Capture water funneling into ravines, trees stretching from the wind or animals scurrying for shelter.

This represents the eeriness of walking through a cloud forest at sun rise

Photography of Cities and Towns

Just like landscape photography, each city or town has features that make it unique or recognizable. There are three main things you will want to try and capture through photography of cities and towns.  Landmarks the location may be famous for, the culture of its inhabitants and the general sense of the location.

You will often want to use a wide angled lens for this type of photography as to capture as much of the location as possible.

Photography Tip…

A great idea is to look in some tourist stores and check out what locations are on the front of postcards. This will give you some great insight as to good shooting locations

These Peruvian fishing boats represent a huge part of the culture in Huanchaco, Peru. The boats are made from the indigenous locals by reeds that grow on the local beaches. The reeds are dissipating due to global warming and locals have been known to take their boats into the abyss and never come back as a form of protest.

Photographing Monuments

This applies to those of you that love shooting subjects such as the Golden Gate while entering San Francisco, or Machu Picchu from the Sun Rise Gate

When photographing monuments remember to use light and weather to your benefit. The Golden Gate Bridge may look best enveloped in fog while as Machu Picchu, you may find, looks better at sun rise as opposed to sun set.

Hatun Machay is a sacred ground located in Peru. Notice the difference in two similar shots when taken at sunset versus during the day time while the fog is rolling in.

Photographing Strangers

With travel photography you often find yourself taking pictures of locals, sometimes by accident while capturing a background, or specifically to show their culture. Photographing natives from a city is one of the best ways to capture emotion in this location. You will see the expressions on their faces that share subtle insight to the on goings in that community.

In some instances you may find it appropriate to candidly take shots. However always remember to be respectful so that you are not invading personal space. Some cultures refuse to have their photographs taken and you may find yourself in a hostile situation. If you are not sure, just ask.

Always remember to have the trust of communities when taking pictures of indigenous cultures. Relationship building may take weeks or months in some cases.

Also locals may ask for a small fee in order to take their picture. You will often find this in poor regions of the world and will by no mean break your bank account. Always remember, be courteous.

No matter what type of travel photography you are shooting the best tip of all is to take photos. Too many people wait for the perfect shot and miss numerous opportunities searching for perfection. Take photos, looking back on the memories you will see that all of the moments captured were worth taking.

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Capture the location

Krystle Wright is one of the most famous female action photographers in the current industry. In an interview she mentions someone telling her, “Well really your just a landscape photographer shooting people doing really cool stuff.” In reality, that’s what it comes down to.

While climbing you will often find yourself in amazing, desolate places all around the world. These places may be stunning in their own light. Make sure to capture those rock climbing photography images.

Also if you are including the climber in the background, make sure they are wearing bright colors. If the subject being photographed is not wearing bright, easy to spot colors, they may get lost in the background.

Show the Full Story

Of course sometimes you want to show the crux. The hardest point on the move where someone is doing an inverted heel hook holding on by two fingers. However this only shows one aspect of climbing.

Some of the best rock climbing photos show simple climbing culture. The silly things that people do while waiting around to get on the next route. The culture of climbing, for those that have never experienced it, shows a fantastic story and way of life.

Climbers are constantly in searching, whether in their own backyard or around the world

Lighting. Lighting. Lighting.

This may come as a shock but shooting on a bright sunny day is the worst environment for rock climbing photography.

The bright sunlight casts shadows all over your potential canvas. On top of this, glares from the sun may really take away from the beauty of what you are trying to capture with the rock climbing photos.

When looking for the best type of lighting to capture rock climbing photography, pure shadow is the best. The time of the day where the sun has fallen behind the cliff face gives everything in view the same tone.

If you are shooting in the middle of the day, cloudy days are best for creating picture perfect environments.

Keep all the body parts in tact

This isn’t your high school yearbook. You’re not going for headshots or purposefully trying to cut your archenemy out of the scene. If you are photographing someone climbing, make sure they are completely in the photo.

Julie Ellison the editor for “Climbing” magazine and a rock-climbing photographer herself, uses this as a rule of thumb. She mentions how it actually makes her feel uncomfortable seeing photographs where the whole climber is not shown.

Also, she doesn’t take a liking to close-ups on hands or somebody chalking up. You get the picture. The idea is for rock climbing photos, that’s your job. Keep the climber in one piece!

Keeping all body parts in tact

Show the risk

When it gets down to it, climbing is an adrenaline packed extreme sport. For some, this is the best part of climbing. Showing the elegance, balance and peace that someone can portray while gently walking up a piece of slab. At the same time however, take time to show the long run outs with a 30 feet fall, that gets way too close to the ground. That’s when things get exciting.

Being a rock-climbing photographer is rewarding. It allows you to share the experience with the climbers. Yet also study people in a different light to improve your climbing skills as well. Being a rock climbing photographer is great. And everyone secretly knows, each sold rock climbing photo allows us to stay out on the rock longer. That’s where we belong.

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Surf photography is an art for one of the best world-renowned sports out there. For firsts wherever there is a wave, there is surf. One of the great things about the ocean is that there are so many different aspects to it as it is constantly moving and changing. This makes surf photography a fantastically interesting and yet truly skillful hobby to get involved in.

For those of you that have gone outside of the actual surf realm itself and now want to get involved with the photography end here are some tips for you.

Respect the Ocean

This may seem silly and not be much of a tip for photography per say, but we have to start at the very basics. There are many different conditions to keep in mind while taking surf photography and keep in mind you may not have a board with you, just a set of fins and a wetsuit to keep you afloat.

Therefore it is extremely important to be conscious of rip currents, undertows, sharp reefs as well as the size of the surf while taking pictures of surfers. Don’t get too in over your head and although you may be able to surf barrels at double overhead with a 5’11” fish beneath your feet, that doesn’t mean it is a good idea to try and catch that surf image while hanging out in the water.

Take things slow, small waves can pose just as good a canvass opportunity as big ones.

Have the right water housing

Some photographers make the mistake of deciding to focus on surf photography yet at the same time take short cuts. They will purchase an extremely expensive camera with a wide-angle lens in order to get high quality pictures of surfers yet try and save some money on a cheaper water housing.

Keep in mind that the water housing is all that keeps your beautiful technology safe from the ocean. With a cheaper housing you may slowly find the equipment start to leak and next thing you know the $2,000 to $4,000 worth of equipment that you invested in is now worth nothing.

Example of same similar photo falling to take water droplet precautionary methods

Reverse shot of camera using proper water housing

Get rid of water spots

One of the most frustrating things that can occur is coming in from a rough day of surf only to see that none of your surf photos will work. You spent hours fighting with the ocean and managed to position yourself in the water to get some perfect shots. However viewing the film you can see that water droplets had collected right in front of the lens view.
These dreaded water spots or droplets can be resolved before getting in the water. There are many products that can be purchased in order to place a light film over your water housing so that water droplets are not collected.

Two cheap options are to mix a little water with baby shampoo. The additional option is to simply use your own spit. Place this on the outside of the water housing where the droplets would form and you will be good to go.

Its not always about the waves themselves

Pictures of surfers and positioning yourself with the lineup

First things first, if you already know how to surf, or have spent a significant time in the ocean, this will help you immensely. It is very difficult to develop good surf photography and wave pictures if you yourself are not a surfer.

One of the most important aspects of surf photography is lining yourself up effectively in order to be in the right place at the right time to capture great pictures of surfers. Understanding the basics on how the ocean is moving and how the waves are breaking will help you immensely.

Also it is helpful to work with a paired partner/surfer. Having one specific person you are shooting will help you immensely. Communicate with each other to understand your goals for the day and what type of shots you are both trying to get. Shooting blindly at every surfer you find in the water often gives you nothing at the end of the day.

Be prepared to fail

As with anything you are very unlikely to get anything on your first try. When it comes to surf photography it will take a long time before you are getting dream shots you see on magazines.

Surf photography has to be a passion or hobby of yours more than just a means for you to make money to be successful. Keep getting sand in your teeth and with practice you could be the next Zak Noyle.

What lies beneath

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