By Steve Makris
How do you get that one-in-a-million photo? It can happen anywhere, anytime.
But with a bit of planning and some imagination, that picture will wow your audience.
Getting that great picture is about being at the right place at the right time. When travelling, this means planning what time you visit places of interest.
Pictures look dramatically different when taken in the morning, midday or evening. Some places you shoot might be in shadow, making the picture not as perfectly lit. Of course, that’s why cameras have the flash-fill capability.
Shooting from the right spot
Don’t be content to stand next to other tourists, snapping away. Look around. There are light posts to shoot from, garbage bins and benches.
Nearby buildings and rooftop restaurants provide fresh photo viewpoints. Asking permission can even get you to an overhead balcony in a walk-up hotel or apartment. Take small tokens of appreciation along to say thank you to your gracious hosts.
Some museums don’t allow pictures, but they still let you take your cameras along. You didn’t hear this from me, but you can absent-mindedly snap a photo or two inside. You will simply be reminded there’s no photography allowed, but you still have your photo, so make sure it counts!
Ancient ruins make for spectacular photos, but often you can’t venture past a certain point. If you are polite with on-site staff and ask the right way (speaking their language often helps), you may be rewarded with a unique vantage point.
Many churches, such as those in Rome, now have floodlights you can turn on for a minute or so by simply pressing tucked-away timer buttons. Some require you put in money — usually a euro — worth it for a well-lit photo.
Boat tours are my favourite for getting good photo spots. A spectacular cave lake photo (see above) in Kefalonia, Greece, was shot from about 50 metres off the beaten path the rowboat tour normally takes — just by asking nicely.
Photo gadgets don’t need to be expensive
The pocket-sized Optex Steade-Pod, $29.99, is a clever camera attachment that mimics a monopod (a single-legged version of a tripod). One end attaches to your camera’s tripod mount while the other, a steel wire, is retractable to two metres.
You can adjust the end length, hook it to anything or simply step on it. Pulling it taut steadies your camera, minimizing movement during slow exposures.
Taking self-portraits, even those including the entire family, is easy with the Compod, $50, an extendable monopod with handle, which holds your camera up to 1.5 metres away. Take your family picture or video from the bottom up, level or a bird’s-eye view from above.
Find interesting spots to place your camera on self-timer. Invest in one of several brands of waterproof, shockproof and freeze-proof point-and-shoot cameras. Leave it on the bottom of a snorkelling lagoon on self-timer or video-recording. You’ll be rewarded with great photos of yourself swimming amid schools offish.
Sony’s Party-shot, $199, becomes your own, personal photographer. It uses face-and motion-detection technology to automatically take pictures, and stands on its own or a tripod.
You mount a Sony DSC-TXY Sony point-and-shoot camera on the oval base (other models work too) and it automatically looks up, down or sideways, for people in the room. It then composes for single or group subjects and automatically shoots with a two-second self-timer.
Some places surround you with so much eye candy that it seems impossible to capture everything in one photo. Panorama mode — the best being Sony’s sweep feature in models like the DSC-HX5 — captures ready-for-viewing, breathtaking 180-degree vistas, vertically or horizontally.
Let your imagination run wild with the art-effects filters available in newer cameras. The Olympus E-620 or E-30 DSLR and all micro-PEN models go a step further, shooting multiple exposures, combining photos in one frame as you shoot live or using any photos stored in the camera.
Freelance writer Steve Makris can be reached at (stevoid.wordpress.com.») He can also be seen on Global TV’s Monday morning news.
Edmonton Journal
