How to Improve your Travel Portraits - John Alexander Travel Photography

How to Improve your Travel Portraits - John Alexander Travel Photography

I have recently returned from Hong Kong and Bali. On this 3 week trip I hoped to bask in the glory of the Asian sunshine in

 utmost smugness while my desk-bound friends in the UK commute to their workplace with a grim, scrunched up face, squinting, not from the sunshine, but to avoid the driving rain penetrating into their eyes... This didn't happen. 

While I was away, sunshine bathed the UK giving "the second warmest winter since records began". I was stuck in fog in Hong Kong and the relentless monsoon rains or "fat raaain", as Forest Gump described it, in Bali.

However, rain or not, I was in beautiful Asia - Landscapes may not be on the list on this trip, so I turned my attention to street portraiture. 

Due to the lack of sun, the constant grey sky provided great, subtle lighting for portraiture so I walked along the streets of Sanur on the south coast of Bali and these shots are some of my efforts.

Tips on How to Improve your Travel Portraits:

Look for interesting faces and situations. Before this trip I found photographing people terrifying, however due to the pressure of to get some successful shots of my trip, I willed myself to do just that.  However, if you ask permission and smile A LOT, I quickly learnt that usually the answer will be yes.

Don't just jump in and photograph them straight away, start a rapport with them - don't even have your camera ready at this stage. Then you begin photographing the surroundings, details and wide-angles shots to get them feeling comfortable with me.

I ask questions and help out if I can. Before I took this portrait I helped to drag his boat from the water and hold some tools for him as he fixed the engine on his boat. Once you have got a connection, then you and your subject will feel more comfortable. 

Details: 50mm @f1.8

A simple, high-contrast black and white Headshot of a Balinese fisherman

Details: 1/15sec - 70mm @f16

Slow down the world

Use slow shutter-speeds to give a different feel to your images. I took this photograph at 1/15sec to blur the rain and the background as the scooter drove past me. The added bonus of the passenger's eye peaking out from her poncho really makes the shot in my opinion.

Details: 24mm @f1.4

Get in close and zoom out: 

Getting as close as you can without getting in the way gives you a much more intimate portrait, giving the viewer the feeling of being there next to your subject. 

 

Details: 24mm @f1.4

I spotted this elderly gentleman in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong - A quick point at the camera and a smile, and he gave me permission to photograph him - I showed this photograph to him and he smiled and shook my hand.

Details: 50mm @f1.4

Invest: 

Buy products - I asked this calligrapher if he could make an inscription of my brother's chinese name and my own. As he did so I asked whether I could photograph him - He nodded and he dabbed his brush and started. 

Instead of rattling the shutter button - look for a composition and wait for your subject to do something interesting - Here, as mentioned in a previous post I knew from the last inscription that after every inscription he looks at his work and retracts his brush. If I had just passed him and took a snap shot, I would never had been ready. 

Details: 24mm @f1.4 + 0.6 Graduated Filter

Push yourself and your equipment: 

As I tell the guests of my workshops, "Usually the more difficult the photograph is to take, the better it turns out". As mentioned in a previous post - I had to wade into the water with my camera over my head to get out to the surf where this man was fishing - No-one is stupid enough to do this, which is why the shot will be exciting and different from everyone else's!

Don't take all of your photographs from head-height, lie on the ground, get above your subject - These angles will dramatically improve your photography, the more awkward to photograph, the better it will be, because no-one else is going to be bothered!

20mm - 2 secs @f8 + 0.9 Graduated Filter

A portrait doesn't always need a face in the photograph - It adds a certain mystery to the picture.

I hope you enjoy the photographs!

John