Are you looking for more genuine photographs when you come back from a trip? This is a local child outside his shack home in Soweto - the infamous Township in Johannesburg - which I took when I was doing a Township tour just 2 years ago. The child was just playing and the opportunity was too great to miss!
If you would like your holiday snaps to have a much more authentic feel about them, as my picture above does, then I hope you will find my top tips about getting the 'local angle' in your travel photography useful.
1. Take the limelight off
people:
Getting the locals into shots can be important to add
life to the picture, but don't always make them the central focus.
Taking the main attention off people can stop your photography from
looking too staged, and allows the scenic or landscape subject of the
photo to be brought into the fore (without being boring).
2. Move off the tourist trail:
Getting
off the beaten track is one of the best ways of ensuring more
authentic and genuine photography experiences. Stay safe, but go in
search of wilderness regions, back alleys, villages, less trodden
roads, and even industrial areas or work stations where you're only
likely to see life 'as it is'.
3. Be discreetly snap happy:
Be
respectful - but just take the picture when it comes to people!
This Bolivia market seller above was just getting along with her business, although sometimes it is more appropriate to ask and also offer money, and
that will mean a staged rather than an authentic shot. However, if you
consider the picture you want before you raise your camera, and then
quickly take the photo, you can often go unnoticed for some of the
best 'people pictures'.
4. Hang around a while:
The perfect picture isn't always the easiest to get, and sometimes it's a case of remaining patient (take a bottle of water and some snacks!) until you get the shots you want. Having said that, some of the best pictures are the least expected, and you just never know when they will happen!
5. Look for the unusual:
Don't always opt for the obvious shots - some of the most unusual subjects (even if they are a bit weird and whacky!) can make the most interesting pictures. This piles of fishheads was on sale at Vancouver's China Town market, and makes a marvellously fascinating subject I think, giving a real depiction of lives lived differently.
6. Arise at dawn:
Depending on
where you are in the world, jet-lag can help with this one – but to
really get life as it is, before the tourists get in the way, get up
early to take your snaps. You'll get fantastic sun rises, street
markets just coming to life, wildlife still hunting for food, and you
won't have the glare of the sun to content with on your pictures.
7. Let the 'objects of life' sometimes replace people
This picture above was taken in a very sleepy, tiny mountain village in Tuscany. There had been a small boy running around and playing previously (and I'd taken some pictures), but he'd wandered off and left his tricycle. The small trike replaces a human subject in the photograph, but still gives a feeling of local life, in an almost deserted, peaceful way.
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