TTC Video – The Fundamentals of Travel Photography

Great travel photographs—whether they’re of a trip to the local zoo or a mountain village halfway around the world—involve a good eye, a good camera, and a moment of inspiration. But above all, they require the ability to tell a captivating story.

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Take a look through any recent issue of National Geographic Traveler, the gold standard for travel photography, and you will see much more than just a series of individual location shots. They’re stories, with an editorial thread that unites them and allows viewers to better appreciate places and people they might never encounter on their own.

The skills and techniques National Geographic photographers use to make exotic destinations familiar (and familiar destinations exotic) are ones anyone with a willingness to learn can master, whether you’re pursuing a career as a professional photographer or you just want to take more striking pictures of your everyday journeys. Transform the way you think about recording your travels by studying how travel photographers

overcome challenges and avoid photographic clichés;
capture the hidden spirit of people and architecture;
select the right equipment lenses for the right shots;
navigate the beauty and chaos of festivals and public events; and
uncover authentic images of native cultures and traditions.

Your own photographs will start to express not how everyone else sees the world—but how you see it.

In The Fundamentals of Travel Photography, National Geographic photographer Bob Krist shares his lessons, tips, tricks, techniques, and insights directly with you. These 24 comprehensive lectures are packed with some of the best photographs from Mr. Krist’s broad career as a photographer for numerous travel publications. In them, you’ll learn what it takes to get compelling, illuminating, storytelling pictures of the many places you go in life. You’ll also get intriguing insights into the mindset of a working travel photographer: both the artistry behind the craft and the practical skills required to take great pictures when you’re far from familiar territory. With Mr. Krist’s guidance, you’ll start to engage with your surroundings the same way National Geographic photographers do on their many assignments.

See the World like a Travel Photographer

Done right, traveling with a camera can open doors and intensify your experience of people and places rather than simply capture a static postcard image. Every lecture of The Fundamentals of Travel Photography covers the information you need to tell a complete story about your travels. (Mr. Krist suggests thinking of it as a list of ingredients every story recipe needs.) These include:

landscapes
people
architecture
public events
wildlife

You’ll also spend plenty of time learning how professional photographers innovate and work around common obstacles to great shots. Perhaps most surprising of all is that these obstacles aren’t necessarily confined to the most hard-to-get-to places on Earth. You can even encounter them while taking photographs of a neighborhood walk.

Mr. Krist also shares a wealth of practical knowledge a good travel photographer needs, including how to organize and publish your photographs, how to protect your gear from theft, and what lenses to bring for different types of travel. You’ll learn ways to tackle bad weather, language barriers, money and time limitations, and so much more.

Take Great Shots—Wherever You Are

Throughout The Fundamentals of Travel Photography, Mr. Krist shows you the intricate thought process behind how he gets great shots in places ranging from Philadelphia to Bora Bora.