A while ago I was reading an interview with a rising landscape photographer whose work was really quite eye-catching. A comment of his grabbed my attention when he quite proudly pointed out that he didn’t even know who Ansel Adams is (quite clearly he did otherwise he wouldn’t have actually known the name to start with). For some reason it irked me and I didn’t really know why. It might have had something to do with a similar comment that photographers place on a pedestal certain other well-known photographers, and if you don’t know and understand their body of work, then you cannot possibly be an artist in your own right.

It’s a generally held truism that portrait photography requires a short telephoto lens to get the best results. We even tend to refer to 85mm lenses as ‘portrait lenses’ and the 50mm as a ‘poor man’s portrait lens on APS-C cameras (coming out to a 75mm focal length equivalent on a Full Frame camera). I strongly suspect that the travel photography out of covers like the National Geographic in the 80s, along with the Time/Life magazines is part of the reason we generally reach for the short telephoto when we photograph people.

I regularly meet photographers, both enthusiast and professional who don’t rename their photographs on a regular basis. By this I mean more accurately they that don’t rename the image files on the computer. This is a terrible idea if you create images and intend to work on them in any meaningful way through post-production, or if you want to do more than shoot pure for social media (and even then it’s better to rename the files). The usual excuse is that it is just too much work and hassle to rename the files. It really doesn’t have to be though.

The bustle, colour and riot of smells that is Marrakesh can practically assault the senses when you first step out of your vehicle onto the kerb. A kerb carved from stone and possibly having stood there for the past half century. Although of course modern tar, pitted with use, covers the more ancient cobblestones, and runs up against newer concrete curbs as well. Traffic screams by in an insane riot with rules that seem only apparent to the local drivers. Stepping away from the din that is the vehicular ring road around the old city walls, the Medina, you pass into a cooler alley filled with pedestrian traffic and the occasional hooting motorcycle. This is Marrakesh, and it’s awesome!

Namibia lies high on the bucket list of many photographers around the world. Why wouldn’t it. Every year international photographic salons showcase imagery created in the extraordinary Namib Desert - ancient remains of long dead trees surrounded by jarringly red and orange sands, the hauntingly beautiful abandoned town of Kolmanskop - slowly consumed by the desert sands as it spills through doorways and over windowsills - to the eerily alien like landscape of the south: Quiver Trees perched on dolomitic boulders seemingly stacked haphazardly by some ancient giant creature.


We haven’t reached pre-covid levels of travel yet, but it certainly felt like we had as I narrowly managed to get to the front of the immigration queue at Namibia’s Husea Kutako airport, just moments before a large aircraft from Europe disgorged it’s load of passengers. Quizzing travellers while waiting for luggage and again later at the first accommodation of my own route, the usual destinations were rattled off: Sossusvlei, Luderitz, Swakopmund, Giant’s Playground, Fish river Canyon and of course a beginning or ending in Etosha. Apart from Etosha, all these locations are in the south of the country.

As a photographer or filmmaker carrying your gear is something that gets talked about a lot. Just about every photographer I know has thoughts on what bag is the right bag, and no one ever seems to have a consensus on this. Needless to say this means that there are often a series of bags sitting gathering dust in our respective offices and studios, because no one has found the perfect bag.

Needless to say, a reliable and versatile camera bag, capable of safeguarding precious equipment while offering ease of access and comfort during long shoots is essential. For a long time I have used F-Stop Gear, which when they started, opened up a whole new category of camera-bag solutions with their separate internal compartments and rugged shells. It’s a formula that’s been much copied, and for good reason; because is works (you can read my thoughts on living and traveling with an F-Stop bag here).  

Traveling as a photographer is not without its pitfalls. Airlines are becoming increasingly strict about the weight and the nature of what its passengers can carry with them. It can make getting to your chosen destination an extremely stressful exercise. Below are some of the tips we have from many years of leading photographic workshops in various far-flung parts of the world.

Is passion important?

You often hear the advice that one should ‘follow one’s passion’. I want to break this down a little. What exactly do ‘they’ mean by ‘passion’. According to the Oxford English Dictionary that I still keep like a bible near my desk, passion is: 1) a strong, barely controllable emotion, 2) an outburst of anger, 3) intense sexual love, 4) strong enthusiasm. In essence though the wording really revolves around the intensity of the emotion. In some ways the Concise OED doesn’t quite define the intensity of the interest enough. The online urban dictionary does a better job in my opinion (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Passion):

“Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind, body and soul into something as is possible.”

For photographers keen on getting better lighting for their macro photography, you can watch the video Emil put together on using Leofoto Magic Arms for holding lights here and you can also download articles on macro photography and on modifying light for macro photography in the links below.

The problem with photographic bucket list locations is that they are often on other people’s bucket lists as well. This of course means that when you do finally get to go to said bucket list location, that imagined idyll of you and your camera and the perfect landscape sans hordes of other photographers is anything but. Any visitor to Iceland or other much instagrammed photographic locations (Antelope Canyon anyone?) knows the frustration of dozens of other photographers blocking the view to some extraordinary scene.