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What is it Like to be a...Travel Photographer

Even in the midst of a recession, talented photographers can find a way to make a living doing what they love. And it’s not all weddings and senior portraits. In this series, editorial intern Carolina Hidalgo talks to several professional photographers about how they landed their dream jobs. This Week: Travel Photography. (Last Week: Event Photography)

Tewfic El-Sawy, an international banker-turned-photographer, specializes in documenting cultures and traditions from around the world. He leads two-week travel photography tours throughout the year, with a focus on Asia, Latin America and Africa, and showcases his work on his blog, The Travel Photographer, and website, TesImages.com.

El-Sawy makes his living from leading the travel expeditions, on which he's accompanied by photographers who are invited or referred by past participants, and from getting published in magazines, such as Outdoor Photography and Digital Photographer.

How and when did you become interested in photography?

About 12 years ago. In my previous career I was international banker and I traveled a lot with the bank that I was working for and always took a small camera with me and basically snapped what I saw on my trips. When I essentially switched careers I decided that travel photography was the right fit for me.

How did you get started professionally?

I was at a workshop in Morocco with a lot of other photographers that were also, for a lack of a better word, amateurs. And through conversations I decided that I would try my luck at arranging photo trips simply because I love travel and photography and I'm good at organizing things. So that was the concept and I sort of put together a trip. My first tour was three countries in one trip, which is madness, but I did it because of lack of expertise. And I invited the photographers that I met at that workshop.

That's how my entry into professional photography started. It was through the photo tours. Then I said, well I've got to raise the level of my game. I began reading more, training more, and that's how I became more of a professional photographer. I'm not really comfortable with the definition of professional photographer -- I would say working photographer would be better.

How do you choose your gear?

When I started off, I had a choice between the two biggest -- Canon and Nikon. And I sort of went for Canon. It was nothing more than just a choice; it was at that time a non-educated choice. So Canon was the choice for me and because I have invested so much into lenses and paraphernalia, I don't change gear much. So in other words, the lenses that I bought seven, eight, nine years ago, I still have. I only add to them. What changes really is the camera only because they come out with better models every year. As for other gear -- I do audio recordings -- I look for what is recommended on the web.
On a typical trip, I carry a Canon 5D Mark II, a Canon 1D Mark II, a 70-200mm f/2.8, a 24mm f/1.4, a 28-70mm f/2.8 and a 17-40mm f/4.0. For audio, I use a Marantz PMD620.


What is the most interesting place your photography has taken you?

It will always be India. I always say that anybody can take an excellent picture in India. It's because of colors, because people are so photogenic and willing to be photographed and the light there is magnificent. The colors and the smells and the tastes and the sounds. I go there almost twice a year -- on my own and leading a crew. The beauty of India -- I compare it to an onion without the smell or the taste. It has so many layers. I'm still on the outer layer. I still have to peel the first layer and the second layer -- it's inexhaustible. Whether it's because of rituals, the different religions, the sects -- their whole culture is so unbelievably rich. Maybe I haven't gotten to the second layer.

What advice would you give to aspiring travel photographers?

I think the industry is a very difficult one, whether it is the photo industry as a whole and certainly the travel photo industry is one of the most difficult to enter and penetrate and make one's career and livelihood from. But if travel photography is their passion then they have to follow it no matter what, and that's from an abstract standpoint. But from a practical standpoint they have to find a parallel way of earning their livelihood. And if it's only photography that they're interested in then they have to do wedding photography, documentary photography, anything that can sustain their passion for travel photography. Or do some type of other career. This is what I tell my students and whoever wants to hear my advice. Find an additional source of income whether it is in photography or elsewhere.

Today in Photography: The bombing of Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, Yoshito Matsushige of the daily Chugoku Shimbun newspaper, survived the deadly atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. For decades, his five pictures of the bomb's aftermath were the only known photos documenting that day. 

Matsushige developed the five photos by washing his film in a river and hanging it to dry on a charred tree. He only had the courage to take seven pictures, out of 24 possible exposures, in the 10 hours he spent wandering the devastated city. 

Twenty years after the bombing, Matsushige had no regrets about not having taken more photos. "I feel I did all I could do. I could not endure taking any more pictures that day. It was too heartbreaking," he told Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher. 

Read Matsushige's chilling, first-hand account of the event here.

What is it Like to be an….Event Photographer?

Even in the midst of a recession, talented photographers can find a way to make a living doing what they love. And it’s not all weddings and senior portraits. In this series, editorial intern Carolina Hidalgo talks to several professional photographers about how they landed their dream jobs. First up: Event Photography.

Jipsy Castillo, a Miami-based photographer originally from NYC, specializes in event photography. About five years ago, she launched NefariousGirl.com to showcase her nightlife photography-- real party photos as seen through her eyes.
Castillo makes her living shooting corporate and social events and has been published in The Miami Herald, Spin Magazine, and Six Degrees Magazine among others. She keeps a diary blog at The Miami New Times' Crossfade blog and has her own blog at NefariousGirl.com.

How and when did you become interested in photography and how did you get started professionally?

I took photography in high school; I went to a specialized art school-- the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. For the first two years you're given a lot of different classes every few weeks, and one was photography. As a high school kid you don't really care, but it was a great opportunity and it stuck with me after that. I didn't think of it as a career move though. What I'm doing now started about seven years ago with a digital camera. I'd take it everywhere, to clubs, to parties, to restaurants, to the bathroom. And the site just developed about five years ago because I wanted to just cover nightlife through my eyes. Because I'm in Miami and as pretty as everything is, there's more to a party than just these model types. There are people lying on the floor, people dancing, and the colors of the lights. One thing led to another and about four years ago it became my full-time job. I had nothing to do with photography, it's crazy. It's crazy how my life has changed.

What gear do you use?

I use a Canon 5D and a 17-40mm f/4L ultra-wide lens-- I'm short so that one captures everything from head to toe-- my ST and my flash. But sometimes I'm not allowed in with my DSLR for certain events because they're private or there's a celebrity that's been made exclusive to one photographer, so what I always have with me is my Fuji FinePix, but I don't love that camera. My favorite is the Canon PowerShot G9 and hopefully soon that's what will be with me at all times.

What's an average day like for you when shooting?

It can start at 5 in the afternoon and there are usually two events that I cover. One event in the evening and depending on how much fun I'm having or what clients have hired me, it's off to the next party. And sometimes after-parties can last from 11 until 2 or 5 a.m.
That's basically my everyday work. Five or six nights out of the week that's what I do. Also, right now I'm shooting editorials and I'm doing some experimental work during the day, so I'm doing a lot of fashion. Sometimes I'll meet up with stylists or people who want to do art and we'll do that from 12 to 5. So it just depends, but it never stops, as a matter of fact I'm editing right now.

What has been your favorite assignment?

I don't even know. You know I've been shooting almost every day for all these years and I've done anything from fetish parties to a ladies' luncheon at a huge mansion-- a Pucci art luncheon. Pucci was there and they had dresses floating, everyone was dressed in Pucci and everyone was sitting outside and it was just champagne flowing-- it's so vivid because I sat down and I was-- I try not to be one of those photographers who's just working, I like to socialize, and I knew some of the ladies who were having lunch so that was one of my favorites. But it's always a new story here in Miami.

Today in Photography: July 22

On this day in 1975, Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald, had just finished shooting a fire assignment and was about to head home for the day when he caught a radio alert about another fire and raced to the scene. 

Forman checked the settings on his two 35mm cameras, which were equipped with a telephoto lens and a wide angle lens, and watched as a fireman climbed onto a fire escape to comfort a screaming woman and child and help them onto a ladder. 

"Suddenly someone screamed, or maybe it was the shriek of the metal as the fire escape gave way," said Forman. "I was seeing everything through my camera finder and I was shooting." 

Today in Photography: July 20

On this day in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon. The Apollo 11 astronauts recorded their experience with Hasselblad 500EL cameras and 70mm Kodak film.

 

The Hasselblad used on the moon's surface was specially modified with an engraved glass Reseau plate. The plate's cross hairs were recorded on the film, giving NASA the ability to use the photos to determine distances and heights. The camera was also equipped with a Zeiss Biogon f-5.6/60 mm lens, created for NASA and later released commercially, and a removable polarizing filter. Because of the moon's extreme temperatures, the camera and magazines were painted silver in an attempt to maintain more uniform internal temperatures. 

Check out NASA's Apollo 11 image gallery here. 

NASA photo AS11-40-5875. Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag.

Apollo 11 blasts off again for 40th anniversary

The JFK Presidential Library and Museum, along with AOL, will recreate the Apollo 11 lunar mission tomorrow, exactly 40 years after the 1969 launch. 

WeChooseTheMoon.org will use 400 NASA photographs and 44 archival videos to create an interactive, real-time experience for viewers. The site will combine the images with over 100 hours of audio transmissions, which will stream over a four-day period-- the same amount of time it took Apollo to reach the moon. 

The site includes extensive galleries that will become accessible as the mission unfolds. Eleven animated mission events will be rendered throughout the recreation and transmissions will be released in real-time through three Twitter accounts. 

Apollo 11 blasts off tomorrow at 9:32 a.m. and will reach the moon on July 20.

Jones Soda & Lomography hold photo contest

Jones Soda and Lomography have announced a photography contest to recognize and reward creative analog photography.

The contest is divided into three week-long competitions, each with a different theme. This week, entrants are asked to submit photos of the "Things that make you POP." Only analog photos will be judged, based on creativity and spontaneity. Lomography, a unique and informal technique, is often characterized by high-contrast, oversaturated and blurry images. 

Nine winners will have their photos printed on a 15,000-bottle run of Jones Soda and receive a Lomo LC-A+ camera, a Pop 9 camera and a personalized case of Jones Soda. Twenty-one runners up will receive a Pop 9 camera. 

Today in Photography: June 23

On June 23, 2002, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake shook the Ghazvin province of Iran, killing hundreds of people and destroying dozens of villages. 

Polaris Images photographer Eric Grigorian was in Changooreh the day the earthquake struck. With the light working against him, Grigorian snapped only a few shots. This one, of a young boy clutching his dead father's pants while crouching near a fresh grave, won the World Press Photo of the year award for 2002. Grigorian said the boy seemed oblivious to what was going on around him-- the digging of graves for the more than one hundred people who died that day in Changooreh alone.

Photo by Eric Grigorian for Polaris Images.

This Month in History: June

National Geographic's cover photograph of a young Afghan refugee girl with striking eyes staring out from under a loose, red scarf has arguably become the magazine's most recognized photo ever. The girl's eyes, accurately described by the magazine as haunting, convey the plight of Afghanistan's refugees. 

The famous photo, taken by Steve McCurry, ran on the cover of National Geographic's June 1985 issue. He used a Nikon FM2 and Kodachrome film.

McCurry unsuccessfully tried to track down his subject, now known as "the Afghan girl," various times. Seventeen years after taking the famous photo, he was able to find her with the help of National Geographic Television & Film's EXPLORER.

After the Soviets bombed her village, killing her parents and destroying her home, Sharbat Gula fled to the Pakistan refugee camp where she was photographed. She had been no more than 13 years old at the time, and she remembered the moment vividly-- it was the only time she had ever been photographed. Read more about Gula's life at National Geographic, where you can also view pictures of the journey to find her.

Today in Photography: June 18

Life magazine's June 18, 1965 issue featured NASA photographs of the first U.S. space walk. 

The walk, which took place in the midst of the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race, came three months after a Soviet cosmonaut completed the first-ever successful space walk. Taken by James McDivitt from the Gemini IV space craft, the photos show Ed White floating 120 miles above the Earth. 

The 22-minute walk was photographed with a 70mm Hasselblad. During the 60's, NASA began equipping its astronauts with Hasselblad cameras, which were very easy to use. The cameras allowed film to be pre-loaded into magazines that could be quickly switched out when lighting conditions changed. NASA later began suggesting modifications for its cameras and used the first Hasselblad electric cameras on its Apollo missions. 

White, who didn't want to re-enter to the space craft at the end of his walk, half-joked that having to return was the saddest moment of his life. Check out Life.com to see more pictures and read quotes from Life's original accompanying article.

NASA Picture S65-30431. Ed White floating above the Pacific Ocean.