The Traveling Image Makers

This is special episode, for which we have no guests. It’s just Ralph and Ugo catching up with all that’s been happening in 2016, travel and photography wise, and talking about what’s to come in 2017.

We have some colorful stories to tell about our respective travels and some interesting announcements about what’s coming up, so be sure to give this one an attentive listen. We will resume interviewing great guests next week as usual.

Duration 35m 33s.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* Ralph’s website

* Ugo’s website

* Tour Organizer Training

* Mediterranean Photo Tours

* Discover Oman: Oman Photography Tour

Photos by Ralph

Photos by Ugo

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We are incredibly happy to have our good friend Chris Smith on the show this week.

Chris is the founder of Out of Chicago Photography. Each summer The Out of Chicago Photography Conference attracts some of the world’s greatest photographers from around the globe for an amazing weekend of photography. In 2017 they are also taking the conference on the road to Acadia National Park to bring the Out of Chicago experience to the world of landscape photographers.

Chris is also the author of The Photographer’s Guide to Chicago and host of the Out of Chicago Photography Podcast. Chris specializes in photographing the city of Chicago at night.

Ugo will be presenting two talks and leading a photowalk at the Out of Chicago Summer conference from June 23rd to 25th, 2017. That would be a wonderful opportunity to meet in person. All listeners to the TTIM podcast can get a ticket to any of the Out of Chicago 2017 events (Winter, Summer, and Acadia) at the same price as the Early Bird attendees by using the TTIM coupon code at checkout.

Duration 38m 17s.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* Personal website

* Out of Chicago Website

* Facebook

Photos by Chris

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To say that our guest for this episode of the podcast has a few stories to tell would be a huge understatement. With a career spanning 60 years and having been a direct witness of some momentous episodes of the 20th century, including the Vietnam War and, from very close, the Cuban Revolution, Roberto Salas is an old school gentleman who has a surprisingly modern attitude towards photography.

Roberto Salas has documented the revolution from the Sierra Maestra to the Bay of Pigs, as well as the only known meeting between Castro and Ernest Hemingway. He served as a U.N. correspondent and war correspondent in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia and Vietnam, spending a year behind the Vietcong lines.

If you have ever seen some of those black-and-white photos of Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara from the heyday of the Cuban Revolution, chances are you have seen some of Mr. Salas’ photographs. We have put some of his best below the fold, to freshen up your memory.

Ralph regularly visits Mr. Salas in his home in Cuba, when leading tours there, and the last time he thought he’d record a short interview for the benefit of our podcast’s audience. What resulted was a fascinating account of the life and times of a great witness of the events of the past century. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to share this with you.

Duration 42m 23s.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Photos by Roberto

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Anthony Pond has a story of traveling and photographing that goes back several years, having been to Timbuktu twice and to the rest of Africa a few more times in a very adventurous way, across the Darien Gap, the jungles of Borneo, and more. All of that he did with film cameras (before the advent of digital) before moving to a digital system. He’s now shooting a mixture of digital and film with Leica rangefinders because of the slowing down and the deliberation that the system affords him.

A retired criminal defense attorney, Anthony Pond explores the human condition with his photography. He shoots with a Leica M system, both digital and analog, favoring its simple manual workings. Tony enjoys the whole process of photography which has led him to develop his own film negatives at home. He works primarily in black and white, finding it to be timeless while cutting right to the essence of an image. He travels mainly in South and Southeast Asia, returning time and again to better understand the culture he is photographing.

Duration 38m 55s.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

Website

Flickr

Facebook

Instagram

Photos by Anthony

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dear listeners, this is the first episode of 2017 and what could be more fitting for this one than a conversation about one of the hottest trends in photography and that will become even more relevant in this and the coming years? Like it or not, mobile photography (or iphoneography if you like) is here to stay and few people are as qualified to speak about it than our guest for this week, Jen Pollack Bianco.

Jen is an award-winning Seattle-based travel photographer and blogger. She runs the luxury travel blog My Life’s a Trip. Her mobile photography images have appeared everywhere from magazine covers (including TIME and Mobiography), popular websites (Buzzfeed, Mashable) to the Apple Shot on iPhone 6 campaign. She is a graduate of USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her photographs have won awards from NATJA (the North American Travel Journalists Association), the MPA (Mobile Photo Awards), and IPPA (iPhone Photo Awards). She has worked on social media campaigns for luxury brands including Krug Champagne, St. Regis Hotels, and Andaz Hotels.

I am sure you will appreciate the fact that we are busy recording and producing interviews even during the holidays, for your pleasure and entertainment. Next week we will back to explore a completely different end of the spectrum, as we will be discussing film photography with Anthony Pond.

Happy New Year!

Duration 38m 13s.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

My Life’s a Trip

Twitter

Instagram

* Facebook

* Me Foto Backpacker Air Tripod

* In Your Face Viewbase

* Ollo Clip Lenses

Photos by Jen

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve always admired the work of Ken Kaminesky, his personality and his cheerful attitude, so we tried many times to have him as a guest on the show. Unfortunately he is also a very busy guy and recently was even busier launching his new company, Discovery Photo Tours.

When we finally got a chance to make him sit in front of Skype for an interview, we didn’t want to let the chance slip, even if this happened when Ralph was traveling from Tokyo to Chicago, so there is only Ugo on the show this time.

Ken Kaminesky is a veteran commercial travel photographer, Fujifilm Global Ambassador, Zeiss lens Ambassador, writer, consultant, and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in the photography industry. His work has been featured worldwide in numerous commercial and editorial publications, including the New York Times and on the cover of National Geographic. His passion for travel and the incredible landscapes and people he encounters along the way are the inspiration for his popular blog, and the other publications he writes for.

Throughout his travels, Ken seeks to capture images and stories that will inspire and motivate people to step out their front door and embrace adventure. As one of the founders and tour leaders at Discovery Photo Tours, he gets the chance to share his love for travel and photography with avid photo enthusiasts from all over the world. Savouring art, food, history, and culture with tour groups in places like Jordan, Italy, and Iceland is one of the most rewarding aspects of his work.

His favourite place in the world is always his next destination. He believes that each place has a unique story that will inspire others, which he aims to capture in his images.

Leveraging Ken’s recent involvement in launching a new photography enterprise, we tried to pick his brain about all things business related and about the intersection of work and passion. I am sure you will appreciate his insights on the matter.

Duration 36m 02s.

If you liked this episode, please tell us in the comments below, or leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you!

Our guest for next week, Jen Pollack Bianco, will tell us about her passion for mobile travel photography. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when the episode goes live.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* Discovery Photo Tours

* Ken’s Blog

Photos by Ken

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India, often referred to as the sub-continent, is a location one can’t hope to capture adequately in less than a lifetime. TTIM co-host Ralph Velasco just spent a month there, scouting the place for one of his upcoming tours, and he tried to get at least a glimpse of its beauty, amidst the chaos of its cities.

We caught up with Ralph while he was in Tokyo, on his way back to the U.S. after a two-month long trip (he’d also led a tour to Vietnam), and we discussed for half an hour his impressions of this great country and of its people. Listen to our conversation if you’d like to know more about India.

Duration 31m 38s.

We want to hear from you! What are you struggling with in your photography? What parts of the world would you like to know more about? Do you have any guests to suggest? Please leave us some feedback in the comments. Thank you!

Stay tuned for our next episode, to be published a week from now and featuring an interview with Ken Kaminesky.

Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* The Colors and Culture of India

Photos of India by Ralph

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With some past guests of the podcast we discussed ways to avoid clichés and the challenges travel photographers have to face in order to come home with images that are novel and interesting. The guest of this week, John R. Milton, has taken the idea of straying off the beaten path to the limit and adopted a style and an attitude that he indicates with the acronym SCRU, as in simple, candid, raw, and unapologetic.

A former investment banker, he has recently taken up traveling to far flung places like Taliban-infested Afghanistan, Somalia, and the jungles of Nagaland, amidst armed insurgents and the last surviving tribe of head hunters. It was great fun to listen to John tell his adventurous stories and, I have to admit, a bit unsettling as well, for when he says unapologetic, he really means it. We hope you will get something out of our conversation with John, no matter what your preferences with regard to travel and photography are.

Duration 33m 43s.

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Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* Instagram

* Facebook

* Traveling Scared to Death and That’s OK: Interview with John Milton from Eric Kim’s blog

Photos by John

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Black and white landscape photography has a long and honorable tradition and, in a sense, it is the purest form of depiction of natural landscapes, where everything is reduced to its basic shape, where the interplay of light and shadow and textures dictate the rules of composition and the viewer’s eye cannot be distracted by attractive colors.

The lineage of black and white landscape photography runs from Ansel Adams, who was maybe the first to elevate it to a true art form, to nowadays’ digital photographers, who exploit the digital darkroom to carefully convert images that are naturally born in color, to monochrome.

Andrew S. Gibson is a writer, publisher, traveller and photographer. He started writing articles about photography while travelling in Bolivia, and has been published in several prestigious photography magazines including EOS magazine, where he worked as a Writer and Technical Editor for two years.

He recently published an ebook, titled The Black and White Landscape, that is all about rediscovering this hallowed art form and about getting the best monochrome images from today’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. We interviewed Andrew to ask him about his book and his photography.

For a limited time, Andrew is offering a 20% discount on all the products in his store to TTIM listeners. Head over to store.creative-photographer.com and use the offer code TTIM20 at checkout. The offer is valid until midnight GMT, December 13, 2016.

Duration 37m 28s.

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Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* Website

* Store

* Cole Thompson on photographic celibacy

Photos by Andrew

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Travel photography is not a very well defined genre and if meant to encompass every photograph taken while traveling, then millions of travel photos are created every day. How can a serious travel photographer stand out from the crowd and produce work that goes beyond vacation snapshots?

What about choice of subject, composition, light, and gesture? How can we exploit those factors to create truly compelling photos and not just snapshots?

These are some of the questions we asked of our guest for this episode, Brenda Tharp.

Brenda is an award-winning photographer, and educator. Her photographs have been featured in major magazines, and accepted into the journals of NANPA Expressions. She has written several books, and is working on a fourth, and still finds time to present frequent lectures on photography, and lead international photography tours and workshops. Her passion for outdoor and travel photography is infectious, and she openly shares her insights and tips to help others improve their photography skills and vision.

Brenda’s images have been used in a variety of commercial and editorial publications, ads, along with greeting cards and calendars. Her photographs are in the private collections of many across the USA.

Duration 37m 36s.

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Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Links

* Workshops Schedule

* Blog

* Books

* Facebook

* Google+

* Instagram

* Twitter

* Optic 2016: Beyond the Snapshot – Advanced Travel Photography with Brenda Tharp

Photos by Brenda

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