The Traveling Image Makers

Madagascar is a fabulous but also very troubled country. Its separation from Africa, millions of years ago, made it into a somewhat isolated an unique ecosystems with animals and plants that can only be found there.

When people came to the island, they started exploiting its vast natural riches and now that ecosystem is on the brink of collapse.

This hasn’t made people’s life easier, as they have to contend daily with poverty, corruption, and environmental degradation. Regardless, they are always keen to smile for the camera.

Our guest for this week’s episode, Pia Parolin, recently returned from a tour of Madagascar and is here to tell us about all the beauty and the contradictions of this country. 

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What does it mean to live on the border?

It might be the border between humanity’s last dwelling at the edge of the Arctic, or the thin red line between continents, where migrants are trapped in a limbo and forgotten, or mountains of trash, where a few desperate people live precariously between life and death.

Valentina Tamborra, the guest of this episode of the podcast, is a young travel photographer and photojournalist, but she has already explored many of those borders.

She tells the stories of the people who live on the border with her images and her words. If you listen to this podcast, you will be transported there too.

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The guest of this week’s episode is not a photographer, but we thought the story she wanted to tell deserved recognition.

The reason we travel to and photograph certain locations is because we love them and we would do anything to preserve them. High on the list of most-loved places for us sits the Cinque Terre region in north-western Italy.

This region is strikingly beautiful and extremely fragile. What not many people know is that the landscape there has been shaped by millennia of farming grapes and olives on narrow terraces, held together on the side of precipitous mountains by dry-stone walls.

Maintaining and constantly rebuilding those walls is the key to avoiding the destruction of the villages below, that we so love to photograph, by the elements.

This is why, when we heard about the Grapes & Heroes campaign, whose aim is to help the winemakers maintain those walls, we immediately wanted to help spread the word.

So one day Ugo, who has been photographing the Cinque Terre for years, sat down on the phone with one of the people behind the campaign, Amy Inman.

Amy is an American who fell in love with the Cinque Terre and has been living in Riomaggiore for the last seventeen years, so she knows the area very well. We spoke at length about Grapes & Heroes, but also about what makes the Cinque Terre such a unique place and what needs to be done to preserve it in the face of changing tourism trends.

You can find more about Amy at her blog, Cinque Terre Insider.

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After a few months of absence, The Traveling Image Makers Podcast is back on air!

In this episode, Ugo and Ralph discuss how fear of the consequences of recent events, including the spread of the coronavirus infection in China, is impacting world travel and what travelers can do to ensure their own safety and minimize the chances of bringing home bad memories, instead of beautiful photos, from their trips.

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Our guest for this episode of the podcast defines herself as a photographer, a philosopher, a writer and a wanderer.

Stefania Boglioli is also a blogger, a visual story teller and a travel companion with a passion for sharing her journeys and her perspective with fellow curious travellers.

She was born in Italy, but spent many years in Africa before returning to Europe to continue her work. She changed career path more than once and lived many lives.

She is either out exploring and taking photos or locked up in her home studio researching, writing and planning her next chapter.

Ugo caught up with Stefania to mainly talk about her second home, Kenya and its incredible variety of scenery, wildlife, and people.

Ugo and Stefania will be leading a photo tour of Kenya in the Spring of 2020.

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Pedro Kin is a Portuguese landscape photographer based in Slovakia but you’ll often find him chasing the light in the most beautiful mountains, forests and fjords of Europe. Favouring the cold landscapes and the raw nature of northern Europe, the weather does not stop him from going after the perfect shot — be it the northern lights in the Lofoten Islands, a snowy beach in Lithuania or a powerful waterfall in Iceland. When not travelling the world with his camera, Pedro is found back home helping others improve their photography and editing skills through personalized one-to-one online courses.

Ugo caught up with Pedro recently to talk about his latest journey to Patagonia, his tips for cold weather shooting, and their upcoming photo adventure to the Italian Dolomitestogether.

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This episode of the podcast was scheduled to be recorded months ago. On the day we were supposed to be interviewing our guest, Erin Babnik, she emailed us asking to reschedule, since she was being evacuated from her house in Paradise, California.

Erin Babnik is known internationally as a leading photographic artist, educator, writer, and speaker. Her ambitious and expressive style of landscape photography brings together an unusual integration of adventurous exploration, progressive techniques, and formal education in the arts. In her writing and public speaking, Erin explores topics with a unique blend of art historical, philosophical, and instructional ideas, an approach that has made her one of the most notable voices among the current generation of landscape photographers.

During this interview, Erin recalls those dramatic moments when seemingly she had lost almost everything she owned and talks about how she managed to recover and bounce back, at least in part, from that dire situation, thanks also to the support she received from the photography community.

Hers is also a cautionary tale about the importance of having a good backup strategy. Thanks to it, Erin didn’t lose a single picture in the fire that destroyed her home and she was willing to give us a number of suggestions on how to implement a sensible backup policy.

We also found the time to discuss one of her more recent articles on finding compositional patterns in nature. There’s really something for everyone in this very informative interview.

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An award winning photographer and photo educator. Primarily interested in landscapes, he travels the world seeking out beauty in those wild and remote places on earth that still remain untouched by civilization and where nature commands ultimate attention.

Self-taught as a photographer, he spent time with Freeman Patterson, Canada’s renowned photographer, to learn the art of making great photographs. His training as a graphic designer continually shapes what he sees through the lens in order that elements such as light, shape and colour all work in harmony. His never-ending search for off-beat adventures have led him to explore the Himalayas of Nepal and Ladakh, along with South America’s Patagonia. He feels right at home paddling his canoe or hiking in his backyard, the country of Canada.

As a photo educator, his goal is for students to come away with not just better photographs, but a better understanding of photography, better compositions and most importantly, a skill set they now have and can use on future adventures.

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The guest for this episode of the podcast is Jason Teale, a Canadian photographer who has made South Korea his home for more than ten years now.

Jason’s work focuses on travel landscapes and cityscapes as well as cinemagraphs. He is a brand ambassador for Flixel and managed their photographic team for Visa during the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. His work has been featured by National Geographic and Travel and Leisure Asia.

Ugo asked Jason about what makes Korea such an amazing place to live and to photograph.

They also chatted about Jason’s latest creating endeavor, that is creating cinemagraphs. If you don’t know what cinemagraphs are or are curious to learn more about them, Jason has a lot to share in this interview.

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Recently Ugo bought a couple flight tickets to Japan, a country he will be visiting for the first time this year. Wanting to learn more about the place and how to photograph it best, he naturally thought of the photographers he knows that are intimately familiar with it?

Looking at the list of past guests of this podcast, it is obvious that Martin Bailey is the expert, when it comes to Japan, having lived in Tokyo for many years.

Martin is a nature and wildlife photographer based in Tokyo. He’s a pioneering podcaster and blogger, Capture One Ambassador and X-Rite Coloratti member. Fueled by his passion for nature and travel, and a tireless desire to share his knowledge and artistic vision, Martin is a popular international tour & workshop leader, helping photographers from around the world to experience and capture the wonders of this awesome planet we call home.

Ugo and Ralph interviewed Martin about all things Japanese, most notably about the abundant wildlife and spectacular landscapes of Hokkaido, an island where Martin leads photo tours multiple times a year.

In the end, there was also time to talk about a curious incident that happened to Martin in Morocco and that might serve as a cautionary tale for anyone traveling to that otherwise wonderful country with lots of photographic equipment. 

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