Travel inspires our photography, photography enriches our travel.  Each aspect enhances the other.  As photography has become a more dominate element of our travel, we enjoy the travel even more.  We have learned to slow down.  We linger longer; maybe getting up early to catch the morning sun or staying up late to get a shot at dusk. We experience a place at a deeper level.

By the same token, we are not so preoccupied with photography that we fail to enjoy the place we are visiting.  Exploring the history, meeting the people and tasting the food, wine and beer are essential components or our trips. These experiences, in turn frequently lead us to even more opportunities for photography.

Our approach to travel photography is fairly straightforward.  We try to record the visual attributes of a place that we are attracted to in a complimentary yet realistic way.  We edit our images to make them look their best, but are careful not to alter the true appearance of the subject.

Before the age of the ‘digital darkroom’, we waited for and depended on accurately recording the natural light as a prerequisite to making appealing photographs.  We still think nature can do a better lighting job on site than we can do after the fact in editing software, and this is the overriding principle that guides our photography.

We like to travel light but at the same time want cameras that will produce high quality images.  We find that compact digital single lens reflex cameras and lenses designed specifically for them provide the best compromise between these criteria.

We use or have used Canon 300D or 400D (Digital Rebels in North America) and 20D or 40D series cameras with APS-C (22.5mm x 15 mm) sized sensors. These cameras are smaller and lighter than ones with 35mm (36mm x24mm) sensors and, at a given angle of view, provide greater depth of field.  EF-S series lenses specifically designed for these cameras are also smaller & lighter than their 35mm counterparts. We each carry a ‘standard’ zoom, one a medium wide angle to medium telephoto, the other a medium wide angle to short telephoto with a fast maximum aperture, and have an extreme wide angle zoom and a longer telephoto zoom in our bags.  With these four lenses a focal length range from 10mm to 300mm (the 35mm equivalent of 16mm to 480mm) is completely covered and we have redundancy at the most used focal lengths.

All of our lenses, except the extreme wide angle, have Image Stabilization.  This, combined with the ability to tailor ISO to each individual shot, allows us to shoot in low light without a tripod. Every image on this site was shot hand held.

Since we now have infinite control over color temperature and tint in editing software, we no longer carry color correction filters. We do still carry circular polarizer filters and occasionally find them useful in locations where the combination of bright sun and water could otherwise cause an image to look washed out.

RAW format is used for everything we shoot.  RAW captures more data thereby giving us more latitude for making adjustments after the shot. This frees us from thinking about quite as many camera settings in the field and lets us concentrate more fully on other things that can’t be changed later, like lighting and composition.

One setting that we do try to pay attention to in the field is exposure.  If the exposure is off then other settings, like white balance, can also be affected and more work will be required in the editing software to correct the image.  In addition, significant changes to exposure in editing software will result in some degree of image degradation, so we try and get the exposure right at the time of capture.

We take a lot of shots at dusk.  While we like the look and believe that these shots add variety to our collections, there is also a practical reason.  We usually travel in the early spring or late fall and, while the crowds a smaller, the weather can sometimes be a little rainy or overcast.  A dull white sky that might seriously detract from a photo during the daytime can, at dusk, become a striking shade of blue.  An attractive photo can now be made, especially when there is artificial light in or on the main subject.

We use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to organize, edit and output our images.  Lightroom was designed specifically to work with RAW image files and this attribute greatly expedites our workflow.

Every image is different and we use no set formula for making adjustments. If we have exposed correctly at capture we may need only a little touch up to achieve a finished image.  When we do make more than minor adjustments we find these are often limited to a specific area of an image.  For example, we might use the Clarity control to adjust only the local contrast, Fill Light to adjust the brightness of only the mid tones, or use the Graduated Filter tool to darken an overly bright sky

Sharpening the RAW image also works for us. An 8 to 10 megapixel image file, at a resolution of 240 ppi, produces a printed image pretty close to 10 x 15 inches.  Our prints are usually only a little smaller or a little larger than this, so when we sharpen at actual pixels, there is no perceptible change in sharpness when we resample for a different size print.

A print is, in our view, the ultimate end product.  A print has a visual ‘feel’ to it that just can’t be duplicated on the monitor, especially at the 400 x 600 pixel size used on this site.  And now that we have total control over the image, we can produce better prints than we were ever able to make in the darkroom.

In our experience, the surest route to a pleasing print is to first establish a color managed work environment.  While there have been entire books written on color management, with Lightroom its implementation is fairly effortless.  We calibrate our monitor with a hardware device (a GetragMcbeth eye-one) and make sure that the profile that the device generates is set as our display default.  Lightroom recognizes the display profile and adopts that as its color standard.  When it is time to output, Lightroom will automatically select the appropriate color space for the application, e.g. Adobe RGB for printing, sRGB for the web.

After instructing Lightroom to manage the color, and instructing the printer driver to let Lightroom manage the color, our only other color management consideration is to select the appropriate .icc profile for the paper being used.

We use Adobe’s default resolution of 240 ppi for all our prints.  This keeps the file sizes manageable and also happens to be an even factor of an Epson printer’s ‘native resolution’ of 720 dpi.  While the importance of this consideration is debated, using this number certainly does no harm.  Most importantly, this resolution is sufficient to insure a high quality print from an inkjet printer.

We currently use an Epson pigment ink printer to make our prints.  Pigment inks now rival dye inks in color reproduction and are more resistant to atmospheric exposure and humidity. In fact, prints made with pigment ink will significantly outlast traditional chemical process color prints.

Several factors, both aesthetic and practical, are considered when we select a paper. While the surface texture (or lack of it), finish, and degree of whiteness of the paper will determine how a print will look and are very much a matter of personal preference, the paper's suitability for pigment inks, its availability in the sizes we use and the availability of an .icc profile created specifically for our printer must also be taken into consideration.  For display prints we prefer a smooth, non reflective matt finish that is not overly white. We are currently using a mould made 100% cotton rag fine art paper that contains no optical brightening agents. In addition to having the look we want, this paper will provide superior longevity when used with pigment inks.

As a result of using 35mm film cameras for years, composing a shot in a 2:3 aspect ratio just feels right to us. The sensors of our digital cameras capture images in this same aspect ratio and we cut our paper to match our images as opposed to cropping our images to fit the paper. This is why our print sizes are different from usual photo paper sizes.

While glazing will certainly provide excellent protection from environmental elements as well as protection from abrasion and moisture, we also think that it puts a barrier between the viewer and the print. For this reason we prefer not to glaze and instead coat our prints with a protective spray specifically formulated for our combination of paper and inks.

After experimenting with various methods of mounting and matting, our current preference is to attach our prints directly to foam board with a pressure sensitive media adhesive. The print is then trimmed borderless and mounted in a wide, flat frame that we think gives a finished look without glass.

The processes that we use for our digital travel photography are certainly not the only ones that work, but the ones that seem to work the best for us, at least for now.  Cameras, printers and software are constantly evolving, as is our knowledge and skill in using these tools.  As a result, we will change equipment, perhaps adopt a different editing workflow, or change our preferences in ink and paper in the future.  What won’t change is the satisfaction we get from incorporating photography into our travel.  Or is it travel into our photography?