Helicopter tours and great scenic photography

More and more often, I hear from travelers who, while on cruises, and land based trips, are planning to take helicopter tours at their ports of call and destinations, and convert the great views they see into wonderful images with their cameras.

Helicopter touring can provide travelers with spectacular views, amazing photographic opportunities, and a chance to visit venues unreachable by other means.

Two great places for helicopter touring are in our 49^th and 50^th states; Alaska and Hawaii. I have two favorite helicopter tours, one in each location.

Travel portraits: family, friends, and interesting subjects

When traveling with friends and family, most travelers eventually want to get a nice travel portrait or two. Travelers often try to capture interesting portraits of a local inhabitants.

Sometimes the friend/family exposure is dictated by where and when you're there. Sometimes the “choice” of background and light is made, in part, to keep a famous background in the photo, to say, “We were there.”

Sometimes you can choose the time of day your photographing, the background, and the way your traveling companions are facing, thereby control how light illuminates your subjects but more often, locations and schedules dictate exposure details.

The place and time for portraits of local inhabitants is rarely in the traveler's control, but the photographer can often control their position to help set up the portrait.