Traveler's "must" photos - Shooting Landmarks

Landmarks like Philadelphia's Independence Hall, New York's Statue of Liberty, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, The Great Wall of China and Paris' Eiffel Tower are all subjects emblematic of their locations. They are geographic icons which you must capture with your camera, if only to say, "I was there!"

The problem with so many landmark photographs is that often when travelers return home, they find their photos of some of the most incredible and famous world sights boring, flat or humdrum. Why is that?

I think it's because their photos look the same as every one else's.

It's not easy to create a unique photograph of a landmark. After all, with millions of photos already taken of them, is there an unusual or distinctive shot left? The answer is yes. Here are 8 tips for making your landmark photographs special.

1. Change your perspective or angle on the subject. Take a picture from a different side. Tilt your camera. Perhaps get low to the ground and shoot upward.

   Don't just take the common "full-on" shots with people waving and smiling in front of the landmark looking toward your camera.

   Scout around for a new vantage point. Rather than just photograph the Panthéon like any ordinary building, I went inside to catch the detail of its magnificent dome.

2. Take a photo with the landmark in the background. Landmarks are special, often embodying the spirit and history of the area in which they're located. By placing a landmark in its surroundings you add interest and context to your photograph.

3. Use local inhabitants in your photograph to add human context and eliminate the sterility found in so many landmark photos. Not only does creatively adding people into pictures tell stories, it provides a realistic sense of the scale of the monument in contrast to the size of the people in your photograph.

   A bicycler riding past it, can add context, scale, visual interest, and the human element to the Betsy Ross House, to what would otherwise be an ordinary photo of a brick building with a flag.

4. If you're using a DSLR, try a special lens, such as a fish-eye. With it, you can gather the surrounding area around the landmark with the unusual perspective it can lend to your photo.
5. Shoot in low light, or near dusk or dawn for their golden tones, or even in the evening. Shooting in natural low light can add a special ambiance to your landmark shots, and by shooting your photos during "off-hours," the crowds of tourists are normally diminished, so you can get less busy shots.

   Cities have both night and day personalities. Some cities start to come alive at dusk, then seem to burst open after dark. Shooting in Las Vegas' and capturing Paris Las Vegas' Eiffel Tower at night is a more interesting photo than if taken during the day.

6. Add visual context to your photo. We see zillions of photographs of the Statue of Liberty taken from the shores of New York Harbor, standing alone in the Harbor as a sentinel. We don't see many photos of the Lady with a ship passing by, which would give the photograph context and echo the history of many immigrants' first sight of their new country.
7. Try processing some of your photos in "black & white" instead of color. It's rare today to see travel photographs in "black & white," but their monochromatic tones can add substantial drama and emotion to a photograph. Consider "film noir" movies and the way their cinematography enhances the drama, feel and tone of the movies.
8. From the above suggestions you can see that the rules of landmark photography (there aren't any) don't require you to take only full shots of the landmark. Often isolated portions of it, or close-ups of a small part of the landmark can be more interesting than the whole.

   In this photograph taken at the Hearst Castle, note that several of the hints discussed above were used. The photograph concentrates on the main entrance of the primary building in the Hearst Castle complex; Casa Grande.

   The photo was taken from an elevation well below the entrance, and framed by some of the lush vegetation of the Castle complex. The tendency of the lens to add limited "barrel distortion" to the photo was used to advantage to further frame the Castle entrance.
   

The DSLR Multiplier Myth Exposed

Last month, a friend asked me about purchasing a 300mm lens for wildlife photography with his Nikon D80, instead of a 500mm lens. He thought he could save some cash since the "300mm lens would give me the same magnification as a 450mm lens, wouldn't it?"

Before discussing the details, let me get the answer to his question out of the way, "It won't!"

What my friend was talking about is the "multiplier effect." Today's expensive professional level digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR) have full sized sensors, meaning their sensors have the same size as a 35mm negative. Other professional DSLR's, as well as consumer oriented DSLR cameras have smaller sensors. Nikon calls their smaller sensors, DX sensors and their full size sensors, FX. When comparing lenses mounted on a DSLR with a DX sensor to a 35mm film camera, or a DSLR with an FX sensor we "multiply" the lens' focal length by 1.5, so a 300mm lens becomes a 450mm lens, or does it?

What's really happening is the field of view is being reduced or cropped. Cropping is the process of cutting part of an image out of a photograph to make the final photo. In the case of a Nikon D80 with a DX sensor, with a 300mm lens attached, the effective field of view is that of a 450mm lens. The photo is cropped, not magnified.

On the right is a view of Monument Valley through the lens of a DSLR. Inside the white rectangle is the image picked up by a full size, FX sensor. Inside the yellow rectangle is the image picked up by a smaller, DX sensor.

Note that the DX image is a cropped portion of the FX image. The field of view has been narrowed along both axises, horizontal and vertical. There is less of the scene in the DX image than the FX image.

Look at the two resultant photos on the right, below the lens view. Both are printed to the screen at the same size. The FX image is at the top, and the DX image is on the bottom.

If you examine them carefully you will find that the DX image appears more "magnified" than the FX image. That's happened because to print both photos to the same physical size, the smaller DX image was enlarged, to increase its size to the FX's image size.

This is where I believe the misunderstanding comes from, when discussing the "multiplier effect." Personally I think we would all be served better by eschewing the "multiplier" terminology and changing it to the "crop effect" and the "crop factor." If we used these terms from the beginning, I don't think anyone would think they could get more magnification from a 300mm lens than from a 400mm lens.

Now that we understand the crop (multiplier) effect, I can hear you ask, "So does the crop factor affect travel photography?" Yes it does, according to the situation. It depends on the type of photograph you're taking while traveling.

• If you're taking portraits, wildlife or macro photos then the crop factor won't be an issue.
• If you're taking landscape photos, or architectural photos in a crowded city, or indoor photos, the crop factor will impact your travel photography.

Often some of the most beautiful landscape photography has utilized wide-angle lenses to capture the scenery in front of the camera. As shown above, a DX based DSLR camera reduces, or crops the field of view. While a 28mm lens on an FX DSLR or 35mm film camera is considered to be a wide angle lens, it isn't on a DX DSLR camera. On a DX camera, the 28mm lens has the equivalent field of view of a 42mm lens.

This means that a landscape photographer using a DX DSLR needs to use extremely wide angle lenses to capture the same scenic panoramas as FX cameras. I use a Sigma 10mm-20mm zoom lens for my wide angle landscape photographs. It has the equivalent angle of view to a 15mm-30mm zoom lens which is a wide angle zoom lens specification in anyone's book.

If you've researched typical DSLR DX sensor based camera kits, I'm sure you've noticed that most come with a lens such as an 18mm-55mm zoom, which can provide a good angle of view for landscapes, architectural, and indoor photos. Now you know why.

Travel Photography: Geotagging, Part 2

In Travel Photography: Geotagging, Part 1, I discussed what geotagging was, and why anyone taking photographs while traveling should at least consider it its use. Here in Part 2, I discuss GPS receivers and geotagging software.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a global navigation satellite system developed by the United States Department of Defense, and maintained by the US Air Force. It uses 24 medium Earth orbit (12,500 miles above the earth) satellites, each transmitting precise microwave signals, which enable a person with a GPS receiver to determine their current location, the time, and their velocity.

The satellites circle the earth twice a day, but at any given time, it's rare to pick up even the half on any side of the earth. Fortunately, you only need 3 or 4 satellites to use a GPS receiver to navigate. The signals sent by GPS satellites are not able to reach deeply through solid objects, such as buildings, but the system works well outdoors.

Until 1983, the system was not available to the general public, but after Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down that year, after straying into the USSR's prohibited airspace, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making GPS freely available for civilian use. Since then, GPS has become a widely used aid to navigation worldwide, and a useful tool for map-making, surveying, commerce, and scientific uses, as well as geotagging.

I remember getting my first GPS receiver, plus software to turn my laptop into road navigation system, years ago. It was so much better than reading maps. It could pinpoint your position as you traveled. It's comforting to know exactly where you are, while driving in a new area. Now, when traveling, I use a portable GPS device to get around (OK, I admit I have some maps as backup, just in case.)

When I first began to experiment using GPS with my photography, there were few GPS receivers built specifically for use with Nikon or other GPS enabled DSLR cameras. The one standout at the time was from Red Hen, however, it cost more than $600. I decided to build my own. Like many, I based my system on the Garmin Geko 301 GPS receiver. I modified the Geko to mount on my camera, as well as the Nikon MC-35 GPS cable, and necessary PC serial cable. The unit worked like a charm with my Nikon D200, but was somewhat unwieldy due to the cabling requirements. Last year, I purchased the Solmeta DP-GPS N2 kit, which is small, and pulls in signals much better than my homemade setup.

Over time, GPS technology has dramatically improved. Receivers are now built with new chip sets which have more ability to receive and decode the L band microwave signals sent by the GPS satellites. When deciding which GPS receiver to purchase for your camera check for:

• Compatibility with your camera.
• Size and cable specifications to determine usability.
• If the unit must be attached to the hot shoe of your camera, or if it can be held on the strap, etc. to free the hot shoe for use with your flash.
• If the unit is plugged into a camera port which is used for other purposes, if a splitter is available for simultaneous use of the port with another device.
• If it has it's own power supply (preferable) or uses power supplied by the camera.
• If it has a built-in PNI Electronic Compass, as some cameras can record the direction the camera was pointed when the photograph was taken.
• If it has an auto indoor GPS position fixed mode, so that it will allow the camera to use the last GPS position received, to store with photos taken, while the camera is used inside.
  
• The sensitivity of the GPS unit to receive data, even in adverse conditions such as bad weather, among tall buildings in cities, and amid forested areas.

When I recently checked on Cnet's download.com for geotagging software, there were 10 choices, but I know there are many other products available. Quality geotagging software can actually write raw data into each photograph's Exif data, however, for me it's more important for it to be able to pull existing Exif data from my photos and use it. After reviewing geotagging software, I purchased RoboGeo. When choosing geotagging software check for:

• The software must be able to read your camera's Exif data directly, edit it, add new data to it, and use it for mapping purposes.
• In order to create export files, the software must be able to pull the data directly from photos from a list of your choosing.
  
• Is the software capable of stamping the photos themselves on their face, if desired, with time and GPS information?
• Can the software use Google Earth to directly geotag photos missing GPS information?
• Can the software geotag photos from place names, or IPTC locations?
• The software must be able to create Google Earth KML and KMZ files to create maps of your photos on Google Earth.
• The software must be capable of exporting geotagged photos to Google Maps, Flickr and Yahoo Maps, MapPoint, Shapefiles and create DXF files to be used in 3rd party utility programs.
• The software should be capable of use in GPS Visualizer, an excellent personal mapping web site.

Some photo sharing web sites like Smugmug.com are capable of making their own maps via your photographs, if they contain the correct Exif data in each photo. Here geotagging software comes in handy to edit GPS Exif data, or add data to photos with missing or incomplete GPS data. If you'd like to see what one of these wonderful maps looks like go to my photo-site NSL Photography. Navigate to the nslphotography > Cities > Philadelphia, Pennsylvania > Philadelphia Photo Walk - Society Hill / Olde City gallery. Opposite the gallery name, click on the "Map This" button. There are 39 photos which will map, so it might take a few moments. Click on one of the green balloons with a face, of a photo on the right, and see what happens.

The map sure answers the question, "Hey, exactly where is that?" doesn't it.

Travel Photography: Geotagging, Part 1

Have you ever wondered what all the geotagging fuss is about, or what it actually is? Have you ever heard the expression, "Find your photos," and wondered what the heck that was all about?

Have you ever returned home from a long vacation, and started scanning through your photos, only to forget which church was which, or exactly where you took that great photo? We all have, at one time or another.

Year's ago I took detailed notes whenever I took photos on trips. More recently, I dictated the information into a digital voice recorder.

Here's the thing though, I can go on a trip for a couple of weeks and easily take several thousand photos, especially if they're wildlife photos. Not that long ago, on a "trip of a lifetime" to the Galapagos, I took more than 5,000 photographs in just a week of hiking, cruising, and snorkeling.

The best solution in the 21st century, I've found to record exactly where each of my photos was taken, is geotagging.

"Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though it can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names."

Geotagging photographs can be done manually or automatically. It can be accomplished via a GPS device, geocoding, geotagging, or Exif editing software. Some Point & Shoot camera manufacturers have added GPS modules directly into their cameras, while other cameras, especially professional quality DSLR's, are GPS capable and can have portable GPS devices plugged directly in to them.

Geotagging my photos has become a crucial step in documenting my journeys. It enables me to be able to precisely inform interested parties where the photograph was taken. By geotagging my photos I can easily use them to create a narrative of my travel experience.

Moreover, when I travel to places few have had the chance to visit, I can use the geotagged photos to help answer the question, "Hey, exactly where is that?" Using online mapping software like Google Maps or Goggle Earth, I can literally "map" my geotagged photos so everyone can can see the photo coupled with both topographical and geographical data displayed on the map.

My Nikon DSLR is GPS capable. It keeps GPS information in each photo's Exif data. I could enter the data manually, collected with one of those handheld GPS units, but that's just too much work, so I bought a GPS receiver for my DSLR. It's definitely the best travel photography accessory I bought last year!

I purchased the Solmeta DP-GPS N2 unit (from Nikonians) which plugs directly into my Nikon DSLR. Every time I take a photograph the camera pulls the GPS information from the Solmeta unit and stores it with the photo.

I use RoboGEO software which can read the GPS data (longitude, latitude, elevation) from each of my photos directly. I can then create a Google map which shows each of the chosen photo locations, or create a KML or KMZ file to import directly into Google Earth. Many photo display websites such as Google's Picasa, Yahoo's Flickr, or SmugMug can take your photos and map them for you in your photo area of their site, if the photos contain GPS data.

I highly recommend any traveler geotag their photos to enhance their memories of their sojourns.

By Request: My Firefox Recommendations

While it's not strictly about Travel Photography, or even photography more or less, I've been getting lots of email requests here and at Tripso.com where I write a weekly travel column, to talk about the add-ins I use with Firefox.

Firefox is my primary web browser. I continue to like it more than my secondary browser Microsoft Internet Explorer, and other browsers such as Google Chrome and Opera. For me the main reason which keeps me using Firefox is how much you can customize it to meet your specific needs. I currently use 44 add-ins with Firefox 3.x to customize it to work well for me.

So by demand, here are my add-ons for Firefox 3.x (Photographic related add-ons are denoted in copper.)

1. Adblock Plus - Blocks ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page. This add-on is amazingly powerful.
   
2. Advanced URL Builder - Append selected text to the URL of your favorite site enabling you to submit a query to any website. For example - highlight a placename/postcode and open it using Google maps.
3. All-in-One Sidebar - All-in-One Sidebar lets you quickly switch between sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar. This is one of the most useful Firefox add-ins ever.
   
4. Better YouTube - A compilation of some of the best Greasemonkey user scripts for YouTube in one interface.
5. Check All - Makes it possible to check/uncheck several checkboxes at the same time. Just select them, right-click and chose action.
6. Clipboard-Save-As - Simulates right-click -> "save as" with an URL in the clipboard.
7. Clipmarks - Instead of copying and pasting links, Clipmarks is like adding a pair of scissors to your browser, letting you capture exactly what you want others to see (text, images or video). Your clips are saved on clipmarks.com and can easily be syndicated to FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook or other sites. You can also post anything you clip directly to your blog (supports Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad and more) or send it directly to friends or co-workers via email.
8. Color Management - Provides a GUI front end for enabling color management in Firefox and Songbird. If you want Firefox to poperly display your photographic work try this add-in out.
   
9. Configuration Mania - Configuration Mania allows you easily to configure various hidden Firefox preferences.
10. Controle de Scripts - Controle de Scripts is an extension that allows you to control what JavaScripts do on your browser.
11. Cooliris - Full-Screen, 3D -- Cooliris transforms your browser into a visually stunning, lightning fast way to search and enjoy online photos, videos and more. Just launch Cooliris from the browser toolbar, and our unique "3D Wall" lets you zoom your way around thousands items on a single, ever-expansive wall.
12. Ctrl-Tab - Ctrl+Tab navigation and "All Tabs" panel
13. CustomizeGoogle - CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhance Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam). All features are optional and easily configured.
14. Dictionary Tooltip - Press ctrl+shift+D (or) double-click (or) right-click after selecting a word to see its meaning. This extension is ideal for those who doesn't like to switch their window to see the meaning of a word. There is a small fee for this add-in but it's worth every penny.
    
15. DictionarySearch - Looks up a user selected word in an online. Some web sites prevent Dictionary Tooltip from working, so this is my backup method of accessing the dictionary on the fly.
    
16. (Video) DownloadHelper - The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
17. Down ThemAll! - The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox.
18. Edit Middle - Show AwesomeBar results when editing in the middle (not just at the end)
19. Extended Copy Menu - It adds a "Copy As Html" and "Copy As Plain Text" to the context (right-click) menu. It is useful if you want to copy the text or underlying html from a web page into documents, posts or other applications. This is invaluable for using quotes from web pages which must be pasted without formatting.
    
20. Favicon Picker 3 - Change your bookmark icons! Right-click any bookmark, and select "Properties", then "Browse" for a new image or paste in a url. Works with Firefox 3.
21. FireFTP - FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
22. Forecastfox - Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive.
23. Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it works silently in the background to keep your bookmarks and (optionally) passwords synchronized.
24. Go Parent Folder - Add "Go Parent Folder" menu to context menu in The Library list view and Search result in Bookmarks Sidebar.
25. Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
26. Groowe Search Toolbar - Groowe Search Toolbar bundles toolbar functions for many search engines, shopping sites, download sites, including Google toolbar, Yahoo, Amazon, EBay, Ask, Msn, Download.com, Wikipedia, Digg, del.icio.us and others.
27. Hebrew Calendar - Show the Hebrew date in your browser's status.
28. IE Tab - This enables embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. It's really amazing.
    
29. IE View - Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click, or mark certain sites to *always* load in IE.
30. Image Toolbar - Single-click access to common actions for images (e.g. saving, copying, printing). This extension is intended to provide a replacement for the equivalent toolbar in Internet Explorer.
31. Java Quick Starter - Part of the Java 6 Update
32. Opanda IExif - Opanda IExif is a professional EXIF viewer in Windows / IE / Firefox, It is the best choice to view EXIF / GPS / IPTC for photographer, shutterbug, photo editor and so on.
33. OpenBook - This extension allows for customization of the Add Bookmark dialog. The bookmarks tree can be automatically opened and elements can be revealed or hidden. Also, the dialog can be resized.
34. PDF Download - Use PDF Download to do whatever you like with PDF files on the Web. Regain control of them and eliminate browser problems, view PDFs directly in Firefox as HTML, and use the all-new Web-to-PDF toolbar to save and share Web pages as high-quality PDF files.
35. Print Preview - Creates a Print Preview toolbar button and context menu item.
36. Right-Click-Link - Opens selected text in a new tab.
37. Screen grab! - Screengrab saves entire webpages as images. It will save what you can see in the window, the entire page, just a selection, a particular frame. Basically it saves webpages as images.
38. Show Parent Folder - Show Parent Folder in list view of Library.
39. Skype extension for Firefox - Installed as part of Skype communication software.
40. StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more.
41. Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager. This invaluable add-in is my most important one. It enables me to have full control of the tabs in Firefox, and its session manager is far superior to the one built into Firefox.
    
42. United States English Dictionary - English United States (en-US) spellchecking dictionary.
43. Who is This Person - Highlight any name on a web page and see matching information from Wink, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Facebook, Google News, Technorati, Yahoo Person Search, Spock, WikiYou, ZoomInfo, IMDB, MySpace and more.
44. Window Resizer - Resize your browser to various standard resolution sizes.

Air Travel — Tripods and Monopods — Carry-on or Checked-in

It's extremely rare for me to travel without either my monopod and/or tripod. With today's air travel carry-on rules, and their inconsistent interpretation and enforcement, it's hard to know where to pack one's monopod or tripod.

At this point, TSA and other countries' security agencies are not permitting monopods in carry-on bags. TSA has told me that it's a stick or weapon to them. My advice, if you want to bring your monopod when you fly, is to pack it in your checked-in luggage.

Tripods, on the other hand, usually may be taken into the cabin in your carry-on, or packed in your checked-in luggage.

The choice of where to pack my tripod, has more to do with how long I'm going to be traveling, and what I need to pack in my carry-on bags, than convenience or any other factor.

When packing one's belongings, air travelers must understand airlines' rules and liability limits. In the words of US Airways, as an example,

"US Airways assumes no liability for valuable/commercial items including but not limited to: money, negotiable papers, securities, irreplaceable business documents, books, manuscripts, publications, photographic or electronic equipment, musical instruments, jewelry, silverware, precious metals, furs, antiques, artifacts, paintings and other works of art, lifesaving medication, and samples."

and in addition,

"Total liability for provable direct or consequential damages resulting from the loss, delay, or damage to baggage in US Airways’ custody is limited as follows:
A. for travel wholly between U.S. points, to $3300 per customer
B. for most international travel (including domestic portions of international journeys), to $9.07 per pound ($20 per kilo) for checked baggage and $400 per customer for unchecked baggage in the custody/control of the carrier." (If your one checked-in bag weighs the maximum of 50 lbs, the maximum liability coverage offered is $453.50.)

The airlines are telling us all, don't pack anything of value, or what you can't afford to loose, in your checked-in luggage.

In the US and most of the world, you're allowed a single carry-on bag, plus a personal bag. I carry a roller bag which meets the maximum size general standard of 22"x14"x9" (56cm x 36cm x 23cm). This standard does vary to an extent, but I've flown all over the world with my carry-on roller bag and it's been allowed everywhere.

My personal bag is a backpack, in particular the Lowepro CompuTrekker AW Plus, in which I take my electronics, my camera gear, and my laptop.

In my roller bag, I pack, at a minimum, any other valuables I have, my medications, toilet articles, and a complete change of clothes, including shoes or sneaks.

If I'm going to be away for a weekend, I usually only use carry-on, and can attach my tripod to the bag, or pack it inside it. It's usually attached to the outside of the bag. If I'm going away for a longer time, I take a single checked-in bag and pack my tripod in the checked-in bag. When I pack the tripod in the checked-in luggage, I remove its ball head which I pack in my back-pack.

While I haven't had the problem myself, I have heard from other photographers who travel with their tripods that every once in a while, they have been forced to check-in their tripod when they tried to carry it on the plane. It becomes a target for theft at that point, and if not in a padded bag may be seriously damaged. Ask to "gate check" the tripod at that point, as it will be less likely to be stolen that way.

So, to enjoy taking those nighttime or sunrise/sunset photos, and others, with your tripod or monopod, I suggest, if at all possible, to put it in your checked-in luggage.

Brrrr! 8 secrets for mastering travel photography in cold weather

According to Frostbite Falls denizens, Rocky and Bullwinkle, cold weather vacations are the best. The mountains are more majestic, the snowy plains look new and fresh, and the icy waterfalls are studies of frozen motion.

There are tremendous photographic opportunities while traveling in cold-weather destinations. But there are also challenges you must overcome to bring home photographic travel memories from places like Montreal and Reykjavik.

Take holiday travel photos like a pro: 3 insider tips

Holiday travel for family gatherings and vacations often offer unique photographic opportunities. I’ve got some help for you to conquer three holiday travel photographic challenges; fireworks, photographing elderly family members at family gatherings, holiday lights.

Whether it’s a family outing to Disney World, New Year’s Eve in Times Square, or great family holidays at Grandma’s, you don’t want to miss saving any special memories with your camera.

Wherever you’re traveling, there will probably be fireworks to bring in the new year.

Whether you’re using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera) or a Digital Point and Shoot Camera (DPS), or even a film camera, to get great fireworks photos you need a tripod. Get one which fully supports the weight of your camera and lens. As a pro photog, I have an expensive carbon fiber tripod for my heavy DSLR, with attached long telephoto lenses weighing several pounds. If you have a light weight DSLR, or a DPS camera, you can purchase a very workable tripod for $70-$130.

If you’re using a DSLR, get a cable release, and use it to release the shutter. Whatever camera you’re using, turn off the flash.

You’ll need to go to manual focus, and set your distance to infinity. I suggest you use a normal to wide angle lens, or setting on your camera. Set your ISO (sensor sensitivity to light) to 100, or the lowest available setting above that. Set your camera mode to manual. You might think the lens aperture should be wide open, as it’s dark at midnight, but you’re taking photos of fireworks, which are very bright lights, so set your lens between f/8 and f/16. Start by taking your photo with the shutter open for a second or two. Look at the photos in your camera, and then adjust how long you keep your shutter open accordingly. You can do this by setting the shutter to bulb on most cameras. Consult your manual about this.

Many will be traveling to spend time during the holidays with parents and grandparents. Photographs of the elderly can be difficult, but special consideration of them can make a difference.

When indoors, try using the available light in rooms instead of the harsh light of a flash. Straight on light from a flash can make an elderly person’s skin look outer-worldly, and bounced flashes can produce unwelcome shadow and skin detail. If you need more light when inside, try to move your subject near a window. If you’ve got a Point and Shoot camera, and you’ve got to use a flash, go ahead. It’s better than missing a great shot. If you have a DSLR with a separate flash, put a diffuser over it if possible.

To get wonderful photos of grandparents, engage them to reminisce about their lives. You’ll be able to capture their spirit as they smile, laugh, or even shed a happy tear about their life experience. Consider focusing in on their smile, eyes, hands, and profile. Capture them interacting with family members.

Take photos of them where they are most comfortable. For my grandmothers, that would have been in the kitchen or at the dining room table. For my dad, that’s in the den, or out on the golf course. Taking a walk with them, if they’re able, can produce great photo opportunities.

Many of us enjoy looking at and photographing holiday lights on buildings. At some travel destinations the lights can be spectacular. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Cinderella’s Castle at the holidays is bathed in more than 200,000 tiny white lights, making its exterior shimmer, as if it’s made out of ice.

Rule one, to get good pictures of holiday lights — Turn off your flash! I repeat — for most pictures of holiday lights, turn off your flash!

I said most, but for some situations you’ll want to use a flash. If you want to get an indoor shot of the family Christmas tree, you’ll probably need a flash to see the ornaments in your photo. If all the family’s children are posing under the tree, you might use your flash, but you might find the Christmas-tree lights are sufficient, and give a beautiful luminescence to their faces in the evening. In the morning, you might find the glow from the sun through the window perfect for a photo.

Outdoors on houses, stores, and streets, to capture the lights, don’t use a flash. Try shooting at twilight. You’ll capture some color in the sky, and detail in buildings, rather than the pitch-black tone which comes later in the evening.

Set your ISO at 100 for holiday lights photos. It eliminates the noise in the shots to get pleasing photos. When you use a low ISO for outdoor holiday lighting, that generally means your exposure will be long enough that the photos will require you to use a tripod, or at least find a way to strongly brace the camera in your hands. I suggest you use a tripod, if possible.

Enjoy the holidays!

TSA “approved” bags are nice, but here’s why I’m sticking with my old carry-on

TSA-approved security checkpoint bags are finally shipping. This is a little off the beaten path concerning Travel Photography, but many of us carry our laptops for travel storage, viewing and editing of our photos while away from home and office, so I thought I'd talk about the new security checkpoint bags. I wouldn't be surprised that soon there will be some photo gear bags which can hopefully breeze through security. I hope they are better than these bags.

I’ve had a chance to check out two of them; the Targus Zip-Thru Corporate bag, and the Skooba Checkthrough bag. Briefly, I like the Targus bag a bit better than the Skooba bag, but neither would move me to stop using my Skooba MegaMedia Bag.

CNet.com says the Skooba Checkthrough bag has “plenty of organizer pockets; … sturdily constructed; well-thought-out design …” but it’s “expensive; bulky; when fully loaded, may be too heavy to carry on one shoulder or briefcase-style.”

As someone who carries the larger MegaMedia bag on my shoulder, I have no problem with the bulk or weight of the loaded Checkthrough bag. One of the bag’s problems, in my opinion, is that there isn’t quite enough room in the bag to take my laptop and accessories, plus a small point-and-shoot camera and accessories, plus papers and other materials for my business meetings.

I don’t like the interior storage area for my business papers. The area is pretty tight, and has no divider. I like an exterior storage area because it’s easier to stuff extra items in it, as you can bulge out the side, and you don’t have to disturb your equipment to get to your papers.

CNet.com says the Targus Zip-Thru, has a “well-padded laptop compartment; may speed your way through airport-security checkpoints,” but “the TSA agent may force you to take your laptop out anyway … [it's] less roomy than it looks.”

I found the corporate version of the bag roughly equivalent to the size of the Skooba Checkthrough. Like the Skooba, there isn’t enough storage for me. The area for business papers is larger in this bag, and has a divider, which is good, but like the Skooba bag, it still isn’t on the exterior of the bag, where I prefer it.

Unlike the Skooba bag, which reveals the laptop behind a clear panel, the Targus bag doesn’t, but TSA’s idea behind these bags is that the laptop is alone in a compartment, with nothing below or above it, while it goes through X-ray. The Targus bag accomplishes that task.

There is a problem with both bags, however, which could require secondary screening when used. On the Targus site, they warn you to avoid stacking electronic items in your bag, and keep your bag as uncluttered as possible.

In my opinion, the design of the pockets and compartments in both bags literally force electronics stacking and clutter, unless you really pack light. I’ve been caught for that a few times, and had my bag hand searched.

When your accessories are stacked in layers, when X-rayed, agents can’t view individual gear items. My MegaMedia bag normally has enough room and an organization which permits me to spread my accessories out better than these bags, and I don’t mind removing my laptop from the bag for inspection, so I’m sticking with it.