The Traveling Image Makers

A few weeks ago I had a conversation on this podcast with our common friend Valérie Jardin. Most of the discussion we had was centered around an article published on the New York Daily News and titled When your photograph harms me: New York should look to curb unconsensual photography of women.It would have been easy to discount the article as yet another rant about street photography and its purported invasion of privacy, but the fact that it was written by an Asian woman got me thinking.It made me think that photography is mostly a white guys’ club. Women are a minority and people of color, especially black, are an even smaller minority. Black women photographers? I don’t know any, personally.We white guys often tend to overlook this fact and can become race-blind and gender-blind. When I look at the issue of photographing strangers in the street, it’s easy for me to think that I should apply a sort of golden rule: I am not going to treat others in ways that I wouldn’t want to be treated, but is that enough?The problem with that attitude is that I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in front of the camera, but I’m a white guy, not a woman of color, for example. Maybe I should try to imagine what it feels like to be in front of the camera as a woman of color. It might not be exactly the same. In order to get a different perspective on this issue, I invited Ibarionex Perello to the show. Ibarionex is not only a great street photographer, and educator, and a podcast host (his show, The Candid Frame, has published 560 episodes as of today) but he's also a black person. I thought it would be interesting to hear how it feels to be both in front and behind a camera as a person of color, in today's world and especially in the USA. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest this week is Swedish landscape photographer Mattias Sjölund. Mattias has an inherent passion for photographing and hiking in nature. He is the founder of Foto Magica, one of the leading organizers of photo tours and workshops in Scandinavia.We asked Mattias about his favorite wilderness locations in and around Sweden and discovered a number of places that are not excessively popular yet, but are definitely deserving of a visit, including Abisko, Knuthöjdsmossen, Gotland Rauks, and Jämtland. LinksFoto MagicaPersonal websiteInstagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matt Bishop, our guest for this week’s episode of the podcast, is an Australian who visited Italy many years ago, fell in love with the place and one of its people and never looked back.Matt was raised up in the small seaside town of Sorrento, Australia. During his childhood years there was certainly a strong artistic background that influenced his photography later in life. Matt was drawn toward landscape photography after spending months climbing the mountains in Switzerland, and after soon arriving in London in 2002, he purchased his first 35mm Camera. Over the years his progression into capturing landscapes was a slow experimental one, until recently where his workflow in digital photography became far more refined. Today Matt resides in Rome, Italy, surrounded by ancient forests, medieval castles, rolling pastures and alpine jagged mountains.In recent years his main photographic projects involve collaborating with Pentax Europe, the Landscape Photography Workshops in Patagonia, private post production instructions in Rome, and recently discovering new locations in the surrounding “Medieval Italy”.Together with Matt, we explored his favorite locations for landscape photography in Italy, including Tuscany, the Dolomites, and the less well known, but equally stunning, region of Abruzzo. We also talked about his experiences in Patagonia. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're super happy to have again as a guest on our podcast Jordana Wright, who we already interviewed in episode TTIM 104 – Jordana Wright and The Enthusiast’s Guide to Travel Photography.Jordana says of herself: "I’ve had a camera in my hand for over 75% of my life. Originally it was a plastic point-and-shoot and a fresh roll of Kodak but these days, well, things in the photography world have changed exponentially. While my gear budget has grown a bit, my love for framing the world in a little box remains the same. My camera has taken me to some amazing places and introduced me to some of my favorite creatures. I’ve been lucky enough to make a living at photography for the past 14 years. When I’m not actively looking through the viewfinder, I write about photography and creativity (my first book “The Enthusiast’s Guide to Travel Photography” was published in 2018) and teach photography through workshops, classes, and private tutoring. I currently live in San Ignacio, Belize."Last time we spoke, more than three years ago, Jordana was still living in cold an windy Chicago, but recently she moved to Belize, a country about which we really wanted to learn more, so what better opportunity than to ask a recent resident and an extraordinary travel photographer about its beauties and about the practicalities of living there? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's guest of the show is Else Kramer, who likes to define herself as a Renaissance woman, a photosopher, making the visible invisible, a coach to gifted women and a wearer of polka-dot dresses.Here is how Else talks about herself on her website:"I spend most of my day looking at the world in wonder, marvelling at all the amazing miracles to be seen.And I’m very lucky that the past 10 years of my life have been centred around helping others do the same, through online projects, keynotes and live workshops.I love using new technology to empower people to be more creative and better appreciate both their world and art.I embraced smartphone photography when I got my first iPhone - the 3S. I believed (as I still do) that this was the start of a Visual Revolution, where everyone would be able to tell their own stories through images. I was the first person to give smartphone photography workshops in the Netherlands, and have run many online projects helping people see with fresh eyes using their smartphones since."With Else, we explored the intersection of photography and visual arts, especially painting, and looked at several examples of artists that we believe should be of inspiration to all photographers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Darlene Hildebrandt is the creator of Digital Photo Mentor. She has been a professional photographer for over 30 years, and as such, she has photographed everything from soup to hay—literally—including doing food photography; weddings; family portraits; corporate events and products.After a forced change of direction (a.k.a. divorce), she left her photography studio behind and moved on to other aspects of photography—including sales, fine art, and travel. She finally landed on teaching and couldn’t be happier. She's written for and has been published on websites and in newspapers around the world, and was also the Managing Editor of Digital Photography School for 5 years, one of the most popular photography sites on the internet.We talked about Venice and its recent 1600th birthday, Canada's wine country, Nova Scotia, and Toronto. We also discussed the growing importance of Artificial Intelligence in the field of photography, what people can use it today for, and where we are headed. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest on this week’s episode of the podcast is Valérie Jardin.Valérie is a visual storyteller recognized internationally for her street photography. She leads workshops worldwide, writes books, produces a weekly podcast, and is an official X Photographer for Fujifilm USA.We asked Valérie for her thoughts on an article by Levi Sim, provocatively titled Taking street photography should be illegal. In the article, Levi reflects on his approach to street photography, after having read another article, written by Jean Son for the New York Daily News and titled When your photograph harms me: New York should look to curb unconsensual photography of women.When we practice street photography and take pictures of strangers–sometimes without our subject’s awareness–a small minority of photographers behave like everything is allowed. Other are more considerate and will follow a basic rule: don’t put others in a situation we wouldn’t want to be in ourselves.But is that really enough? When we think like this, don’t we run the risk of ignoring differences of gender, age or ethnicity? If a man photographs a woman, is it enough for him to ask “Would I like to be photographed, as a man?” Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to ask instead “Would I like to be photographed, if I were a woman?”These were the questions that those articles raised and that we wanted to discuss with our guest. We hope you will appreciate the answers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Charlotte Brett is a landscape and travel photographer based just outside London. With a passion to see and photograph diverse places around the world, in recent years she has travelled to China, Morocco, Cuba, Ecuador and The Seychelles. As well as capturing big landscapes and cityscapes, Charlotte loves to photograph the details, colours and people of the places she visits to give a sense of a country’s culture and history. She was recently approached by high-end travel library, 4Corners Images, who will be representing her work commercially going forward. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Does every picture tell a story? What does it actually take to create storytelling photographs? This week, Ugo, Ralph and special guest Kav Dadfar discuss the ins and outs of storytelling in travel photography. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In episode 182 Ugo interviews Colby Brown. We have wanted to interview Colby for a long time and, thanks also to the pandemic, we finally managed to find him stuck at home long enough us to be able to arrange this.Colby Brown is a photographer, photo educator and author based out of Eastern Pennsylvania. Specializing in landscape, travel and humanitarian photography, his photographic portfolio spans the four corners of the globe. Throughout his work, one can see that he combines his love of the natural world with his fascination of the world’s diverse cultures.Ugo and Colby discuss branching out into other streams of activity for photographers, good and bad online education, and humanitarian initiatives. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode Ugo and Ralph catch up after a few months and discuss their recent travels, to Italy and Turkey respectively. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After a looong pause, The Traveling Image Makers podcast is back on the air and an old friend is back too!Pete DeMarco, who has previously on the show in episodes TTIM 96 – Peter DeMarco in Asia and TTIM 146 – Matt Brandon and Pete DeMarco in Malaysia is an American expat currently living in Asia. He recently spent some time living in Singapore and he wanted to share with us the reasons why he loves that city and some of his favorite locations for photography.Pete is an award-winning travel photographer. His passion for helping people transform their photography shows through in the expert advice he shares. His work has been featured in National Geographic Traveler, CNN, and Conde Nast. He’s also the founder of the The Creative Collective.Ugo, who has recently been to Singapore too, and Pete compare their experiences in this episode of the podcast that, for the first but possibly not the last time, also has a video version. You can watch that by clicking here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's guest on the podcast is premiere outdoor photographer, photo workshop leader and PhotoHound app co-creator Luka Esenko. Ralph "sat down" with Luka to get an update on what he's been up to lately and he asked him in-depth questions about why the switch from Snapp Guides to PhotoHound, an app that is extremely useful for photographers in that it's full of great information about what and where to photograph in over 4,600 locations on 6 continents around the world (and growing). PhotoHound is free app and is based on a community of photographers sharing not only great spots to shoot, but also other useful information such as the best time of day, and season, to be in the location, and even where to park, how to find the trailhead, suggested gear and more. The community even adheres to the PhotoHound Code of Photography, which everyone should read and abide by.For the past 12 years, Luka has been running photo workshops in and around the Adriatic region, including his home country of Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Bulgaria and others. He lives in Ljubljana with his wife and two boys.You may recognize Luka's name as he's been a guest on the show before. Catch Ralph's other interview with him in Episode 107 of the podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tomás Tigchelaar Lourenço, our guest for this episode of the podcast, is not a photographer, but he is using the power of photographs to effect some powerful change in the world.In December of 2017 Tomás started the @GiveSealifeAHand Cleanup movement on Instagram.This movement started during a beach walk in Portugal, when talking about ocean plastic pollution, he said something like “If fish had hands, this problem would have been long solved.”. Moments after, he looked at his hands and realized he had to give sea life a hand.After a cleanup, he made a hand out of the trash he collected and tagged it #GiveSeaLifeAHand. Two years later he now has more than 150 hands from 95 different countries around the world and carried out 9 GiveSeaLifeAHand talks at primary schools in Portugal and Curaçao reaching over 300 kids with this message.Hi motto is “Cleanups are the easy part, making them unnecessary is the difficult one.” Therefore his goal is to have a picture of a hand from every country in the world and reach the youth with this message through school talks.We spoke with Tomás about this project, but also about other environmental and socially aware initiatives he’s involved with, including The Human Library organization and @flyplantbased. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest for this week’s episode of the podcast is Kav Dadfar.Kav is a professional writer and travel and landscape photographer, based on the outskirts of London, in leafy Surrey.Kav has worked on various assignments as well as for commercial clients. His travel images are represented by various high-end stock agencies such as 4Corners Images and Robert Harding and they have been used by the likes of Condé Nast, National Geographic, Wanderlust travel magazine, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, American Express, Daily Mail, Sunday Times Travel, Express, The Guardian and many more.He’s also a judge on one of the UK’s biggest photography contests, the Wanderlust Travel Magazine Photography of the Year competition. Over the years he has given talks at camera clubs and events such the Destination Show in London as well as being a regular writer for Digital Photography School (one of the most popular photography sites on the internet), LifePixel and ExpertPhotography websites. Over the years he has written almost 400 articles on photography.Alongside writing and photography, Kav also leads small group photo tours and workshops around the world in a relaxed and fun environment.As an exclusive to our listeners, Kav is offering his Essential Travel Photography Lightroom Preset Pack, which normally retails for £49, for free. Use the coupon code pod2020 at checkout to get it for free! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest for this week’s episode of the podcast is Canadian nature photographer and adventurer Paul Zizka.From the peaks of the Canadian Rockies to iceberg-laden seas off the coast of Greenland, Paul’s journey to capture the “under-documented” is a testament to his passion for exploration, his creative vision and fierce sense of determination. These qualities, combined with his pursuit of fresh perspectives and a deep love for the landscape, have resulted in an ever-growing portfolio of cutting-edge images.Whether it’s wading waist-deep into a glacier-fed lake or chasing auroras from dusk til dawn, Paul is known for an adventurous spirit that draws him to the extraordinary. Highlighting his collection are his signature self-portraits, epic mountaineering moments, dreamy astrophotography images, as well as a window into some of the most remote corners of the planet. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're really excited to have back on the show one of our favorite guests and best friend, street photographer extraordinaire Valérie Jardin.Valérie is a French photographer, currently residing in the United States. She is self-taught and worked for several years as a commercial photographer. Today, Valérie is known internationally through her workshops. When she is not teaching others the art of visual storytelling, Valérie is a prolific author, a speaker, and a podcast producer of the bi-weekly show Hit The Streets with Valérie Jardin. She lives and breathes in pixels.Even though Valérie has been living in the US for many years, she still returns to her native France several times a year. In fact, she had just returned from Normandy when we caught up with her to discuss what makes France such a coveted destination, the differences between various regions, and the best Parisian neighborhoods to visit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nowadays travel to most of the world has sadly become impossible. Photographers, and especially travel photographers, are trying to find ways to keep their juices flowing while they can’t go very far or, in some cases, are not even allowed to leave their home.Andrew Gibson is a photographer who has been forced to cancel all his travel plans in the last two years, not because of a pandemic, but because he and his wife now have a small child.We spoke with Andrew about the ways he has been coping with this situation and how it has affected his photography and his business. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his toddler has become one of his main subjects.He is also an educator and a writer. You can find all of his ebooks and other products at www.creative-photographer.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our co-host Ralph Velasco recently returned from spending a few days at one of the most popular festivals in the world: the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.On this week’s episode of the podcast, he shares with us his experience and gives some useful tips for those wanting to partake in it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of our favorite guests is back on the show! When Ugo interviewed Darlene Hildebrandt in episode 85, she expressed her intention to come to Venice for the Carnival and join the workshop that Ugo leads there every year.Darlene is the creator of Digital Photo Mentor. She has been a professional photographer for over 30 years, and photography educator since 2011. Darlene provides valuable articles on her site, has a free ebook, and offers online photography courses, as well as photography travel tours. Her next tours are to Morocco in April and Peru and India in the fall of 2020.As sometimes happens, things didn’t go exactly as planned and, also thanks to a broken foot, Darlene had to wait more than two years before she could come to Venice.She finally did just recently and that was a perfect opportunity to interview her again and ask about her impressions of Venice and the Carnival.We recorded the interview in busy St. Mark’s Square and, even though it was still 7AM, there was a lot going on. It was also quite windy, so the audio quality wasn’t the best, but everything is still perfectly intelligible. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The guest for this episode of the podcast is an old friend of the Traveling Image Makers podcast. We recorded episode TTIM 66 – David duChemin and The Soul of the Camera with him a while back.David is a world & humanitarian assignment photographer, best-selling author, digital publisher, and international workshop leader. Based in Victoria, Canada, when he’s home, David leads a nomadic life chasing compelling images on all 7 continents.He just reopened for enrollment his travel photography course, The Traveling Lens. You can sign up for it only until January 24.Ralph and Ugo ask David about his course: How is it structured? What can students hope to learn from it? Why shoot it in Varanasi, India?They also discuss other, more general topics pertaining to photography and travel, like what it means to be compassionate, how to grab the subject’s attention, being present in the moment, quantity vs. quality, visual inventories, and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week’s episode of the podcast, Ugo interviews Mike Holp.Mike is a digital nomad and travel photographer from Austin, Texas. He’s been traveling in South America for over a year, capturing photos of beautiful destinations, and meeting new friends from all over the world! Mike is offering a coaching program to other aspiring digital nomads with the proven techniques for long-term travel on a budget. He recently launched an online course and free eBook on how to generate passive income with Airbnb every month without owning property or renting out your space. It’s now possible to work from anywhere in the world on your laptop.Mike and Ugo had a conversation about what it means to live as a digital nomad, how to generate passive income through photography, writing, affiliate marketing, and traveling across South America. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week’s interview with Jay Patel, where we discussed the topic of creativity is a great segue into today’s episode, because we are going to have a conversation with an artist that has chosen creative photography as his trademark of sorts.Simon Bond is a professional freelance travel photographer who focuses on the Asian continent for his work, he has travelled extensively in this region and is dedicated to producing the best quality travel photographs. Simon cut his teeth in the dark room when he was 15, from there he learnt how to use an SLR camera, and has subsequently moved on into the digital world as he now owns a Canon 5D MkII. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today’s episode of the podcast sees the return of one of our best friends, who was with us already in episode 36, Jay Patel.In the course of the conversation, Jay and Ugo discuss such topics as getting the shots when the weather is not cooperating, researching a destination to make the most of limited time, and finding ways to be creative beyond the iconic shot that many limit themselves to. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As you might know, we are doing a bi-monthly photo contest on our Facebook group, The Traveling Image Makers’ Corner. We invite the group members to submit one of their best photographs and, at the end of the period, we pick two winners and invite them to come on the show and tell us about their winning images and their photography.The winners for the month of October 2018, Peter de Hoog and Mathew Browne, submitted photos taken in Venice, Italy and Singapore, respectively. We thought those two stood above the rest, but it was a tough choice, since we got so many amazing submissions.Would you like to be one of the next guests on the podcast? Head over to our Facebook group, ask to join (if you’re not already a member) and look for the post pinned to the top for instructions. Let’s see your best travel images! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest for this episode is Marc De Tollenaere, a photographer from Venice, Italy.Marc works full time as a photographer and is proud to be a teacher of photography for the most famous brand of cameras, Leica. He published several books about Venice and its countryside, as well as on countless newspapers and magazines.Starting from 2010, up to nowadays, he organized many photo workshops and photo tours, especially in Venice, of which he has a thorough knowledge, and in several others countries such as India, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Turkey and Iceland.In 2014 he became Leica Ambassador and in 2018 he was “Certified by Leica”. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s always exciting to listen to Karen Hutton talk about her travels and her passions and, after having had her as a guest on episode 34, it was about time that we invited her back.Karen Hutton is an International Landscape and Travel Photographer, Artist, Speaker, Author, Educator, Voice. She has over 2 million followers on social media; with over 11 billion views of her photographic work. She is a Professional Fujifilm-X Photographer and has been featured in Talks at Google, Photo Plus Expo and on Stuck in Customs, TWiP, Macphun Software, Forbes.com, The Grid, Rick Sammon’s DPE Podcast. Karen lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. You can find her at Karenhutton.com.Karen just returned from a trip to Slovenia, a country that we deeply love, so this was the perfect opportunity to have her on the show to talk about it.We didn’t just talk about Slovenia, but also about Karen’s photo retreats, the demise of Google+, and many other topics. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The guest for this episode of the podcast, as his LinkedIn profile states, is a Business Manager, Communication and Social Media Specialist with over 15 years of marketing, communication and sales experience, working for a major manufacturer of photo equipment.But first of all, Leigh Diprose is a photographer and a friend.After having known each other virtually for more than six year, Ugo and Leigh had finally the chance to meet face-to-face and to spend a few days together when Leigh was traveling across Europe on his honeymoon, or his elopement, as he prefers to call it.For this experience, the interview you can listen to here was born. Ugo and Leigh discussed about Europe as seen through the lens of an Australian on his first voyage to the Old World, but also about what Australia has to offer to a visitor from abroad, photographically speaking. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week’s edition of the podcast is a bit special. Unlike our typical episode, where we have a conversation with a guest, what we’ve done this time is to contact some of our previous guests and ask them one question. We’ve already done this twice in the past, when we published our “expert roundups” but this time we’ve also asked them to record their answer, so you can hear it in their own voice.The question we asked was the following:What makes a great travel photo?We received and collected answers from 21 of our guests, so there’s a lot of information here for you to consume. They shared some great stories and we hope that listening to them will better equip everyone who wants to take up photography a little bit more seriously to avoid some mistakes at the beginning of their journey.We also have a transcript of all the answers, that you can find below the fold, if you’d rather read them than listen.Stay tuned for more expert roundups coming soon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, a conversation between Ralph and Ugo about the former’s recent trip to a pair of small, not very well-known, but beautiful and welcoming countries: Georgia and Armenia.These two countries with a long history, which regained their independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, haven’t seen much tourism until recently and this means their beauty is still largely unspoilt, even though they are rapidly modernizing and the infrastructure is almost on par with European standards. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For this episode of the podcast (absent Ralph, who was traveling to Costa Rica) Ugo had the opportunity to interview Mike Gulbraa, who has been into photography for over 45 years and he has visited 162 countries to date.Mike, a published and award-winning photographer, established M&M Photo Tours, Inc. in 2009, and since has traveled extensively in the US and across the globe, doing photo tours and workshops at the world’s best locations. M&M Photo Tours, Inc. is for photographers of all skill levels – even professionals.Mike enjoys photographing candids, street photography, landscapes, wildlife, and sports. As Mike says, “You don’t just take a photograph, you experience it!”Mike and Ugo talked at length about many of the destinations that Mikes loves the most, especially Africa, where Mike frequently does photo safaris, and Italy.In September 2019 Ugo will be the guest pro on M&M Photo Tours’ “Best of Italy” tour. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of the podcast, Ralph interviews Ugo about his recent trip to a trio of countries in Southeast Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia. These countries are culturally rich and diverse and visually stimulating, so we think they should be on every traveling photographer’s radar. Below the fold, you can see some of the pictures Ugo took while there.We also recommend that you listen to episode TTIM 146 – Matt Brandon and Pete DeMarco in Malaysia, which covers the city of Penang more in depth. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

While Ralph was touring Romania, he had a chance to sit down and interview Daniel Roșca, a local photographer and tour operator. Together, they discussed what makes Romania a destination that is becoming more and more sought after by photographers worldwide, thanks in no small part to its gorgeous landscape and its beautifully preserved traditions.Daniel Rosca is a tour guide from Romania specializing in photography, genealogy, cultural and wine tours. He traveled to over 40 countries, lived for 4 years in Belgium, Poland, Turkey and Egypt and worked for organizations like Microsoft, Deloitte and AIESEC. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As you might know, we are doing a bi-monthly photo contest on our Facebook group, The Traveling Image Makers’ Corner. We invite the group members to submit one of their best photographs and, at the end of the period, we pick two winners and invite them to come on the show and tell us about their winning images and their photography.The winners for the month of July 2018, Rima Biswas and Penny Palmer, submitted photos taken in Tennessee and Bruges, Belgium, respectively. We thought those two stood above the rest, but it was a tough choice, since we got so many amazing submissions.Would you like to be one of the next guests on the podcast? Head over to our Facebook group, ask to join (if you’re not already a member) and look for the post pinned to the top for instructions. The contest for the month of July 2018 is already open and we intend to do a new contest every two months. Let’s see your best travel images! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week's guest is Patrick Monahan who has gone from a successful career in the high tech industry to traveling the world and now leading tours. In this episode, Ralph sits down with Patrick on a huge rock overlooking Mexico's Copper Canyon to discuss his travel and photography experience, and specifically how to see and photograph this fascinating part of the world (did you know that Copper Canyon is bigger and deeper than the Grand Canyon? And it has one of the great train rides of the world running right through it, the only passenger train in all of Mexico).Ralph and Patrick also discuss meeting and photographing the Tarahumara Indians, a truly incredible culture where many still live in caves and cliff overhangs until this day. A shy people open to being photographed but not prone to smiling for the camera, the Tarahumara ladies are humble and talented craftswomen and almost all dress in handmade flower print dresses with colorful bandanas on their head.Patrick gives us some of his best photography tips and talks in-depth about his extensive travels and the opportunities he's had to photograph all over the world. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week’s episode is a special one. It was recorded on location by Ugo in Penang, Malaysia, where he had the pleasure to meet face-to-face with two great friends and previous guests on the show: Matt Brandon and Pete DeMarco.Matt Brandon is a Malaysia-based assignment photographer; Matt has experience photographing for nonprofits, assignment, and editorial work Matt often collaborates with NGOs to tell their stories and to train their field staff to do the same.Pete DeMarco is an award-winning travel photographer. His passion for helping people transform their photography shows through in the expert advice he shares. His work has been featured in National Geographic Traveler, CNN, and Digital Photography School amongst others.Matt, Pete, and Ugo had a long conversation about Penang and why it is such a great destination for photographers. The capital of the state of Penang, George Town, has a well preserved center that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is also situated in a position that makes it easy to reach other great cities like Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and sites like Angkor in Cambodia.It certainly doesn’t hurt that Penang is rated as one of the bes destination for foodies in all of Asia!They also talked a bit about what it takes to make a living as a travel photographer, Matt’s upcoming workshops, including the one to Varanasi, India.Finally, there was also a bit of gear talk, as Matt was test-driving FujiFilm’s latest camera, the X-T3, together with the new 8-16mm F2.8 super-wide zoom. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Harry Fisch has been a photographer for more years than he cares to remember. He has photographically documented more than 40 countries through which he has travelled.Winner of the 2012 World National Geographic Photo Contest (places), and later disqualified, his work has deserved several awards: Two Jury Awards in 2014 at the Grand Prix de la Découverte, finalist in the Sony 2012 World Photo Awards and selected in 2010 by Photoespaña—possibly the most prestigious Spanish photographic event—in the section “Discoveries”. His work has also been published, among other publications, in “La lettre de la Photographie”, which was nominated best Blog of 2011 by the prestigious magazine LIFE.Harry leads photo tours to exotic destinations with his company Nomad Photo Expeditions. After years of travelling, he has come to the conclusion that technique and vision are indispensable tools, but that empathy, curiosity, pleasure through personal relationships are the determinants which enable photography to transmit so much more than a postcard. As part of his personal work, Harry is currently developing a photographic project, “Les Miserables”, related to the work in the bricks factories of Nepal and the spiritual activity at the churches in North Ethiopia.In this episode of the podcast, Ugo talks with Harry about what it means to take authentic travel photographs and why reality is not always what we would like to believe. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest for this week is Joseph “PhotoJoseph” Linaschke, a content creator, educator and YouTuber. He’s been shooting since the age of seven, teaching and presenting on stage to audiences around the globe for over 20 years, and runs an online resource for photo and video education at photojoseph.comFollowing an eight-year tenure at Apple as the lead presenter, producer and photographer for the Professional Applications Division, he stepped out on his own in 2009 to pursue all things photography. Today you can find PhotoJoseph shooting still and video productions for clients ranging from global corporations and international rock stars to local restaurants and hotels in his home town of Ashland, Oregon… speaking to schools and educators around the world on integrating photography and digital storytelling into the classroom, turning the camera into a powerful learning tool… teaching workshops on photography in person and online on lynda.com… and every weekday, LIVE at YouTube.com/PhotoJoseph at 9:30am Pacific for PhotoJoseph’s Photo Moment!We picked Joseph’s brains about all things videography, especially as it pertains to shooting video while traveling: recommended equipment, processing software, tips, and techniques.Joseph also told us about his upcoming photo tour of India and generously extended to all TTIM listeners an offer for $300 off on the price of the trip. Head over to PhotoJoseph.com/india to find everything about it and mention that you heard about it on The Traveling Image Makers to get the discount. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our guest for this week’s episode of the podcast is Maria (or Marioly) Vazquez.We came to hear of Maria via another guest of ours, Scott Kelby, who mentioned her during his interview. We were talking about style in photography and not even knowing her, Scott brought up Maria’s Instagram (@cestmaria) as a perfect example of a photographer who has developed a distinctive style. Not too bad when one of the world’s top photographers and educators gushes about your work!Maria’s style is not just about photographing one type of subject and post-processing it a certain way, it’s about a very distinct color palette that crosses any number of photographic genres, from food to architecture, and selfies to fashion, and beyond.Maria is the creative mind behind Maria Marie. She’s a photographer and stylist from Monterrey, Mexico, currently living in London, and her main interest is photographing and styling interiors, still life, food and lifestyle. Her work is known for its unique use of color and whimsical styling. Textures, patterns and playful elements are used consistently in her work. Maria is known throughout Mexico for her collaborations with creatives in many different fields, and from her numerous exhibitions, and she’s worked with a variety of A-list clients and a number of advertising agencies.Maria recently published her new book “Pastel Moods,” which will only be available in hardcopy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the past 5 years, Dancho Hristov has been a working landscape and wildlife photographer based in Sofia, Bulgaria. He first dabbled in photography at the age of 13, starting with an old Zenit film camera. Several years later his interest in wildlife, and in particular birds, led him to his first digital camera, and this is when the adventure began in earnest. For the past 10 years, Dancho has been travelling extensively, mainly throughout Europe, guiding photographers, participating in bird surveys and continuing to explore nature.Dancho is also the author of the SNAPP Guide to photographing Bulgaria and has received a number of awards in regional landscape and wildlife photography contests. Additionally he plans trips and guides groups in his home country.Enjoy this very interesting conversation as we discuss everything from what there is to see and do in Bulgaria to the importance of behavior, gear and “hiding out” to capture the best bird and wildlife photography. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

During his latest trip to the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, Ralph sat down with naturalist guide, photographer, and native Costa Rican, Dennis Valverde.He was always fascinated by the animals and the big trees that were around his grandparents’ forest. That interest encouraged him to study the biodiversity of the rainforest in a more formal way. Nowadays he has a 12-years experience as a professional naturalist guide.Photography is Dennis’ second passion and his interest in it started 6 years ago as a result of his desire to capture the abundant wildlife that he sees every day that he goes out to lead tours.Dennis is a person with a sincere desire to always help his clients to take the best experience and best photos of the most biodiverse place on earth.Ralph and Dennis talked at length about the natural, unspoilt beauty of Costa Rica and this is the recording of that conversation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.