After five days of the fast hurly-burly of modern Dubai, hi-rise towers and freeways, I was eager to see the surroundings, an older, traditional, desert land stretching inland to the mountains. A days drive north along the coast, cutting east across the empty desert, and suddenly, rounding a curve in the road, from the corner of my eye, I saw two camelherders in a lot, with their charges. Time for the photographer's u-turn, an essential practice if you want to get the shot. With my Arabic (none) and their English (none) making conversation sparse, attention naturally focussed on the camels, who stood feeding, observing, probably wondering if the Nikon D2X was edible. With a cluttered background, I dropped to the sand and shot upward against the blue sky, simple and clean. A little Photoshop helped trim out edge clutter, to make an enduring cameline portrait

Every afternoon an honor guard of the Royal 22e Régiment marches into the Citadelle of Quebec on the historic Plains of Abraham for the Changing of the Guard. There's usually a good contingent of tourists surrounding the parade ground for the ceremony. It is majestic, but fairly static and it was difficult to get a shot with out tourists in the background. At the end of the event as the old guard moved out, the tourists staid put. Quickly following the marching soldiers, I ran to the top of a small ridge and shoot down as they passed, using 1/3 of a second for a bit of motion blur and a clean background.

This image won the Gold award for People in 2006 SATW Travel Photographer of the year contest

How to show Christmas and Hope for the future?? This wreath on a lamppost caught my eye one winter day. Although I didn't have a clear intent at the time I took a number of shots against the sky, cropping out as much of the lamp as possible and then put it aside for creative work later. After forgetting about it for a year or so I remembered it one evening and set about in Photoshop to see where it would lead. The simple elements of green wreath and red ribbon and blue sky, primary colors, plus the ethereal look of it floating in space, gave just the right feeling of lightness. It reminded me too of a glass sculpture at the Australian National Museum in Canberra. Though not yet on the market as a stock image, this might do well as a concept shot

And a Holiday greeting...

For the year to come, best wishes for you all, and hopefully some hints of peace in the world...For children, those in the Middle East and those in any need or trouble, special prayers and care... that we all may continue to see and be thankful for this still, truly amazing world....David..2006

How to capture an icon? That's the perennial problem for a travel photographer. Something we've seen a thousand times, yet newly seen - that's ideal. But since we've seen it so many times, the mind jumps to a pre-seen image. We know exactly what the Eiffel Tower looks like because we've seen it in clichés so often. So to spend time with the subject, hours, night after night, trying to sense something distincitive, and then bring to it a certain particular style of seeing, that is the art of travel photography. The market has an insatiable appetite for the same subjects, newly seen, and those are the most difficult challenges of all.

In the center of busy modern Tokyo are the spacious and tranquil Imperial Palace gardens. Just a stone's throw from the glitz of Maranouchi, surrounded by the curious, tourists, picnickers and families on a weekend outing lie the weathered ruins of the Edo castle tower, built in 1638. The abstract design of the sloping remnant wall, the angular cut stones and the solitary tree caught my eye. The contrast in texture and color, rough and smooth, old memories and new life led to this simply seen image.

One of the signature landmarks of San Francisco is the Golden Gate Bridge. When photographing for my book on San Francisco Bay, I wanted to cover the movement of the fog which sweeps in off the Pacific many summer afternoons, and then recedes in the morning. Often it flows over the hilltops and shrouds the bridge deck in a white cloth.

There's a small hilltop in Marin Headlands, just above the northern anchorage, which seemed promising as a vantage point. It was a fogbound morning. Driving out there in the predawn darkness I doubted if I'd get anything at all. Sometimes you don't. I parked and hiked the fire trail to the ridgetop; it was windy, dark and cold. With my tripod fixed, and mid-range lens set on my Nikon, I waited.

Imperceptibly, the light changed. A gradual brightening, then visible clouds, then a golden hue as a distant sun rose over the Oakland hills. Then the mist cleared with a swift breeze and the bridge tower appeared.

It was a surprise of course. It always is.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus was buried according to early legend, is a very busy place. Tour guides pass through with endless groups of picture-snapping visitors, each guide recounting the detailed history of the site. It's noisy, distracting, thouroughly touristy. After several days in and around the church I wanted to convey something more profound, more tranquil.

On some mornings the Greek Orthodox Metropol Daniel stood at at the main door and chatted with visitors. Seeing a pause in the continuous stream of tourists, and seeing his outline against the black emptiness of the doorway, I asked him to step forward into the light and made this image. The balance between the ancient carved wooden door and his relaxed pose, set against the black background, show something of the quietness of the site even amidst all the hubbub of the crowd.

On a personal note, it's interesting to spend time at what could be said to be one of the holiest sites of Christendom. One walks around thinking "This is amazing. I should be having a religious experience!!" But it is so noisy, so crowded, that it seems more like Disneyland. Then when you leave, a sign above the lintel, above the doorway in the photo, seen from the interior on the way out, says, "He is not here! He goes before you into Galilee."

After an afternoon photographing an outdoor Living History event at San Antinio's Institute of Texas Cultures, I walked passed the main museum exhibit space just as the museum was closing. The brightly neon lit Texas flag caught my eye and I got a couple of shots, but it needed something else. Quickly seeing a museum docent closing up his desk for the day, I asked if he'd step in front of the lit flag. The result, a bold silhouette with cowboy hat and Texas resolve, has been used in magazine spreads and as a Nikon advertisement.

On a quiet side street in the hills of Kyoto, this red parasol lay against a wall, a colorful reminder of the simplciity of Japanese design. Red maples rustled overhead, their shadow making a counterpoint to the white arc of the leafs on the fabric.

The sense of design in Japan is exquisite and it is in the small and delicate details that this is most easily seen.

]]> http://www.davidsanger.com/frames/parasol http://www.davidsanger.com/frames/parasol frames Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:30:24 -0800

Every winter the Star Flyer clipper ship sails the clear waters of Andaman Sea on one week trips out of Phuket, Thailand. The seldom visited Surin and Similan Islands, the Malaysian coastal towns and Singapore are all entralling port calls. But it is the ship itself, 360 feet long, four-masted, built in the classical style of the clipper ships which plied the Pacific in the nineteenth century, which is the main attraction. The European captains love to move under full sail whenever possible.

Seeking a distinctive vantage point to show the ship set in the sea, I was hoisted in the bosun's chair to the top of the mainmast, where carefully I could compose a shot looking straight down, with the crisp sea offset transversly by the open deck, liferafts and other masts. A vertical alternative gives a bit of a different feel.

You can read more in the story By the Waters of Andaman.

Vientiane, Laos, on the banks of the sleepy Mekong river, is a city in the midst, a confluence of traditional Buddhist culture, bureaucratic communism and an emerging consumer marketplace of goods and ideas. Some young men spend a year or so in a monastery after high school, and then continue their education or go into business. Others readily accept contemporary Western accoutrements and are drawn to the flash of modern life.

This image, shot late in the afternoon on the riverside levee, highlights the juxtaposition of old and new, with a warm yellow glow contrasting the silhouetted figures, the parasol and the motorbike,

What does it take to be a photographer? Some say that with the new digital equipment, "Anyone can take great photos now. All you have to do is point and shoot. The camera does the rest."

Knowing that I wanted a key image of the Parthenon at night for a feature story on Athens, I climbed from the Plaka over the Acropolis Hill and across to Filopapou Hill well before sunset to scope out locations and the light. It was a 45 minute hike each way with camera gear and tripod. The shots weren't great, the light iffy, and the angle wrong. I went back the next day before dawn, after a late late dinner and a couple of hours sleep. Even though the light was nice the direction was off and the Acropolis against the morning sky uninspiring. One nice shot that morning was the Filopappos monument. That evening again I traipsed across town to my lookout spot, but clouds came in and the evening just lacked something. No shot.

It was the fourth attempt that finally gave what I wanted [above]. A wind had cleared out the pollution, the night sky was clear and crisp and I'd found another vantage point, lower on the hill, below the monument. One of the challenges had been to screen out the ugly construction equipment and scaffolding, and this angle of view worked, along with the deep indigo sky. The vertical image too was a nice cover shot.

Much of travel photography is about being in the right place at the right time, about going back again and again and again, about not being satisfied with mediocre results, and above all about caring enough to walk across Athens as many times as it took to get what I envisioned. Any Joe or Jane with a digital camera just won't take the time.

On assignment on the coastal beaches of Goa, India the challenge was to show the exotic atmosphere of the teeming markets, the energy of the Catholic and Hindu history, the intertwining of cultures over the centuries, and the carefree getaway nature of the place where Europeans love to escape to for winter sun and relaxation. A tall task! Most striking of all my impressions of India is the continuous festival of color - everywhere - variegated, multicolor, florid, bright screaming colors. A small detail like these fabrics for sale by a beach vendor symbolizes the intensity which is Goa and consequently is the best-selling image from the whole shoot. You can see more images of Goa in the stock section.

Wandering back from the Acropolis on an Easter Saturday while shooting as story on Athens, I happened upon a small outdoor restaurant in Macrygianni where they were roasting a whole lamb on a spit outside. Since it was before the big Easter feast and they were still preparing the meals there was lots of time to focus on details of the restaurant and people. When this musician sat down to play lively tunes on the traditional Greek bouzouki I chose to concentrate on his hands and strumming and to allow a little blur to show the energy of the movement and music.

The rocky prominence of Table Mountain rises up over the streets of Cape Town, an ever present reminder of the beauty and strength of the African landscape. To get this image of first light on the mountain I returned repeatedly to a lookout from neighboring Lion's Head. The brilliant clouds scudding past the mountain and the windswept native plants in the foreground contrast with the silent city, just awakening to a new day.