Why participate in my photo tours
Why participate in my photo tours?
In this article you will read my personal version based on more than 15 years guiding and teaching photographers in my cuban photo tours.
I am a professional photographer but my true obsession is psychology and teaching.
I perfectly remember all the activities and thoughts that led me to improve as a photographer and I have designed personalized activities and exercises so that the travelers who participate in my photo workshop improve as photographers.
1.- I have found that by participating in an 8-day photo tour the process of thinking and taking the photograph becomes automated, less and less thinking and more and more feeling. This is the key to taking more spontaneous photographs and connecting with your most intiutive self.
2.- One of my favorite techniques is to have breakfast looking at great photographs, so we involuntarily start the day inspired and knowing that we have to be close to the people we are photographing, etc.
It's a good exercise for shy photographers who usually take pictures from far away and need to be braver and closer to the action (that's why in my cuban photo tours I don't recommend working with lenses larger than 80 mm).
3.- A little psychological exercise I do with my travelers is to think about photography when we are already in bed at night, about to fall asleep, this way our brain goes into photography mode.
It can be looking at some quality photos or also imagining that the next day we are going to improve those little mistakes we had today.
4.- I really like to review the photos of travelers in their cameras, I usually do it while we are resting in a restaurant waiting for the food or a good mojito to be served.
This exercise is doubly interesting: it helps me to see the weaknesses and strengths of the photographer and on the other hand it is interesting for the photographer who discovers which are his best pictures (not the most beautiful ones), he is encouraged and can continue on that path of photographic quality.
5.- I propose exercises created by me like following me for 5 minutes while I take pictures very close to people and "think out loud". In this way I try to let the travelers "hear" how the brain of a professional photographer works in his approach to people, in his movements, in his way of understanding light, etc.
Why I take a picture or why I don't, how I move, how I wait, how I approach, how I move away and many personal tricks that help me to take good pictures.
6- One of the special days is when we review photos on the computer marking them with different number of stars according to their quality. This is how we professional photographers select our work and manage to obtain the final photographs that will be part of our portfolio.
It is curious how travelers are often surprised because some of their best photographs had gone unnoticed to their eyes, in general amateur photographers think how beautiful are certain individual photographs but have no experience in selecting several images with narrative coherence and similar level of meaning, this would be the "magic of storytelling".
7.- Although the maximum number of participants in my photo tours is 9, we are almost always groups of 4 or 5 travelers.
In some occasions we have been 7 photographers but I have divided the group in 2 with the help of Cuban artists and photographers that help us to have other versions of how to take pictures both technically and psychologically.
8.- Cuba is a magical country but at the same time it is full of topics that make travelers stay only in the outermost layer, personally I love to give my version of the country, I have been living there for more than 15 years but I am European so my mind is divided in 2 and this makes that I can describe my image of Cuba.
9.- In my photo tours we visit other artists and photographers, in this way we can learn from other professionals who give us their vision about photography and life in Cuba, let's not forget that we are photographers but without a doubt all of us are travelers passionate about knowing other cultures as deeply as possible.
Finally, I think that to participate in a photo tour we have to know the character of the photographer who organizes it, perhaps he is a good photographer and a bad teacher or vice versa.
I also think it is important to review his or her portfolio, in the world of photography the portfolio is the great letter of introduction, I would even say that we can know the psychology of the photographer only by looking at his photographs and the topics that interest him.