The Photographers Notes

Photographers discuss in detail the making of their favorite photo.

Dolphins
by Godfried Kleinsman

The unique photos of dolphins making love is a very intimate moment and they totally accepted my presence.
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Las Vegas
Leila Navidi

Being a staff photographer for the Las Vegas Sun is a dream job, because Las Vegas never lets a photographer down.
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Rajasthan
By Peter Adams

Without an audience for this impromptu performance, I was able to get in close with a wide angle lens. I crouched slightly to get a more interesting angle and used the lady on the right to help frame the picture and provide greater depth.
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Colombia
By Jurjen Drenth

The secret of good market photos is to make those who work there the subject. Market people are cheerful and open. They like to make jokes, to interact.
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Bali
By Frans Lemmens

What I like best about the low shutter speed is that the sky and the foreground fight for dominance around the edges of the scene, which creates a fantastic sense of motion.
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Paris
By Jochem Wijnands

I have learned that Paris is a synonym for Savoir Vivre and lots of that revolves around food. Not just the quality of food, but the willingness to spend a good part of each day enjoying food.
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Hong Kong
By Ton Koene

When I photograph a city I don't automatically go for the tourist attractions but look for what's typical instead, which is why I decided to spend time inside Hong Kong's urban forest.
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Canada
By Jochem Wijnands

There were at least 20 polar bears roaming the area, waiting for the water to freeze over. Every day, every hour something happened.
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Dublin
By Jurjen Drenth

Can you just start taking photos without asking permission first? Because when you ask permission the natural setting which is so attractive to photograph will almost certainly be lost.
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Cairo
By Jochem Wijnands

I started taking photos and at some point people started wondering who I was. I learned that not allowing myself time to get the know the people or the scene can lead to misjudgement and potential problems.
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Kenya
By Jochem Wijnands

I love photographing wildlife but I am not a specialist. It often starts with finding a guide to show you the right places and explain animal behavior. Then you need the right gear.
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China’s Great Wall
By Frans Lemmens

Look for the lesser visited and less crowded sites. With large crowds, the tourists themselves become the subject, not the Wall.
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San Francisco
By David Sanger

It is easy to do so just by picking a bizarre angle or lighting, or by over-editing a digital image. A better way to get beyond the cliché, however, is to spend time with the subject, to explore its nuances, to get to know it, and let it reveal its secrets.
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Iceland
By Jurjen Drenth

To reduce condensation on the lens, your camera has to be the same temperature as the surroundings. Even so, you need to keep a dry cloth handy to wipe excess moisture away.
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Yucatán
By Frans Lemmens

Always zoom out a little bit to include a relevant amount of background and create a context. I like it when they are laughing because they almost always are good-natured people. They have to be, otherwise they wouldn't sell anything...
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Dubai
By Jochem Wijnands

It fascinated me and when I next visited Dubai I decided to do a story on prostitution, realizing how revealing this could be in a male dominated and islamic country like Dubai.
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New Zealand
By Frans Lemmens

During each exposure I took out my flash and illuminated one of the boulders, balancing the flashlight against the evening sky. That evening I opened the exposures on my MacBook and blended them into one single image.
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Lebanon
By Jurjen Drenth

The right moment came when a small motor boat showed up and started circling the rocks. Creating great depth and showing the human scale. Just what I needed!
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Australia
By Maarten Udema

Because everybody is restricted in their movement at sunset, most photos look alike and you need some luck to take a photo that stands out.
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Malaysia
By Jochem Wijnands

What would the perspective of the monkey be like? In the first photo I used a shallow depth-of-field to create sharpness only at the tip of the blowpipe aimed at its target – signaling danger. Like it was the last thing this monkey would see.
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Swaziland
By Jochem Wijnands

I quickly became a familiar face. I was able to capture the intimacy and the fun of it, and sometimes it felt like being on a school trip.
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London
by Jurjen Drenth

A tripod only makes sense when a long exposure is creating a special effect, which always involves movement. During daytime this could be a waterfall or the wind in the trees, at night it's light that does the trick.
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Havana
By Jochem Wijnands

Action is kind of rare in Cuba. It is only at night in the dance clubs that the Cubans really get into gear. I was thrilled with the dynamics of the boxing school I visited and wanted to photograph the action.
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St. Petersburg
by Frans Lemmens

In my opinion, street photography is the best way to understand and portray a city and is certainly one of the things that I enjoy doing most; seeing what’s happening, what people are up to, how they live, and then trying to capture those moments.
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Tuscany
By Jurjen Drenth

Tuscany is one of the world’s most popular destinations for photographers, and rightly so, but can you imagine the Tuscan landscape without the cypress?
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Andalusia
By Jochem Wijnands

What the pilgrimage to El Rocío certainly has in abundance is atmosphere. It is the most exotic festival on the European continent, one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and the weather during Pentecost is usually sunny and hot.
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Antarctica
by Göran Ehlmé

Conditions of low light, high particulate matter and surge combined create a challenge for experienced underwater photographers.
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Athens
By Jochem Wijnands

Athens, like Rome and Istanbul, is a challenging and thus enticing city for a photographer. With a rich ancient history ornamented by a quintessentially lively European atmosphere and lush Mediterranean climate, the city offers a photo opportunity around every street corner.
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Suriname
By Frans Lemmens

The Matapica National Park is only a half day trip away from Paramaribo, but it feels like the end of the world. We had to bring our own tent and food, because the lodging that once existed got washed away by the waves.
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Lisbon
by Jurjen Drenth

Yellow rules the Lisbon nights and has effectively ousted all other colors from sunset till sunrise. You enter a different world.
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Bolivia
By Jeroen van Loon

We knew a bit about the fights, but wanted to find the extra layer. Why do these women fight?
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Cambodia
By Jochem Wijnands

At Angkor Wat, visitors can climb the temple mountain of Phnom Bakheng by elephant or take a ride around the vast temple complex. It is marvelous watching these majestic animals slowly ambling past the ancient, it is just a pity they usually carry sunburned and badly dressed tourists that wobble from side to side and hang on for dear life.
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Namibia
By Frans Lemmens

As a travel photographer, one of the keys to a successful trip is the ability to anticipate certain events. Nothing is more painful than arriving somewhere only to discover that the world-famous festival held once every hundred years just ended the day before.
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Whale Watching
By Jochem Wijnands

The reality of watching wildlife is that you can’t expect to see the animals up close and personal. This is the art of wildlife photography.
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Moscow
by Achim Siegmund

Go out with your camera and capture daily life in Russia; shameless display of wealth, including half-naked girls.
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India
By Jochem Wijnands

Photographing a funeral or cremation? I would never dare enter this very private moment or photograph this final farewell without permission or a direct invitation from the family first.
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Mississippi
By Jurjen Drenth

Every evening, there is a short window in which a equilibrium manifests itself, as the competing lights battle for dominance.
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Burma
By Jochem Wijnands

If progress is the photographer's enemy, then Burma is the photographer's dream. A photographer is easily seduced into spending an entire morning clicking away at this picture-perfect scene.
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Spitsbergen
By Brandon Harvey

In awe, we watch from a distance, the bear licking the fat from the inner thighs. With a sense of indignity in the air we uneasily snap away on our cameras. This bear is merely securing its survival in this harsh landscape.
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Rio de Janeiro
By Magerson Bilibio

You don't need all the controls of a SLR camera and walking in Rio with a SLR and lenses isn't safe either.
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New York
by Ton Koene

It was the interaction between him and the female spectators that I should focus on.
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South Africa
By Christian Sperka

His tongue was hanging out, which made him look silly.
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Aruba
By Jochem Wijnands

I started looking for colors and shapes instead of action, for composition instead of detail.
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Venice
By Jurjen Drenth

I asked them to pose for me. Sometimes a portrait reveals so much more.
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Cornwall
By Jochem Wijnands

Some people I met on this trip were typically English in appearance and behavior and some were not. Who would you prefer to take a picture of?
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Essaouira
By Susana Paiva

A very specific love for working in an environment with very little light. Images with silhouettes which silently emerge from the available light.
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Japan
by Ton Koene

Every morning I traveled on the highly efficient Japanese subway system to reach different locations I wanted to photograph in Tokyo.
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Maldives
By Jochem Wijnands

As a tourist it is not easy to discover what the Maldives are really like. You stay in your resort and are not free to visit the rest of the country.
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Catelonia
By Francesc Domenech

One approach I really like, is to get involved during the preparations, the training and the rehearsals so you can get to know the people.
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Sinai
By Jochem Wijnands

When I gave Um Rabbia the photo I took of her the first time, she surprised me by hugging me and kissing me on the cheek.
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Buenos Aires
By Jochem Wijnands

At some point I started panning and zooming out which resulted in some spectacular photos. Unfortunately not the type that Travel Magazines would normally publish ;-)
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Bonaire
By Jochem Wijnands

A fill in flash is very useful when photographing people in the tropics, as it flashes away these dark shadows that obscure people’s faces.
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Sri Lanka
By Jochem Wijnands

The beach was empty, the photographers were gone. This was the moment where I managed to capture another, more intimate and realistic side of the Weligama stilt fishermen.
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Easter Island
By Jochem Wijnands

Normally I include people in my shots. This adds originality, liveliness and a sense of context. But with the Ahu Tongariki another approach was needed.
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Andalusia
By Jochem Wijnands

You leave all beauty behind, and signs of poverty are everywhere. It can be quite intimidating. But instead of hiding my camera, a normal reflex in situations like this, I do the opposite. I relax.
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