Medan Workshop: From Travel Photo Techniques to Business Opportunity

Photo by Widi Artono

Travel photography is not just dealing with techniques but also with etiquette. Moreover, its business opportunity is still widely open if we know how to explore and how to do it creatively.

That is more or less the quintessence of a photography workshop held at Atyaduta Hotel, Medan, today (10/22) from morning till afternoon. Themed “A-Z Traveling Photography,” the Canon & Fotografer.net Workshop Series 2011 in this capital of North Sumatra Province presented Edward Tigor Siahaan, a Jakarta-based professional photographer, as the speaker.

In front of more than a hundred workshop attendees, Tigor – he is familiarly addressed – described some such basic techniques of photography as exposure, direction of light, ISO value, apperture, composition and so on. “By mastering on those things, is it enough for us to make good photos? Yes, of course. But, I’m not sure that our photos will be electrifying,” he said.

Photo by Widi Artono

To Tigor, beside good, we have to make our photos more powerful and more electrifying as well by giving an emphasize on moment which include light and action in it. He showcased some of his shots to make the participants easier to understand which were good photos and which were amazing ones.

“We have to take effort to make our photos not just static. Make it more electrifying by adding an action. Sometimes the presence of people is needed in our frame to make the result more powerful and amazing,” he explained.

In traveling, we are certainly in touch with the culture and people in the area we come into. It means that we have to pay more attention to etiquette prevailing in the area. “We have to respect local rules. If the people eat without spoon, we have to do it the same way. If they take a bath in the river, so do we,” Tigor gave some examples.

“Before taking their pictures, it would be better to saya hello to them, try to communicate in a friendly way, and don’t forget to express our gratefulness,” he added.

Photo by Widi Artono

Completing his presentation, Tigor informed a business opportunity in travel photography. “We can do business with our travel photography and the chance here is still widely open,” Tigor said, “We can use the materials for promotion, advertisement, calendar, brochures and many others.

“When I was entering this hotel last night, I saw some paintings displayed on some corners of the hotel. This is our opportunity to offer our pictures to display for interior decoration,” he explained.

In this workshop, there was also a quiz session in which many door prizes from Canon and Fotografer.net were provided for the participants who could answer the quizes. It is the seventh workshop in the string of Canon & Fotografer.net Workshop Series; the previous workshops were held in Yogyakarta, Balikpapan, Denpasar, Jakarta, Manado, and Semarang. The next one will be in Surabaya.