F/8 and Fly There

An airplane crosses the Milky Way after takeoff from RDU.

Welcome, Earthlings. Now get out. Out THERE.

THERE can be the other side of the world. THERE can be the street in front of your house. THERE can be a place that exists in your imagination. THERE is a morphing, sometimes elusive thing. And it’s the best place in the visible universe, because that’s where the shots are.

Thanks to my chosen career field (the first one, anyway), time and money to get out anywhere were both scarce for way too long. Unsurprisingly, an inverse relationship existed between my money and my time. I still made every attempt to gnaw free of my leash when I could so I could take the edge off my travel jones in the crevices between my serious and mentally consuming responsibilities.

That’s me in the red hat. Photo credit Ian Purves.

Worth it. Every time I did it. I eventually found ways to do my job overseas, positioning myself on the other side of the International Date Line. Now those quick trips were to Bangkok and Sydney instead of the Bahamas and St. Lucia. After five years, my husband, Jay, and I moved back to the U.S. Then a career change for me opened our travel world UP.

I had to pay my dues in my new gig, but having travel front and center in my life instead of just around the fringes was tantalizing enough to make me stay in it. I was out THERE. As I began to travel more, I wanted to participate, not just go. As I sat in my hotel room one night on a work trip (I think I was in Flint, Michigan, in the dead of winter), I decided I needed a camera. I settled on a Canon T6 with two kit lenses and bought it the day after I got home.

The box sat on my kitchen table. I stared at it for a little while. Then I tore it open and got to work. About two weeks after I bought my first DSLR, Jay and I took a Saturday night trip to Mexico City because we wanted to see the Lucha Libre. That 24-hour trip was my inaugural travel photography experience. I barely knew how to turn my camera on, but I got out in the streets and started shooting, because I was THERE. And now I can’t stop, won’t stop.

Shadow People walk the streets of Mexico City.

That first trip to Mexico City was in February 2020. You can see where this is heading. THERE constricted. Since I was border-bound physically, I sent my mind on an expedition deep into photography education. Composition, lighting, and postprocessing became my destinations. I was furious about my constraints at the time, but I found myself ahead of the game when I was able to zoom with my feet again. I’m sure I would have prioritized scampering off to South America vs. studying The Strobist given the two options, but guess which one catapulted my photographic skills forward? You’re the man, Strobist. As travel became less restricted, I went to the airport a better photographer.

Some of my best resources as I plan my photo trips have been the blogs and social media posts of other travel photographers. Now I’ll try to return the favor by debriefing my own photo trips. I am stingy with my money, but not my locations. If you want to know where I took a picture, I’ll tell you, and probably show you a map to the spot. This is not a zero-sum game; there are enough photons for all of us.

The early 20th-century photojournalist Weegee is credited with the quote, “F/8 and be there.” Your camera settings are less important than going where the action is, because you can’t shoot what you can’t see. Just whack your aperture on a middle ground that’s in the ballpark, and be there.

Get your passport. Get your camera. Get on the plane. F/8 and fly there.