I also do not want your picture because if you are in my shot and I want to sell it, I either must figure out how to clone you out of the shot or I cannot sell the shot.  So it is in my best interest to take steps to assure that you (and by “you” I mean any one of the other six billion odd people out there) are not in my photograph.

The problem is, when traveling people are like locusts.  Especially if you travel to a popular destination, they are everywhere.  They walk in front of you while taking a picture.  They climb monuments you are trying to take a picture of so that their friend can take a picture of them at the top of a 300 foot tall structure with a wide angle lens.  The new cameras in cell phones are even worse, as it is generally not possible to do a quick shot.  The user stands there for awhile, trying to get the picture he/she wants on the screen.  Then the picture doesn’t come out so he/she tries again, while you are waiting patiently to get a real picture.

Unfortunately, unless you are an emperor or dictator, you cannot do anything about this.  You can plan things so you photograph when the least number of people are around – such as early in the morning or you use your own transportation so you arrive between the tour buses, but for some sites large crowds are unavoidable.

Patience goes a long way here.  Very often, when I want a particular shot I will take out my camera, frame my shot, then wait for the best moment.  That is what I did for the first shot in this blog.

The only problem that sometimes happens is others see my large SLR and think “there must be something interesting there”.  So they take out their cameras and shoot away.  I do not mind this, except when by taking the shot they wind up in my shot.  As I often use my 16-35 2.8 and they often have small compact cameras, this is too often the case.  I won’t characterize stereotypes here, but after traveling and photographing for awhile, you can often get a general idea of the kind of people who do this.  Most of them are part of large tour groups who blindly follow their tour guide from place to place.  In this case, I just wait for the crowd to pass and then aim my camera and take my shot – by which time they can’t get back to take the photo for fear of losing their guide.

Of course, as I travel with two kids and my wife, this is often not possible and they lose patience with me long before the shot is ready.  Therefore, I often need to use tactics that take less time.

The two things that work best for me, which I learned while vacationing in Mexico – where the crowds were the worst I have ever seen – are to either go long or go wide.

For the shot above, there were about twenty other people in the room with me but I managed to wiggle my way to in front of this cave painting in Cappadocia and get my shot.  No, I did not use a flash (which the others in the room would do whenever the guard was not looking).  In this case it helps to have a camera that can do ISO 3200 without much noise.  I used my 16-35 to take the shot.

Using a wide angle lens works best when you can make sure you are closer than anyone else to the subject.  This actually worked out quite well in Chichen Itza as people are not allowed to climb the ruins any more. 

It does not work as well when people are allowed to climb the ruins.  In those cases, you have three possibilities.

1) Frame the shot without them.  If the people are at the bottom of the ruin, you can photograph the top.  Of course, this often doesn’t work as they are spread out over the ruin.

2) Wait for the crowd to be lower.  As I mentioned before though, this often isn’t an option or won’t work.

3) Wait for the people to get in a cloneable area.  If the person is in front of something that doesn’t have much detail, I will take the picture knowing I can clone the person out if I want to.

The other technique is to go long.  In this case, you are a distance from the subject and use a telephoto to get the shot.  Of course, if people are climbing over the object you will still need to be either patient or clone them out.

I used this technique to get this shot of the Blue Mosque – which usually has a throng of people around it.

I deliberately aimed up slightly to avoid the numerous people walking around.  The other nice thing about using a telephoto is you can capture the detail of the building, which many people often miss.

For a telephoto, I most often use my 70-200 4L IS.  I also own a 100-400 but use it far less frequently.  The greatest thing about the 70-200 F4 is its weight.  It functions great as a walk around lens and the IS is amazing.

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