Travel Portraits

Travel photographer Nevada Wier is well known for her intimate approach to photographing people during her travels. However, it did not come easy to her when she began photographing. Travel photography requires the combination of technical expertise, culture competence, intuitive awareness, curiosity, and a dash of panache to create fresh, personal images that reveal the spirit of a place and its people. Like many people, Nevada was unsure how to best approach people in different cultures – not speaking the local language. Over many years she overcame her reluctance and now considers photographing the people she meets along the way the most rewarding part of her travels.

In this two-session program, Nevada imparts lessons and tips for how she approaches the technical, practical, creative, and social aspects to create natural, respectful, and unique portraits. She discusses approaching people honestly and directly, working with short lenses, how to create an environmental portrait with natural light, flash, or reflectors. She brings you into people’s homes, as well as joining them in a variety of outdoor environments.

In Session One, Nevada discusses how to overcome shyness in approaching people during your travels, techniques for building rapport, and how to integrate nonverbal communication into your body language. She discusses what lenses to use in different situations and how to creatively frame your image. She analyses what makes a powerful close-up portrait, and more importantly how to integrate the environment into a portrait.

In Session Two, Nevada discusses the power of a spontaneous moment and the times when it is important to know how to choreograph a situation authentically. She discusses how she approaches being at crowded markets and fast-paced festivals. And, lastly, she illuminates how she works quickly with on-camera flash, a reflector, or LED lights.

Join Nevada for four evening hours in early February that gives you the skills and confidence to engage and interact with people during your travels, as well as elevate your aesthetic vision to create portraits that not only express the inner spirit of your subject, but also of yourself.