Haymes Images

Image © 2010 Tom Haymes

Travel photography is always a tricky artform. You are working against time (you never seem to be anywhere long enough) and the fact that photographers who actually live in the area you are photographing start off with a huge advantage. They can study the light, see how it evolves through the seasons and throughout the day, and plan out where and when the optimal shooting time for a given location is.

I was able to mitigate against this somewhat in Regensburg because my family is from there and I spent a lot of my youth wandering the city. However, most of my time spent in Regensburg was during the summer months where the shooting environment is totally different than in the winter. Winter in Germany is also a challenging environment. In the entire 11 days I as there in December, I think we had maybe 1 1/2 days of real sunshine. Also, because of its northern latitude, the days were rather short. (This shot was done about 4 pm.) With two kids in tow and a visitation agenda, this created a lot of challenges for me as a photographer.

This shot was a product of that one afternoon where I was able to take off on my own and wander the town and during which the light finally cooperated. I was still dealing with a lot of backlighting since I was shooting in a southerly direction for many of these shots. However, the right clouds helped me get around this to a point. So, I guess my best advice is to be as patient as a you can and grab whatever opportunities you have. You may be working at a disadvantage but you never know when you’ll get lucky.

If you are in the Katy area and want to join me for a photowalk, I and doing one with the Katy Area Artists on Saturday, March 26th at the Katy Heritage Park. For details click here.