Posted: 9/25/17 | September 25th, 2017

Amateur and professional photographers alike agree: getting locals to unwind for a good photograph is one of the hardest aspects of travel photography — but not entirely impossible.

Lola Akinmade Åkerström is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in publications all over the world. She loves capturing the people in her travels and connecting with them in the process. Here’s how she does it.

While traveling through a region where you see locals you’ve only saw in magazines (for example, monks in Southeast Asia or Zulu tribesmen in east Africa), there is a tendency to get thrilled while subconsciously putting up a “no-interaction” wall.

You tiptoe around them in a delicate fashion. Whether it is through eye contact or some other form of personal acknowledgment, you have to engage them. This transforms them into living, breathing beings.

While shopping in Cusco, I felt a little tug on my pants. initially frightened, I peered down only to find an old lady sitting on the floor, organizing flowers, and asking for money. It could have been easy to paint her into the Peruvian market scene, but I quickly squatted down and spent quite some time down on the floor with her.

When we make these local connections — no matter how subtle or fleeting — they transform the people we typically gloss over into see three-dimensional human beings. When we actively seek out these connections, you’ll not only learn much more about the destination you’re going to but you’ll be able to snap deeper, much more meaningful photos.

Here are a few essential suggestions to keep in mind when you’re wanting to photograph people while you travel.
 

1. Make an effort to Communicate

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She was fiery and infectious. I could never forget this old lady I met in the tiny remote village of Krang Yaw in Cambodia. I didn’t speak a single word of Khmer, yet we were able to converse through gestures. Oral communication can in some cases be overrated.

By breaking the ice and communicating with the people you want to photograph you’ll find your photos become much much more important souvenirs, reminders of the shared experiences we all have — no matter where we’re from.

Moreover, you can use this opportunity to learn things about the culture and destination. Don’t be scared to ask questions, even if there is a language barrier. These answers will open doors in both your photography as well as your travels in general. The much more you learn, the much more empowered you become as a traveler.
 

2. Observe Their daily Lives

Let them know their work isn’t unimportant and, if possible, momentarily partake in their work with them. Whether helping a porter take down the tent, or financing a hand to a baker, it communicates that you find their responsibilities equally important.

Breaking down barriers through action works hand-in-hand with communication; it’s a easy gesture you can use to build a relationship that will help you learn more, have a deeper travel experience, and get a better shot.

Once in Lima, I wandered into a gift shop. After chatting with the shopkeeper, she seemed perplexed as to why I would want to take her picture. letting her know that I found her much more interesting than the wares she was hawking quickly warmed her.
 

3. Cheesy grins Work

Smiling typically disarms people and breaks down their defensive walls. A smile and gentle nod always goes a long way and lets your subject know that you are very approachable.

Moreover, smiles are universal. They are something everyone does no matter where in the world they live. It’s a cross-cultural connector. embrace it.

When photographing children (something you need to be particularly careful with, especially if you are sharing those photos online), remember they love to be entertained. This always starts with a smile.
 

4. show Respect

Connecting with people ultimately boils down to respect. give them their space. know when to quit stalking them for the ideal shot. They will naturally open up to you of their own accord.

If they don’t, take that as your cue to say goodbye and relocation on. Not everyone wants to be photographed. That’s ok. As long as you keep an open mind and work to communicate with locals whenever you can, you’ll encounter plenty of other opportunities down the road.

***
These experiences have happened organically during my travels. When it concerns personalities, people are inherently different, so only by trial and error (and, frankly, embarrassment in some cases!) would you be able to hone the body language required to communicate through your lens.

Lola A. Åkerström is an award-winning writer, speaker, and photographer with national geographic Creative. She frequently contributes to high profile publications such as AFAR, the BBC, The Guardian, Lonely Planet, travel + Leisure, and national geographicTraveler. Lola is also the editor of slow travel Stockholm, an online magazine dedicated to exploring Sweden’s capital city in depth. She lives in Stockholm and blogs at Geotraveler’s Niche.

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ever considering that we began travelling, we’ve been on the search for lush jungles, eco-lodges, gorgeous beaches, excellent coral reefs, friendly people as well as tasty food; as well as from what we’ve heard, Costa Rica has all of that in spades! However, we’ve likewise heard mixed evaluations about Latin America’s eco-friendly nation as well as while we’re ecstatic to visit, we do have our reservations.

A great buddy of ours recently travelled to Costa Rica as well as though he did speed with it quite quickly, he told us that it was extremely expensive as well as the people were rather cold. We’ve considering that dubbed it “Costly Rica” in anticipation of the travel expenses, however we hope to have much better people experiences than our friend.

Despite some mixed evaluations about the country, we are still extremely ecstatic to go there as well as discover out for ourselves!

Here are 5 reasons why we are ecstatic to go to Costa Rica

1. The Jungles & Rainforests:

You just cannot go to Costa Rica without diving deep into the tropical rain forests. We like jungle hikes as well as we would absolutely like to head out into the Costa Rican jungle and area a few of the flora as well as fauna that makes this country so unique.

2. Eco Lodges

Our buddies Dan as well as Casey over at ACruisingCouple.com have told us all about the incredible Cristalino Lodge in the middle of the Amazon Jungle. In their evaluation of the lodging they stated that this lodge was “the best combination of eco as well as high-end in the Amazon“.

Since reading their article, we’ve wished to go to this extraordinary Eden as well as see for ourselves. The lodge likewise uses tower lookouts, jungle treks as well as night-time campfires. We can’t wait to go to some of Costa Rica’s lots of eco-lodges!

3. Volcanoes

We haven’t climbed a steamy, geothermal mountain bomb considering that we were in Indonesia back in 2009 as well as it still stays one of the highlights of our very first trip with Southeast Asia. One thing we didn’t handle to see was online lava, bubbling in molten pools. This is something that is absolutely on my container listing as well as the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica is popular for spouting off radiant volcanic liquid from time to time. While we don’t requirement to get as well close, we both want to climb Arenal as well as get a great look at its molten core.

Conquering A Volcano In Kintanami, Bali
4. The Beaches

Who doesn’t like a gorgeous beach? According to CNN, Costa Rica’s Dominical beach is one of the top 100 nicest beaches in the world! however this nation’s shoreline isn’t just for swimming. Dariece as well as I are dying to provide surfing one more try and Playa Cocles is indicated to be an exceptional location for beginners. We very first attempted to trip waves in Lombok, Indonesia as well as ever considering that we’ve been waiting to get back on the board and provide it one more go.

5. Diving

If you checked out this blog regularly, then you understand that I am a diving diving addict. anywhere I go I like to get under the sea as well as check out the reefs as well as Costa Rica will be no different. even though it’s a fairly new dive destination, there are lots of fantastic sites around Osa Peninsula as well as Caño Island. So far the only dives I’ve performed in the region have been in Tulum, Mexico, Isla Mujeres, Mexico as well as Ambergris Caye, Belize, however I’ve yet to dive on the Pacific Coast. The Osa Peninsula is on the West side of the country so it will be the best chance for me to try out new waters.

When will We Go?

We still haven’t made a decision precisely when we will be checking out Costa Rica, however we figure it will be sometime in the next 5 months. My buddy Jeff over at middle class daddy has some fantastic recommendations in Guanacaste, Costa Rica that I’ll be inspecting out.

We’re currently (slowly) making our method south with Mexico as well as into Guatemala (eventually) as well as we figure that we may be in CR by July of this year. however (as you understand if you comply with us) plans always modification as well as we’re not completely sure when we’ll be there. One thing is for sure though, we’ll be costs about a month in the country as well as seeing as much of it as we can, while still travelling sluggish as well as soaking everything in.

Do you have any type of suggestions for us in Costa Rica? We like discovering new locations based on our visitors ideas. Was our buddy ideal about the high costs as well as chilly people? Please show us in the comments below!
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We’ve conquered some pretty epic feats in our day, from trekking for 8 days across the Mongolian Steppe to flying over the Pamir Mountains in a helicopter, but we still have lots of adventures that we have not yet completed. These experiences lay dormant in the recesses of our travel obsessed minds, waiting to one day be surmounted. The world is full of so lots of extraordinary adventures, but these are a few that we feel we need to DO before we kick the bucket!

1. The Rickshaw Run: This is one that we’ve wanted to do ever considering that we saw this video of it on YouTube. think of getting a piece-of-crap tuk-tuk (gas powered rickshaw), with a sputtering 145cc engine, packing a few pals into it and trying to drive across the entire country of India! The traffic is insane, some hills are so high that the tuk-tuk can barely make it up, but the views are spectacular. The entire journey is between 2,500 – 3,500 kms long and takes up to 3 weeks (depending on the which run you take). For us, the most incredible part would be seeing the extraordinary Indian countryside from a tiny, motorcycle-like vehicle. It would allow us to take in the amazing mountain breeze and the complete serenity of the rural areas, but definitely we’d be slapped by the stark contrast of the hot sticky air and the absolute mayhem that only an Indian city can provide. The Rickshaw Rally is genuinely one of the greatest adventures on Earth. Click here if you want to sign up now!

Photo By: The Adventurists
2. The trek to Machu Picchu: this one isn’t quite as off-track as the Rickshaw Rally, but it’s still an epic travel experience that we’re just dying to have. Machu Picchu has been around for around 565 years, so it’s not going anywhere, but we’re still anxious to get there. We hope to tick this one off our travel bucket list sometime next year. The entire trek takes about 4 days and reaches a maximum height of 4,200 meters, before descending down to where the extraordinary ancient city lies perched on the hillside at 2,400 meters above sea level.

Recently, the policies have changed on this trek and now all tourists are forced to trek with a local guide. While we love to help the local economy by hiring guides and porters, we would like to do the trek on our own. pals of ours have told us about an alternative route that can take a few a lot more days, but it’s a lot more off the beaten path… which is exactly what we’re into. We also have a 7 Wonders Of The world list, so by doing the Machu Picchu trek we’d actually be killing two birds with one stone.

Photo By: Allard Schmidt by means of Wikimedia Commons
3. The Mongol Rally: another crazy race you say? We’ll this one is just as epic as the Rickshaw Run, but it takes us through all of Europe and nearly all of Asia. In July of every year, hundreds of “racers” meet in London to embark on the road trip of a lifetime. This long, rugged, crazy, multi-country journey goes all the way from London, England to Ulan Bator in Mongolia. The appeal of it is that you can take as long as you want to complete the run. Some people have completed it in as little as 10 days, while others have taken nearly 2 years to reach the finish line. There are just a few policies to The Mongol Rally.

The automobile need to have an engine no larger than 1000cc

You need to raise £1,000 for charity

You must get lost…

We nearly subscribed for the Mongol Rally in 2015, but we’re just not sure if we’ll want to head over to Europe again next year, so we’re holding off. We want to do it with our pal Jason, whom we met in Kyrgyzstan last year, so we’ll wait until the three of us are ready to join the race. Our plan is to deck out our automobile to look like a enormous goat. It may not be in 2015, but someday, possibly very soon, you’ll see pictures, videos and articles of our extraordinary Mongol Rally journey here on Goats On The Road.

Photo By: The Adventurists
4. Drive from Alaska to the idea of South America: This drive may just be so epic that it will be nearly impossible to complete, but we will absolutely make the effort. We’ve always wanted to drive the Oregon coast trail and this really is the main reason for taking on this journey. but I’m sure that the west coast of Canada would be just as, if not more, beautiful. We’d absolutely want to pick up a camper van or an old Volkswagen type 2 to make this trip.

5. Geocaching around The World: I actually got this idea from Subaru’s adventure Page, and it’s something I’m really interested in. thanks to the availability of handheld GPS devices, the world can now be one big treasure hunt! people bury treasure, or save coordinates of a special place online, and any individual can follow the clues, the trail or the directions straight to an incredible travel experience. From stunning forests to stark deserts, there are now 6 million geocachers hunting down treasure across the world. apparently there are lots of “treasures” in Grenada as well to be found, but we didn’t come across any when we were living there!

6. Camino de Santiago: completely inspired by one of our much-loved travel movies: “The Way”, this holy pilgrimage from Paris, France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain transverses over 200 kms through some of Spain’s a lot of spectacular scenery. We love the idea of staying in tiny villages on the way, meeting lots of trekkers who are walking for lots of different reasons, and a lot of of all, seeing Spain by foot. We wouldn’t be doing the pilgrimage for religious reasons, we’d be doing it to get a deeper understanding of Spain, it’s landscapes and it’s people. If you haven’t seen the motion picture yet, download it or stream it now because it features some breathtaking montages of Spain’s evocative countryside.

“The greatest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams”

-Oprah Winfrey

This is really just a small portion of the adventures that we have swimming around in our brains. The a lot more travelling we do, the a lot more incredible experiences we hear about. We’re always inspired by other peoples’ journeys and we’re regularly adding to our travel bucket list. There might just have to be a part two of this article!

Thanks for Reading! What epic adventures are on your travel bucket list? how lots of experiences have you ticked off? share with us in the comments below.

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