Photographing different cultural traditions around the world.

What are Traditions?

Traditions are defined as an inherited, established or customary pattern of thought, action or behaviour – perhaps a religious practice or social custom.

It can also be defined as a belief or story, or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are accepted as historical thought, but not verifiable – such as Traditions, Heritage, Legend, Myth, Ritual or Custom.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Surf Carnivals, Smoking Ceremonies, Fire Dancers, and Ritual Dances of various cultures are all traditions. Perhaps you have something unique to your family, area, region, or even Country.

Why shoot Traditions?

It’s all about appreciating our own traditions, and those of other cultures. It teaches us HOW to tell a story of an event (ceremony, ritual or practice). Think about photographing things that represent traditions, a meal (such Thanksgiving), architecture (like a church), or monuments.

Tips for capturing captivating images.

• Consider what event you wish to capture. Is it something traditional to you personally or is it from another culture? What do you know about it?
• Think about lighting (what time of the day) will you be shooting, is it indoors or outside? What challenges do you face?
• Think about weather conditions, depending on your location is it likely to be hot or cold, wet or windy? What can you do to prepare for these conditions?
• Think about what lens and what angle of view would be best to capture this event. Down low or a birds-eye view. Wide-angle or zoomed in. Would you need a tripod?
• Try a long exposure to remove any distractions, like people in your frame. You could try using a 10-stop ND filter and tripod to make a slightly longer exposure during the day.
• Don’t forget to check what’s in your frame, remove distracting unwanted elements (where possible) and add supporting elements.

How can you make your images more artistic?

Look at different parts of the event and think about what key elements really capture the essence of this event.

Look for leading lines, or supporting elements that can really help guide the viewer’s eye. Especially when it comes to various cultures and food.

Try different angles to showcase details or look at the whole scene.

Creating a long exposure can also help add depth and mood to your images as well.

Slow down and enjoy the creative process.

Inside BootCamp Magazine

Featured Artist

Let’s take a look at this month’s magazine. Here is our featured artist of the month, Rodney Charlton, from Australia.

A tradition they have is hot cross buns at Easter, as a commemoration of Good Friday. So that he could photograph some, he made a batch of these sweet fruit buns with a flour cross and a sticky spicy glaze. While they can, and frequently are, eaten fresh almost as soon as they are out of the oven, they can also be toasted and spread with a generous serving of butter. He took a number of photos of different arrangements and stages of the buns and ended up choosing, and tasting this toasted version.

Cover Image

This month’s featured magazine cover image is by Sara O’Brien from the United States.

This one is a different Roadside Stand. The Little Green Wagon, with a bit more variety as well as things for little kids to do. A one-stack hay bale maze, a truck in the field that has various slides on the flatbed, pick your own pumpkins, and lots of variety of gourds. Every year this stand seems to grow with more things for the kids to do and a variety of items for sale: potatoes, gourds, tomatoes, etc. They even take Venmo and PayPal! They decorate this old Ford pickup with hay bales and gourds. Sara liked the look of it, so she decided to share this one. She did crop out the green wagon from the right side, it seemed to be more of a distraction than an asset.

Active Members

Let’s take a look at some of the beautiful TRADITIONS our BootCamp members‘ captured this month.

We’ll start with Tessa Blewchamp from United Kingdom. This picture is more heritage than tradition, but she did take it with this challenge in mind. She took it last weekend when she visited an open day at a Victorian pumping house with two steam engines on the Kennet and Avon Canal. The pumping house extracts water from the nearby River Kennet and raises it up so that it can be fed into the canal when required to top up the water levels. This is the front end of the coal-fired boiler, which produces the steam that powers the engines. The pumping house only operates on occasional days and is a grade 1 listed building. The boilerman is raking the coals and moving his hands so fast that they blurred even at a reasonably fast shutter speed.

Comment: Keri Down – “Leila, this does not look like a photo. It is amazing how cartoonish the kites look. They look 3D or superimposed. Would have been a very difficult shot to capture with all that movement. Well done. I actually really love this.”

Eugene Brannan from the United States is next. When on Safari, it’s tradition to enhance the experience of “Sundown” with a Gin and Tonic while enjoying being in wild nature. This image was taken during Photo BootCamp Safari 2022 while in Botswana. This particular “Sundowner” included the unique situation of our guide changing a tire that had been punctured while tracking leopards. This event did not deter us from having the traditional G & T. In his “tradition” image, Brent is drinking his G & T, silhouetted by the golden setting sun that highlights the beverage being enjoyed. It’s a great tradition, one that he gladly adopted while on Safari as well as bringing the occasions back home, when he’s on a “local safari adventure” in search of the elusive unique image.

Summary

• Consider what event you wish to capture. Is it something traditional to you personally or is it from another culture? What do you know about it? 
• Think about lighting (what time of the day) will you be shooting, is it indoors or outside? What challenges do you face?
• Think about weather conditions, depending on your location is it likely to be hot or cold, wet or windy? What can you do to prepare for these conditions?
• Think about what lens and what angle of view would be best to capture this event. Down low or a birds-eye view. Wide-angle or zoomed in. Would you need a tripod?
• Try a long exposure to remove any distractions, like people in your frame. You could try using a 10-stop ND filter and tripod to make a slightly longer exposure during the day.
• Don’t forget to check what’s in your frame, remove distracting unwanted elements (where possible) and add supporting elements.

• Look at different parts of the event and think about what key elements really capture the essence of this event. 

Related Articles

Did you enjoy this article? Check out these related articles, too:

• Story Collection – Telling A Story With Photos Learn how to arrange images to tell a story.
• Print It – Creating An Impact With Your Images Learn how to print your images for impact…
• Capturing Playful Moments And Memories Learn how you can make your images more playful and engaging.

Do This Now

Please leave me a comment below – I’d love to know what you think. Brent