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.

“Coldie on Imagine”

It’s my birthday and it’s a tradition to have a ‘coldie’ with a few friends. As we get older these friends seem to get less and less (not sure why but that’s how it goes). Anyway, on our way out we meet up with Frank Future, who I interviewed on my very first postie adventure and he invited us onto his boat for a beer. I took this shot as he was telling a story – and that’s what this shot is all about.

Storytellers is what we are as photographers, telling a story with a single image (which is the ultimate challenge right?) the focus is a little off – but it’s the story that this composition tells. Notice how I framed the shot and what I included (and what I didn’t). Shot in aperture priority mode at f/1.8 on fixed focal length of 35mm with everything else in auto (shutter speed 1/60sec ISO 400), 1 stop over exposed due to all the back light.

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.

Photo BootCamp Magazine

Let’s take a look at what TRADITIONS our BootCamp members have captured on this month’s challenge.

And be sure to check out how you can join BootCamp at the end of the magazine!

Below is a small sample of what’s in this magazine…
Creating Triptych

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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.

Comment: Leila Gonzalez Sullivan“Hi Rodney. This is nicely set up with a few bites eaten and butter smears. Much more realistic and on the diagonal. I am sad that you had to eat some of these goodies to get the perfect shot… P.S. We do scones over here.”

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.

Comment: Denis O’Byrne” Hi Sara. The displays of Halloween are only just starting to appear over here. My intention is to try and capture some. I like the mix of colours on display here. I wonder could the shadows be lifted a bit. Well done.”

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: Peter Brody“Tessa, I like how the circles and rivets of the boiler lead me into the scene, as well as his rake and the two metal objects on the top of the frame.”
Next, we have Leila Gonzalez Sullivan from the United States. She concentrated on Fall traditions at the Jersey Shore for this challenge. Many towns hold some sort of festival or event to keep the renters coming for another month before it gets too cold. She missed the International Kite Festival a couple of weeks ago so she had to dip into her archives. The kites are amazing and many dance to popular music, like those triangular ones. Also, kites drop candy for the kids in the audience. The second photo is somewhat blurry but she wanted to capture the size of the event and the many people bringing chairs and food to enjoy the afternoon. Great fun!

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.

Comment: Kerrie Clarke“This is a stunning image, Eugene. Not only because it is a great image of our friend and mentor, but it’s truly capturing your meaning/feeling of the traditional G&T. The warmth, composition, focus, and back lighting just make for a great image. What a great shot to post on Brent’s Birthday!”
And we have Paul Fuller from Australia. Happy Halloween! His 7 year old granddaughter wanted to have a Halloween party, so his wife said they would have the party at their place!
Comment: Brent Mail“Hey Paul really like your self-portrait here 🙂 This definitely does fit into a traditional theme with the scary mask. Like the very shallow depth of field, you’ve used to separate the subject from the background. Thanks for sharing,”
Next is Greg Skehan from Singapore. While living in Sri Lanka they often traveled to coastal areas. Fishing is a big part of the economy and in past years it was quite common to see the local men perched on flimsy stick constructions as they tried to catch the plentiful sardines in shallow water. This is less common today but a few locals keep up the tradition, and often ask for a few rupiahs if a tourist wants to get a photo!!
Comment: Laura Griffiths“Greg this looks like a precarious support when one thinks of the movement the men must have to make during their fishing exercise as well as the motion of the waves coming in to shore. I think it is a great eye-opener to see what lengths people have to go to feed themselves and their families all over the world and makes me appreciate so much more the life I have. I assume that like everywhere, the fish don’t always bite, rough weather sets in and that makes an already difficult task even harder. Thank you for sharing.”
And last we have Sig Rannem from Canada. In the small town of Coldwater Ontario, the local merchants are very creative. Annually they arrange a number of public events/festivals, which have now become traditions. One of these is the Family-Friendly Halloween celebration, where the kids can trick or treat at all the shops in town. It takes place on a Saturday in late October. The night before they also put on a Witches Walk. Here is a shot from this year’s event. The two kids in the picture are sitting inside a model helicopter.
Comment: Kerrie Clarke“Great composition and beautiful focus. I love the darker background that still has a lot of detail. Nice work, Sig!”

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. 

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