Getting People to Pose

©ISTOCKPHOTO/PEETER VIISIMAA

Candid shots of some of the locals make a nice addition to your travel shots, but if you have too many of them, they start to look less like travel photos and more like surveillance photos. To get those close-up, fascinating personal shots, you’ll need to get some of the locals to pose for you. One of the best tricks for getting people to stop what they’re doing and pose for you is to get them to let you take the first shot. When they see that I have a camera, I smile at them, hold up the camera with my finger on the shutter, and nod my head as if to say, “Is it okay if I take your picture?” Most of the time, they smile and nod back, and pause just long enough to let me snap one photo. Then I immediately turn the camera around and show them the photo on the camera’s LCD monitor. Once they see that photo on your LCD, it kind of breaks down a barrier, because everybody loves a photo (especially if they’re the subject), and they’re usually more than happy to pose for a few more.