Fotografía en blanco y negro en el pueblo de Belén, Iquitos, Perú!

Estas fotos fueron tomadas en el pueblo de Belén en Iquitos Perú. Algunas formaron parte de un foto ensayo previo para la revista Dezine. El pueblo de Belén es parte de Iquitos, la metrópoli más grande del Amazonas peruano. El pueblo entero es inundado por las aguas del río Amazonas a lo largo de varios meses. La única forma de llegar es en bote por lo que incluso los niños aprenden a remar y navegar en pequeñas canoas desde pequeños. Haz clic en las imágenes a continuación para ver una selección de fotos del pueblo de Belén:

El pueblo de Belén está repleto de oportunidades de tomar fotografías extraordinarias. Los habitantes locales usan el río como fuente de trabajo, transporte y diversión. Los niños se sientan junto al río a vender comida y mercancía a los botes que van pasando, los hombres ofrecen botes como taxi o para la pesca, mientras que las mujeres lavan la ropa en el río. Alrededor de 65,000 personas viven en Belén, ya sea en casas flotantes ancladas o elevadas en pilares. Es un vecindario donde muchas de los habitantes viven en condiciones de pobreza.

Puedes encontrar más de mis fotografías de viaje en mi página web, Instagram y mi Página de Facebook. Si estás interesado en comprar alguna de mis fotos impresas, utilizar alguna imagen en la red o necesitas más información, envía un email a: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Geraint Rowland Photography Exhibited at the Praxis Gallery

One of my travel photographs is currently being exhibited in the Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, USA. The Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Center is a non-profit community-based arts organisation that aims to support the development of new and emerging photographic artists. The Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Centre regularly holds ‘Open Call’ events which are followed by an international juried photography exhibition. I entered my image, ‘Here Comes the Sun’, to the ‘Animal Beings’ exhibition which was guest curated by Laura Valenti. Click through the slideshow to view photos from the exhibition at the Praxis Gallery:

The Animal Beings exhibition is a celebration of the astonishing beauty and diversity found in the animal world. Praxis Gallery Presents photographic art works that showcase animals’ inner beauty, strength, character, resiliency, and wisdom. Compassionate images of companion animals, wild animals, farm animals, insects, and fish are all heartily featured - showcasing the very best of furry, scaly, feathery photographs!

I have always enjoyed taking images of animals on my travels so had plenty in my portfolio to choose from. I also enjoy taking silhouette style images, and I thought this minimalist artistic style of image would suit the theme of the gallery well. I was honoured to receive the ‘Directors Choice Award’ for my selected image. I took the silhouetted image of the camel in the Thar Desert in the Northern state of Rajasthan in India.

More of my travel photography can be found on my website, Instagram, Facebook Page and my Flickr account. If you are interested in writing a guest travel or photography blog for my website please send me an email to discuss. Likewise if you are interested in buying one of my travel images please send me an email: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Photography Competitions, Travel & Lockdown

I have been a bit lazy with my photography blog of late due to the never-ending lockdown, each day being the same and therefore lacking any writing motivation! Having not taken any photos for months I have been delving back into old hard drives and revisiting some old favourites. My stock photography work has been keeping me busy with further image editing, uploading to Getty, and then carrying out the mundane and time consuming admin process required. I now have over 16,000 of my travel photographs available for license on Getty Images and still have several hard drives to get through! As well as the stock photography work I have also entered a few more photography competitions. In addition to potentially winning a great prize, entering photo competitions is a great way of revisiting your photos and seeing what images work well with each other. A couple of weeks ago I entered the Open Walls photography competition for 1854 photography. The theme was, ‘Then & Now’ with the artists being asked to explore the theme in many ways. Through visual imagery the photographers were asked to portray a sense of reflection and to convey the changes that time brings. Click through the slideshow below to view the ten images which I entered for this theme of ‘Then & Now’:

When entering photo competitions I normally go through my back catalogue and look out for any images that may be suitable. This normally results in a large collection which I then have to go through to eliminate the weaker images, those which I do not think quite make the cut! These omissions may be based on the photo technique and quality of the image: focus, lighting, composition and so on. In addition I will take out photographs that do not quite fit the themes, although the interpretation is often very vague and up to the photographers imagination. Before entering competitions I will first read the biography of the lead judge to discover his or her style of photography. It may not always be the best taken image that wins a competition, but instead ones that are unique, individual or unusual in some way. Photography competitions must get inundated with thousands of similar images (especially in today’s Instagram age) so if I have something that may stand out or catch their eye I may enter that over a personal favourite. The important thing is to enter in the first place, as if you don’t you certainly won’t be winning. Many photo competitions require fees to enter, but there are still some to be found that are free, or where the fees are very affordable. In addition to the prizes to be won, competitions can introduce you to galleries and other photographers as well as providing you with much needed exposure for your work. If nothing else the selection process for the competition above gave me a nice trip through memory lane, reminding me of some fantastic adventures I’ve had over the past years. It also gave me the opportunity to share rediscovered favourites through my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram social media accounts. If you are interested in purchasing a print direct, writing a guest blog or exhibiting some of my work please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Fotografía artística abstracta del océano por Geraint Rowland

Soy un gran fanático de este tipo de arte tanto en pintura como en fotografía. Creo que la primera vez que vi a alguien utilizar esta técnica fue al fotógrafo de surf Morgan Maasen. Así que, ¿Cómo se hacen las fotografías abstractas? Crear estas fotografías es medianamente sencillo, simplemente se toma una fotografía del océano con una larga exposición (1 segundo o más, dependiendo de la luz), mientras se mueve la cámara de izquierda a derecha (o derecha a izquierda, según tu preferencia). Comúnmente es una buena forma de crear hermosas e interesantes fotos incluso en una locación monótona. Adicionalmente esta técnica no requiere uso de trípode, el cual no me molesto en cargar usualmente, lo que significa que aun así se pueden crear buenas imágenes de larga exposición en circunstancias en las que otros necesitarían un trípode. El resultado final es una imagen de tipo pictórico, más parecida a una pintura o un trabajo artístico que a una fotografía.

Una foto abstracta del agua al atardecer por Geraint Rowland Photography.

Una foto abstracta del agua al atardecer por Geraint Rowland Photography.

La misma técnica puede usarse con árboles por ejemplo en la selva o el bosque. El truco es mover la cámara en la misma dirección que las líneas principales del encuadre. Por ejemplo, en el mar, moverse de izquierda a derecha siguiendo la línea del horizonte y las olas. En el bosque se movería la cámara verticalmente de abajo hacia arriba o de arriba hacia abajo. 

Haz clic en las siguientes imágenes para ver más ejemplos de fotografías abstractas. Estas fotos fueron tomadas en Perú, Inglaterra, España y el África Occidental.

Estuve involucrado en una “Exhibición de artistas emergentes” en Lima en 2013 en la cual exhibí y vendí varias piezas impresas en lienzo. El tamaño era 1 metro x 1 metro y se veían grandiosas colgadas en una pared. Más ejemplos de mi trabajo artístico del mar y las olas puede ser encontrado en mi sitio web.

Mis fotografías abstractas ahora pueden comprarse en Etsy vía LindaWisdomPhotoCo. El atardecer rojo en lima por ejemplo puede comprarse aquí. Mi blog de imágenes abstractas del océano puede ser leído en Inglés aquí. Mas de mis fotografías abstractas pueden ser encontradas en mi sitio web, Instagram, Twitter y cuanta de Flicker. Si te interesa comprar alguna impresión, usar alguna de mis imágenes o quieres recibir mas información, por favor envíame un email a geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Working with Stock Photography

During the last six months, whilst in lockdown I have continued to work on my stock photography portfolio.  This mundane task involves editing and uploading thousands of old photos to the Getty Images portal.  Once on the portal you spend a further number of hours filling in titles, descriptions and adding numerous keywords.  I am now back in the UK after spending the majority of the year in Mexico City.  At home I have several more hard drives dating back over ten years providing me with thousands of additional travel images to keep me busy with this endless task.  

My Current Stock Photography Portfolio

My first experience with stock photography was around ten years ago.  Back then I was a new photographer and avid user of Flickr.com, one of the original photo sharing sites.  Around this time a handful of my Flickr images were hand picked by Getty to be licensed by them through a deal the two companies had together.  For years nothing much happened and due to having a full time office job at the time didn't really do anything about it.  Without any guidance or need to make any money through photography I only started to take stock photography more seriously around two years ago.  Here's the first blog I wrote about the ins and outs of stock photography back in 2018.  Back then I had around one thousand images on my Getty portfolio.  By the end of last year I had over five thousand of my travel and art images for licence via getty and wrote another blog about my experiences.  In February of 2020 I had over seven thousand images for sale on the portal and wrote about that month's sales in this blog.  That month earned me just over $300 with forty of my Getty images being licensed, at the time my best stock photography monthly income to date.  The following six months saw the travel industry and the rest of the World take a big downturn due to the Worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.  The majority of my stock photos are travel related and with lockdowns around the world and the majority of flights suspended the tourism industry ground to a halt.  For me, that unfortunately meant less of my images being sold, with little or no tourism there was no need for companies to buy travel images.  Being in a lockdown myself for those months I used the time productively to continue expanding my Getty portfolio and now have over 12,000 images. After a string of bad monthly payments during these months, my September sales saw an improvement and my best monthly payout to date.  In September 2020 I licensed over fifty images with an average sale price of 6.29 bringing me a monthly income of $350.  Click through the slideshow to view my top five selling stock images in September 2020:

What helped my overall monthly income in September was three big sales each of close to $100. This ensures the overall photo sale average is higher as you also get a large number of sales bringing in less than a dollar per image after Getty take their cut! My top five sales in September included: a silhouetted image of people climbing the famous sand dunes in Huacachina, Ica, Peru. An abstract soft focus image of the Costa Verde in Lima, the Capital of Peru. And one of my best selling travel images of a llama in front of Machu Picchu in Peru. None of these images contain recognisable people or property so do not require model releases to license them. September’s sales have given me the confidence and encouragement to continue my stock photography quest. Whether stock photography is worth it or not is down to your individual circumstances. The process is monotonous and extremely time consuming, the trick to succeeding is having a good workflow in place and regularly uploading instead of letting the years years pass before you start! I wish now I had started years ago, but as always hindsight is wonderful thing!

In addition to having a potential income, Getty gives you an element of prestige as a photographer (although arguable when your images sell for pennies…).  In addition it provides your photography with another channel to be viewed on the Internet.  Hopefully the upward trend of sales will continue and my efforts this year will eventually pay off. You can view my stock photography portfolio on Getty Images here.  If you would like to buy any of my travel images directly please contact me via my website.  More of my travel photography and abstract art photos can be found on my Flickr and Instagram accounts.  For any more information about my photography send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

London Photo Festival 'Womanhood' Competition Finalist & Exhibition

One of my Cuban travel portraits will soon be exhibited in London as part of the London Photo Festival 'Womanhood' competition. I was delighted to be one of ten finalists chosen to be involved with the upcoming exhibition, the images are currently being printed and will be exhibited for six months on the London Photo Festival Fence in the grounds of Marble Hill House, Twickenham from 1st October. My selected image was of this beautiful Cuban lady I captured on a trip to Havana a few years ago:

Geraint Rowland is a photographer from Cardiff, Wales, UK. He specialises predominantly in travel based photography, capturing people around the World often in a candid manner. He likes to showcase the beauty which he believes can be found everywhere. He became interested in photography ten years ago and took a couple of introductory courses in Cardiff. He has exhibited his photography in Cardiff and London in the UK, and Lima in Peru. He has had over one hundred photographs published in newspapers and magazines. He licences his photographs via Getty images and sells large abstract images through a gallery in London. He has spent a large part of the last ten years travelling and living in other countries including: Peru, Senegal, India and Mexico. He is available for photographic work especially if there is travel involved!

The photograph in the 'Womanhood' exhibition was taken on a trip to Cuba three years ago. I spent two weeks in the Capital, Havana exploring the streets everyday and taking hundreds of images. On the last day I decided to take some portraits of the beautiful Cuban people. I took the portrait in natural light with a large depth of field using my favourite lens, a 50mm. I love the flowers in her hair, the classic Cuban cigar and the interest in her gaze. I highly recommend visiting Cuba, it is a photographer's dream. I won a competition for Wanderlust Magazine with another Cuban image taken on the same trip. The other great photographs to be exhibited can be viewed on the London Photo Festival’s Facebook page here.

More of my travel photography can be found on my website, Instagram, Facebook Page and my Flickr account. If you are interested in writing a guest travel or photography blog for my website please send me an email to discuss. Likewise if you are interested in purchasing any of my travel or abstract images, please send me an email: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.  

Street Photography in India

I am a photographer from the United Kingdom who loves to travel.  Last year I spent over six months travelling around India.  I started in Bangalore before making my way down the west coast to the southern tip of India before making my way up the east coast to Calcutta.  After some time in Bangladesh I returned to explore the north of India visiting Varanasi and the state of Rajasthan as well as the Capital of New Delhi.  There weren't many days during the trip that I didn't head out with my camera to document my experiences.  As well as capturing the iconic sights such as the Taj Mahal, and beautiful nature images on the coastline of Kerala and in the immense Thar Desert, some of my favourite photographs from the trip were ones I took on the streets, capturing everyday life in India.  This blog includes some of the many street photographs I took whilst travelling through India.

What is Street Photography?

Street photography is a genre that has become very popular in recent times with the popularity of Instagram, and the ability to take good quality photos on a mobile phone.  There is some debate as to what actually defines street photography and what it should and should not include.  My understanding of street photography is the documentation of people living their everyday lives in a public space.  Street photography nearly always contains people and is taken in a candid, unstaged way, normally without the knowledge or consent of the people captured.  I don't personally believe that street photography has to necessarily be taken in a street or even an urban environment as not everyone in the World lives in a City.  Street photography involves the observation of humanity, and when done well becomes an art form in itself.  A well taken street photo will evoke some kind of emotion in the viewer, over and above that of a standard snapshot.  The resulting image provides a single moment in time that tells a particular story, often in an amusing or ironic way.  Some documentary and street photographers insist on their photos being black & white but I personally feel this to be a shame particularly if the image was taken in a colourful setting as is often the case in India.   Aside from the possible conversion to black and white it is generally agreed that street photographs should not be overly edited and should be presented in a natural and realistic way.  I am a member of a Facebook group called 'Urban Street Photography' which has some fantastic examples of the different styles of street photography taken around the World.  It is a perfect place to look at the work of great street photographers with differing styles for some urban inspiration!  

Examples of my Street Photography taken in India

India is a brilliant place for every type of photography, street photography included.  The Cities and towns are full of colour and are bustling with life throughout the day.  What can seem hectic and overbearing to many people can be a street photographers dream.  As a street photographer you often just have to be patient, and something interesting will eventually happen.  In addition, Indian people are very friendly, who in the majority of cases do not mind having their photo taken.  It is also a safe place to travel around with a camera so long as you take the obvious precautions.  My normal plan when travelling is to meet up with local people, often photographers from Flickr or Instagram to go and take photos with.  This provides me with some valuable local knowledge as well as making the experience more enjoyable resulting in some better travel and street photographs for my portfolio.  Click on the photo below to view a slideshow of ten street photos I captured on my journey around India.

I highly recommend India for a photographic and travel experience, you will not be disappointed, it really is a unique part of the World.  I have written several photographic travel blogs about my time in India including: Travel photography in Varanasi, Sunset silhouette photography in Fort Kochi, and one on the birds at Marina beach at sunrise in Chennai.  I have always enjoyed taking street photographs on my travels, here is a blog I wrote combining two of my interests: street photography and street art.  More of my street photographs from India and around can be found on my website, my Instagram, my Facebook and my Flickr account.  I have a large selection of my travel photographs from India available to licence via Getty Images.  If you are interested in purchasing a print direct, writing a guest blog or collaborating in another way please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Travel Photography in Varanasi, India

Last year I spent over six months traveling around India, Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka. After starting my trip in Bangalore I made my way down the coast to the very tip of India, Kanyakumari, before working my way up the East coast to Calcutta and then entering Bangladesh. After a month in Bangladesh I flew back to India arriving in Varanasi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.

Varanasi, also called Benares and Banaras was one of the highlights of my India trip and is a fantastic place for both street & travel photography. Located on the famous River Ganges it is one of the oldest cities in the World. It is one of the seven sacred cities of Hinduism and is an extremely important place for Indians. Varanasi is a remarkable place and in many ways a real shock to the senses. With daily public cremations by the river, historic architecture and boat trips along the Ganges there are photo opportunities everywhere. Click through the slideshow below to view some of my photos from the ghats of Varanasi and on the River Ganges itself:

The small city itself is also fascinating and a great place to roam with the camera through the tiny winding streets and alleyways. Varanasi is a very safe place to walk around, and the locals are friendly and very used to tourists taking photos. I spent many days walking the streets and capturing the daily city life of Varanasi, click through the following slideshow below to view some of my candid reportage images:

I have written some other blogs about my India photography experience including: one on street portraits, one about the beautiful state of Rajasthan, and another one in which I printed some of my portraits taken in Pondicherry then returned to give them out to the families there. More of my travel photography from my India travels can be found on my website, my Instagram, my Facebook and my Flickr account. If you are interested in purchasing a print, using an image online or collaborating in any way please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.

Editing, Stock Photography & Photo Competitions

For the last few months I have been in lockdown in Mexico City due to the Covid-19 pandemic so have tried to be productive with my time! Fortunately I had travelled there with a couple of old hard drives, so I was able to catch up on editing from the last couple of years. Editing photos whilst travelling is always something I have been a bit slack with. The last thing you want to do while discovering a new place is to be sitting behind your computer screen editing photos for hours. During my six month trip around India last year I was constantly on the move and therefore had thousands of photos that still required editing.

In addition, I am now making more of an effort to sell photos via Getty Images. It is therefore even more important that I keep on top of the workflow with regards to editing, uploading and key wording to the Getty site. In the last few months alone I have increased my Getty portfolio by several thousand images, whether or not that will equate to anything substantial income wise is yet to be seen in these crazy times. At the least it allowed me to focus on something during the quiet times, improve my editing skills on Lightroom, manage my travel images in a better way, and enter some more photo competitions. Last year I was lucky enough to go on an all expense paid trip to Hong Kong and Macau after winning a travel photography competition in the Wanderlust Travel Magazine.

Photo Competitions

The majority of photo competitions that I have entered in the past tend to be travel related, although on occasion they have also been of street photography or portraiture. I recently entered another travel related photography competition for the cover of SUITCASE magazine. The theme of the competition was ‘Freedom’ and SUITCASE were allowing a great amount of creative freedom in how the photographer interpreted that notion. There was a nice cash prize to be had along with having your image used on the cover of the next issue as well as a double page feature inside the magazine. I spent several hours going through my old travel images reminiscing, and looking for any which meant ‘freedom’ to me. I then asked the opinion of friends and family to narrow down my shortlist to the following selection of freedom related travel images:

'Freedom' Travel Photo Selection

The photo I decided to enter was the first in the slide show, taken last year at 'Suicide Rock' in Hong Kong.  It was the most recent photo taken on my shortlist and the one that resonated with me the most. Here is the story behind the picture:

Last year whilst visiting Hong Kong I met up with Anthony, an outdoor enthusiast, born in Hong Kong and brought up in the United Kingdom.  Anthony managed to persuade me and a friend to hike the notorious 'Suicide Cliff'.  

 Located at 600 meters the viewpoint offers spectacular views over Hong Kong.  While keeping a safe distance from the edge and experiencing some vertigo I took this photo of Anthony strolling around the large rock without a care in the World. 

 I wanted to capture the essence of travel and freedom found in the great outdoors.  I also wanted to portray the contrast between nature and development evident in Hong Kong: Peace & solitude in a concrete jungle.   Hopefully people can look at the image and escape the mundane realities of life even if only for a few fleeting moments.  With hope, imagination, and a little effort we can all experience true freedom.  

For the competition the photo entries had to be in vertical/portrait orientation.  Currently I tend to take the majority of my photos in landscape format especially ones in which I want to show the sheer scale of the surroundings such as in the 'Suicide Cliff' image.  I will bear this in mind in the future when I am out taking photos to cater for different end uses for my photography.  The photo also had to be in colour, understandable for a magazine cover, especially for travel.  I have since edited the original image into black and white which I think adds to the overall scale of the place and precariousness of the hike.

‘Suicide Cliff’, one of the many hiking trails in Hong Kong.

‘Suicide Cliff’, one of the many hiking trails in Hong Kong.

More of my travel photography can be found on my website, Instagram, Facebook Page and my Flickr account. If you are interested in writing a guest travel or photography blog for my website please send me an email to discuss. Likewise if you are interested in purchasing any of my travel or abstract images, please send me an email: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com.  

7 Beautiful places for photographers to visit this summer on a budget (Guest Blog)

While the world is still at a halt to some extent, for now, I've decided to rack up my gear to check for some photos from locations I've pinned into my passport some time ago, and I did little research on your behalf to ease you up, once the summer traveling is a thing again. In this article I will present you with 7 beautiful places for photographers to travel to this summer.

#1 Lake Ohrid, Former Yugoslavian Republic Macedonia

Lake Ohrid Landscape image

As a nature-loving photographer, I'd like to start with the jewel crown of this small country in the Western Balkans. Lake Ohrid is one of Europe's most profound and oldest lakes, with a unique aquatic ecosystem of worldwide importance, with more than 200 endemic species.

It stretches between Montenegro, Albania and FYR Macedonia. The area around the lake itself reveals a Roman amphitheater, medieval churches, and a fortress, which is known for stunning views. Of course, the lake is a diamond of its own. 

Besides taking magnificent photos of sunset and sunrise, you can rent a boat to take photos from the middle of the lake or take your GoPro to swim and dive and take some underwater pictures. 

The area is crowded with cheap rentals and camping spots for hardcore tourists, so it makes a perfect sense to check in here if you're looking for a spot to hit on a budget. 

#2 Gdansk, Poland

Gdansk, Poland

Poland is well known for its postwar architecture, which is a revival of medieval structures. What to take photos of? Well, start with shipyard cranes, which date back to the 15th century. If you decide to hit the road in the summer, make sure you find yourself in the coastal resort of Sopot, where you can find golden sand beaches, the longest pier in the whole Europe and a great party scene – something you don't expect from a port town which is part of the famous Baltic riviera. 

The architecture, however, is a trademark of Gdansk. If you ever wanted to have a feeling of medieval knight city, cross the Polish border, head north, and visit this small gritty port town filled with brick houses, small stone streets, and great, cheap places to rent and merchant places to purchase genuine souvenirs from.


#3 Transylvania 

Landscape image of Transylvania

Vlad the Impaler, best known as Count Dracula, is the most famous person you can think of when I mention Transylvania, and you bet you're right. Great citadel in town of Sighişoara, the birthplace of Count Dracula, certainly claims its fame as a great touristic spot for taking photos, resembling the great history of this old town. 

However, selfies crept with fear, and blood is not the only type of pictures you can take in Transylvania. I suggest you take your 70-200 mm lenses so you can catch up with the Transylvanian wolf, bears, red deer and lynx, animals that are free to roam in Piatra Craiului National Park, where you can take mesmerizing landscape photos, and if you're lucky, get some wildlife shots.


#4 Georgia 

Travel Image, Georgia

It is likely physically the most demanding travel spot on the list. Georgia is not quite European, yet not quite an Asian country, but rather a mix of cultures and climate conditions packed with different sorts of outdoor activities, out of which I fancy hiking and waterfall photo shooting the best. 

For this type of off-road activities, you will need your mountaineering gear as well as your standard photo backpack. But, no worries! Even though you can find extremely difficult hiking trails in Georgia, with Gergeti Trinity church and Gergeti glacier being the most difficult one, you will enjoy beautiful scenery even if you are a beginner mountain climber. 

If you're more interested in getting your feet wet, your must-see place is Gveleti waterfalls, which kind of resemble scenery out of the world's best national parks, and that specifically is the reason why it is one of the top spots for water and nature photography. 


#5 Kaeng Nyui Waterfall in Vang Vieng, Laos

Kaeng Nyui Waterfall in Vang Vieng, Laos

If you are a morning person, then the Kaeng Nyui waterfalls are a good choice for you. Why is the waterfall connected with the early morning routine? 

Well, because the place is crowded with tourists during the day, and if you want to take awesome long exposure photos for which you'll need some time, along with your tripod, make sure to hit the door in a blue hour. Coming to Kaeng Nyui Waterfall, you will not only visit a fantastic waterfall, but also you can visit a village of Ban Naduang as well as swim in any Nam Lao Stream's water hole. 

As a plus, Kaeng Nyui consists of three waterfalls, which makes it a great spot for Instagram selfies as well as pro mode full landscape shots. The place is accessible via car and motorbike, but I recommend you take a hiking trail, just make sure to go while it is summertime, because it can get super wet and slippery during the rainy season.

#6 Sossusvlei, Namibia

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The river does not reach the Atlantic Ocean even during the wet years but drains away between the dunes. The Sossusvlei is home to very diverse wildlife. Here, you will find snakes, scorpions, geckos, and even hyenas. 

However, the real reason to visit Sossusvlei lies in its magnificent dunes – even three of them! The dune one is the photographer's favorite spot because it has the shape of the letter S (did someone say "tone curve?), but dune number two with its altitude of 260 feet is very popular when it comes to snapping once in a lifetime sunrises. 

My favorite is, of course, "Big Daddy, "one of the highest dunes in the world, with an altitude of 1000 feet. Once you climb it, you will be tempted to run down, which I highly recommend, just make sure to take your GoPro or tripod for great videos, especially if it is a bit windy. 

#7 Chiang Dao, Northern Thailand

Chiang Dao, Northern Thailand

I've decided to finish off the list with one of the more popular destinations, Chiang Dao. One of Northern Thailand's sweet spots is a scenic place of limestone cliffs and a home to Thailand's third-highest mountain, Doi Chiang Dao, with an altitude of 7,136 feet. 

If you are a bird lover and love to take pictures of beautiful rulers of the sky, Chiang Dao is a place for you; it is a premier spot for bird watching in the country with more than 350 species, some of which are quite rare. 

I'm, of course, aware that many photo travelers like a more laid back approach, so I recommend you to ace your Instagram feed with photos of caves and hot springs, especially in winter, because Chingao Dao can get quite cold. 

As a cherry on top, this small town is located next to Pha Daeng National Park, where you'll find yourself emersed in snapping bamboo forests shots as well as the everyday life of Karen hill tribes that dwell nearby. 

So, there you have it. These are seven budget-friendly exotic locations that will make you feel like you're in some other dimension, specifically for photographers. Make sure to utilize the magic of these recommendations, snap the best photos, and share them with us. Happy travel!

This was a guest blog written by John Bennet, a travel photographer from New York, more of his work can be found on his blog. If you are interested in writing a guest blog or other forms of collaboration please send an email to: geraintrowlandphotography@gmail.com. More of my travel photography can be found on my website, my Instagram, my Facebook Page and my Flickr account.