Great Escape Publishing

Posted June 21st, 2013 by Bonnie Caton & filed under Travel Photography.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s free, four-day mini photography course series. If you missed it, you can find it here. And now for the fun part: Getting out there and practicing with your camera. You can get started right in your own backyard. Or if you’re a travel bug like me, head out and try some of the tips on your next vacation. Speaking of travel, I’d like to know what’s on your list. What are your Top 5 ULTIMATE Travel Photography Destinations that you’d like to see in your lifetime? Share your list in the comments at the bottom of this article. Beaches are great for lazing. But when I travel, I want adventure, mystery, mind-expanding interactions with new people, and of course, plenty of jaw-dropping photo opportunities. To that end, here are: MY TOP FIVE ULTIMATE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY DESTINATIONS 5. Mongolia As a guest there, it’s impolite to turn down food. So when they offer you small, hard, rounds of horse cheese, you take a bite and try not to squirm. This is what I’ve heard about customs in Mongolia, but I still want to go. It’s the long stretches of land, traditional families who still live in yurts, the lifestyle that revolves around horses, and men who hunt with golden eagles that get the photographer in me excited. 4. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia In southern Bolivia, the world’s largest salt flat stretches out over more than 4,000 square miles which, in the wet season, are covered with an inch of water. Hire a 4×4 to drive you out to the middle, and you’ll find an endless mirror stretching out in front of you… sky below, sky above. As if that weren’t enough to tempt any photographer, you’ll also find volcanic vents, pink flamingo colonies, a rusted train cemetery, fields of cacti, and out-of-this-world rock formations — not to mention an entire hotel made of salt. 3. Italian Riviera As a pre-teen, somewhere in the Italian Riviera, I swam under a centuries-old cliff town. My feet brushed soft pebbles which, when I looked down through the water, appeared to be every different color. I grabbed a fistful only to find that they weren’t pebbles, but worn pieces of tile from who-knows-when. I didn’t much know how to use a camera back then. Now I want to go back and capture the soft mystery of those pastel-colored towns perched at the edge of the Mediterranean… while eating lots of pasta. 2. Kingdom of Bhutan Temples perched on cliffs, young smiling monks in red robes, rice fields and prayer flags on a rugged Himalayan backdrop. I want to go to a place where there was previously only one stoplight in the entire country, but it was removed for not being very “friendly.” Bhutan seems like one of those last, lost places. But with three new airports being built to attract more tourists, the time to go is now… before it’s “found” by everyone else. 1. Egypt and The Sahara The ultimate classic. Pyramids. Palm trees. Strings of camels. Ridges of dunes snaking through an endless landscape of sand. It may not be original, but Egypt is definitely on my list. Happy shooting… wherever your camera takes you!