Photo Tours and workshops with Australian Photographer Adam Monk

It’s amazing how time flies, I’ve just looked back and realised my last post was March last year… yet I have 4 posts in draft that are basically ready to go. Clearly I need a manager, or a PA… If only I could get someone to pay for that…

Back on topic, I put up the details for next year’s (2027) Japan Winter wonders tour, sent the details to a small group who had expressly asked to be notified early and now its fully booked… Sorry if you were waiting for that but missed out. I would love to welcome you for the next tour in 2028.

If you would like to know details as soon as they are at hand, email me at tours@dammonk.com and I can put you on the early notification list

Relying on your light meter…

…Continuing on from this Previous Post

One of the main difficulties you will encounter when shooting into the light is that your light meter will almost certainly produce a dud result.  Your camera’s light meter assumes a subject of mid tone grey, so to balance the tones with the intense bright light coming straight into the lens it will show your subjects as black silhouettes, usually with no detail information in the shadows.

Your image will usually turn out very dark…

I still remember reading the exposure guide pictograms on the Kodachrome 64 box when I was young.  It showed in wonderfully simple graphics how you should always shoot portraits with the sun over your left or right shoulder so that the bright sunlight shines directly onto your subject, and never with the sun in front of you shining into your camera lens…  This gave us many generations of family photos of people with screwed up faces as they squinted directly into the bright sun.

Into the Light for Drama

Regardless of what the old Kodak film box says, shooting into the light can produce some stunning results if you are careful with your exposure and practise a little.  

It’s not going to be right for every subject, but there are many situations when an image shot into the light can add enormous drama to a scene, especially if you can create strong shapes and take advantage of the shadows produced.

The image to the right was taken at the Mongar Tshechu, a cultural festival in the far East of Bhutan, shooting into the light, deliberately.

Look at the shadow stretching out in front of the dancer, see how it’s adding so much to the narrative and the dynamic nature of the image?

You could even say that the subject of this image is the dancers shadow rather than the dancer himself.

This shadow also gives a real 3D depth to the image, something that can be difficult to achieve with a 2D medium like photography.

Travelling is back, bigger and better than ever. Well, the bills are bigger… better is all relative. Relative to not being able to travel at all it’s definitely better. Something nobody wants to think about when planning a big adventure is Travel Insurance… its expensive, and unless something actually goes wrong you never really know what you are getting.

My winter Japan Photo tour is back, bigger and better than ever… actually it’s smaller than ever, as I am now taking just 6 participants for 13 days of wildlife and minimalist landscapes in the beauty of Northern Japan.

The most common question I get asked regarding Photo tours is… “why do I need to pay with that currency (whichever “that” one is)?” This question I have answered more fully on an earlier post that you can find HERE>>

A recent question was more interesting… “Why don’t you use PayPal? (or stripe etc…), they accept multiple currencies…” Yes, they do but… I have extensively researched PayPal, Stripe and a bunch of other gateways…

The print was always the natural end product in the old film days, but now everything is digital so can’t we just look at our images on the monitor?

Of course you can, and that’s a great way to enjoy your photography. But a beautifully made print of a well crafted image is something special all by itself. It’s many steps beyond the image on the monitor, but it can be even more than that, it can also fast track your photography skills.

As you may have heard, the Bhutanese government has put the price of their daily tariff up, starting from next year. Way up… They are doing this in an effort to control their rampant tourism industry and mitigate the damage that tourism can do to delicate cultures and fragile ecosystems.

After nearly 3 years of (covid imposed) no photo tours to Bhutan I am headed back there in 2023, for my 11th trip.

I completed the details on the website a few days back and sent a short notification email to 8 people who had expressed a specific interest in Bhutan for 2023. As of today there are 4 places taken already, which leaves just 2 left…

I will be sending out a general newsletter later this week, and with only 2 places remaining I don’t imagine they will last long. If you think you might be interested in my Bhutan photo tour for 2023 you can read all the details HERE>> If you have any questions regarding this tour please send me an email to tours@adammonk.com

Following on from my previous 2 posts on why I don’t shoot on my Karijini photo tour

Only 4 participants and a Landcruiser

I only take 4 participants on my Karijini photo tour, it’s a very small group by any tour standard, and the perfect number to fit into just one Landcruiser with camera gear. The Landcruiser is a lot more comfortable on the terrible roads within and around Karijini than the smaller Toyota Prados or Pajeros that you can normally hire locally. The Landcruiser is much roomier, especially the leg room, and the better suspension makes for a smoother ride on gravel roads with corrugations and the odd pothole…