Todd Adams – Travel Photographer
I found Todd Adams work on Trekearth and was immediately impressed by the quality of his portfolio. Here is an interview with the US based photographer:
How would you describe your photographic vision? What kind of look/atmosphere/feel do you try and create in your photos?
Often times in reference to landscape and travel photography, you’ll hear the phrase “sense of place”. It means trying to convey a sense of realism and allowing the viewer to feel that they are actually standing there and viewing this scene with their own eyes. I definitely try to create that sense of place by composing my photos in a way that includes those elements you would likely focus on if you were standing there looking at it yourself and excluding those elements that are extraneous or distracting. I like to convey that sense of wonder we all feel when we arrive in a new place and view it for the first time.
I also have an affinity for dramatic lighting and capturing motion in some of my photos. In some places I’ve shot where there is a definite vibrancy and sense of constant motion, I like to capture that. Some examples that come to mind are a photo I took of the Liverpool St. tube station in London and some street scenes I’ve shot in Ireland. Another good example is a shot of Picadilly Circus in London, seen here:
When did you start taking photos and why? What made you decide to become a travel photographer?
My father was professional photographer and owned his own portrait studio, so I sort of grew up around it. I was given one of his cameras when I was 14 and shot some for the high school yearbook, but I never took it too seriously until I moved to Nashville and became involved in the music business. I was in college and many of my classmates were aspiring musicians (and some of them became very successful at it, like Brad Paisley). I started shooting headshots just as a favor to a few of my friends and before I knew it I became the go-to guy for all the campus musicians to get cheap headshots.
I put that aside for several years though and didn’t really take up photography seriously again until I traveled to Italy in 2001. I had just bought a new camera and was determined to come home with some nice shots of Italy. I ended up selling and licensing quite a few of those photos, so that began stint as a travel photographer.
Colour or black & white…which do you prefer and why?
I can’t say I prefer one or the other. It really depends on the scene. Most often travel photography is in color to capture the vivid colors of landscapes, the sea, the grass, brightly painted buildings, etc. But I have some landscape shots that I’ve made into black & white simply because I want the viewer to focus more on interesting textures and contrasts. And in those kinds of scenes, the colors can often detract from the most visually interesting elements and obscure what might be most inmportant in the scene. So generally, I favor black & white when there is an interesting texture I want to emphasize, or when I want to present the scene in it’s most simplified form in order to focus the viewer absolutely on the scene and the elements in the scene rather than the colors of the scene, which may be irrelevant.
Two good examples are a scene from an abbey on the tiny island of Iona off the western coast of Scotland. It was shot in color, but the colors did nothing to enhance the photo and I felt it actually distracted from the simplicity of the scene. It would be a much less interesting photo if it was in color.
Another good example of this principle is a shot I took at a tiny pub in Doolin, Ireland. The lighting was bad and cast an orange tone on everything in the scene. There was also a melange of clashing and distracting colors in the background. All of that took away from the essense of the photo and the colors were really unnecessary. I really wanted the viewer to just focus on the musicians and what they were doing. Viewing that photo in color would be hard on the eyes much less pleasant to look at. Converting it to black and white achieved the result I was looking for.
Your work has been published in a lot of magazines, including prestigious glossies. What advice can you give any photographer aspiring to break into these markets?
Not to be too overly simplistic, but it really just comes down to taking the very best photos you can, understanding what a really good photo is (what distinquishes good from average) and how to achieve it, being willing to do what it takes to get a shot that stands out from all the others, and then presenting your work as widely as possible.
Many photographers won’t reveal this and many aspiring photographers don’t realize it, but I would say with nearly 100% certainty that no eye-popping image you see in magazines was taken in just one frame and it was perfect the first time. For some of the shots that I present I may have taken 30 or more images of the same scene just to make sure every single detail is just perfect. I am meticulous to the point of ridiculous about some shots.
Two examples come to mind immediately. One, I wanted to get a shot of Manarola, Italy, a picturesque little fishing village on the Ligurian coast. It faces west and I knew I could get great sunset lighting on it. There are probably thousands of pictures of Manarola, but I went there determined to make mine the very best one anyone has ever seen. It took me three days and about 20 frames to get the shot I wanted. The first two days the lighting wasn’t right or it was overcast and the sky was washed out. I went back to the same spot on the third day and the lighting was perfect and the sky was interesting.
I had to take so many shots because I was using Fuji Velvia, a very unforgiving film, and I was shooting at sunset when light meters can be easily fooled. I bracketed (took several shots in increments above and below my metered exposure) to the extreme. But in the end it was worth it, because I can truly say (with all due modesty) I think so far I’ve got the best photo of Manarola I’ve ever seen. And that’s what I went there to get.
Another one that took me about 30 shots was one of some kids playing in a river, silhouetted at sunset, in Vang Vieng, Laos. It wasn’t the lighting that was difficult, it was just getting the right pose of three different kids all at the same time. It would have been easy enough to just take one photo and let the dramatic light be “wow” enough, but the kids in the scene would have looked distracting unless I captured some element of interest from them also.
In this photo you see not just little blobs of shadow that you assume are people. You see motion in one kid throwing a rock. In the boy on his right, you see a clear delineation that shows his arms, legs and torso. The boy on the left is walking toward the others. Of all the other 29 or so shots I took of this scene, none of them were nearly as impactful because it didn’t show the boys in action with such clarity. They were just there and uninteresting.
That’s a fairly long answer to a short question, but it’s an important point to make.
About how to get published, many times when my work has appeared in magazines it’s because a writer has seen it somewhere on the web and contacts me about using them for a story they’re pitching. It’s much easier to sell a story if you include photos, and obviously I’m more than pleased to have my photos appear in print.
You’ve travelled a lot. What is your favourite place and why?
I’m asked this often and can’t give an honest answer. I have no one “favorite” place. The world is just so vast, varied, interesting and filled with endearing people. Every place you go will capture your heart and memory for one reason or another. Asking me which is my favorite place is like asking a parent which is their favorite child.
What is the most memorable experience you’ve had as a travel photographer?
Again, narrowing it down to one experience sort of shortchanges all other experiences, but this one might be just a little easier to answer. Probably crossing into Cambodia through the land border at Poipet. It was the first time I’d ever been to a truly third world country and it was like stepping into some other world, like being in a science fiction movie and being teleported to some other planet. Riding down the dusty dirt road to Siem Reap, I just kept looking out the window in wonder and amazement. It was truly like living in the pages of National Geographic. And then of course seeing the memorial stupas (a pile of skulls) in Siem Reap from all the people killed by the Khmer Rouge. That was memorable. Sad, but memorable.
What’s your favourite colour? How do you like to use it in your photography?
That’s probably not a question I can answer as it pertains to photography. I don’t deliberately try to include any certain color in my photos. I just simply look for scenes that take my breath away and point the camera in that direction.
Name three photographers you like and why.
This answer may surprise you, but I have more appreciation and admiration for portrait photographers than landscape photographers. Having done both, I know that shooting people is infinitely more difficult than shooting landscapes. Landscapes aren’t fussy about how they look, their image, their best angle, etc. They don’t get tired, hungry, and grouchy like people do.
So probably my number one favorite photographer is Anton Corbjin. Even if you don’t know the name, you’ve undoubtedly seen his work. He first started getting recognized for the iconic and innovative look he created in the early 90s for the bands U2 and Depeche Mode. It’s that grainy, high contrast, sepia toned look. It’s very distinctive. And even though technically that’s not a hard look to achieve, no one does it nearly as well as he does. It’s his combination of technical skill and his people skills, the ability to capture amazingly expressive, yet natural and relaxed images of people that make his photos stand apart.
Next, I would say Henri Cartier-Bresson, the famous French photographer. He sort of created a great new genre of photography – street photography. His photos are just so whimsical, honest, and unexpected. He was immensely influential, far beyond what most people would recognize today. The look and feel he innovated has influenced cinematography, advertising, music videos, fashion, pop art, and probably so much more.
My third favorite will probably be a completely unexpected answer because this person is neither famous nor even a professional photographer. There is a young guy from the Phillippines named Manuel Librodo. He is a frequent contributor to one of my favorite websites, TrekEarth. (His work can be seen at http://www.trekearth.com/members/manny/). I think so highly of this guy because he is someone who truly has an incredible gift for photography. He takes some of the most stunning and evocotive portraits of people he meets while traveling.
Some of his photos are so good it makes me want to put down my own camera and give up. And he only started taking photos five years ago! He could truly sell a lot of books if he were to put his photos together in a collection, but he seems uninterested in doing photography in a professional capacity.
Where is your photography going? What future photographic project or projects are you excited about?
I was really on a whirlwind portfolio-building streak for a few years, but I really don’t travel as much as it might seem from looking at my website. I typically just go on one big trip per year and maybe visit three or four countries in that one trip. I’m now about overdue for my next trip and I’d like to visit Spain and Morocco. If it’s feasible I may also try to see Portugal, Turkey, and/or Greece during that trip. It’s also likely that I’m going to the Yucatan penninsula in Mexico early next year.
Your dream assignment. What is it?
That’s a very easy one. I’d love to be a staff photographer for National Geographic. I’d go wherever they want to send me because no matter where it is, I’m sure it’ll be interesting. But that’s not to say I’d limit it to National Geographic. I’d just as quickly take a staff position at Conde Nast Traveler or any other magazine that would pay me to travel the world full time.
Tell us about some of your photos. Why do you like them and what’s the story behind them?
Rather than retelling the story behind many of my photos, it might be easiest if you go to my account on TrekEarth, where I’ve already included many of the stories behind many of my best photos. My page there is at http://www.trekearth.com/members/toddadams. If you look at the bottom of that page, it lists the countries I’ve taken photos in and the number of photos from each. Those links will take you to the photos and the stories behind them.
One in particular though I’ll point out. It’s at http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Laos/photo177671.htm and tells the story of a sad and poor little boy in rural Laos who missed out on a treat given out by some tourists.
Another one is this (http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/South_America/Peru/photo446046.htm) and it tells the humorous story of some young boys in Iquitos, Peru who make their living selling trinkets and shoe shines to tourists. One of them asked to shine my sandals! Nonetheless, they were very endearing and I looked forward to seeing them down at the malecon (the plaza by the river).
Contact Information
E-mail: todd (at) toddadams.net
Website: http://www.toddadams.net/
Photos Copyright 2007 Todd Adams
Black and white photography from Montana, an editorial photographer from London’s insider view on the photography industry, a traveller and adventurer who loves mountains and culture, and a HDR specialist. Check out these slightly amazing and very cool photo blogs.
