Bad Casserole

Assignment and Editorial 5: Travel Photography

I hated this assignment. It was the hardest of the entire class. The weather didn’t cooperate. I didn’t like most of my photos.

It seemed simple enough when we got it: we had two weeks to shoot a 12-15 image picture package that told the story of a place, similar to the “36 hours in…” vacation stories in The New York Times. Since I figured most people would shoot Seattle and I wanted to be different, Shan and I dropped Cooper off with Becky and went up to Vancouver for the weekend.

It rained. It was cold. I was uninspired.

It got worse though. The following week our class had a guest speaker, Michael Hanson, who shoots a lot of travel photography. After class I asked if he would mind flipping through my selects from the weekend in Vancouver. He obliged.

Then he ripped them apart. The fundamental flaw? They didn’t make him want to visit Vancouver, and he was right.

So that weekend Shan and I went back to Vancouver for another try. I didn’t get spectacular images but I got enough to salvage the assignment. Here are the most successful photos:

The downtown Vancouver, BC, skyline on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012. (Photo/Neil Enns)

This photo is from the second trip to Vancouver and was on my list to get. About 10 minutes after I took this photo, just before the light got really nice, it started to pour. Not little misty Seattle rain, but a proper downpour. It was just that kind of assignment.

The Kakaso’las totem pole, front, stands in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. Carved by Ellen Neel and her uncle Mungo Martin, the pole was completed in 1955 for the Woodward’s Department Store. (Photo/Neil Enns)

From the first trip to Vancouver, this photo is my favourite detail image from the assignment. I can easily see it being an inset photos as part of an article on Vancouver.

You’ll note that I said the package should have 12-15 images and I only posted two. That’s because the above two photos are the only ones from the group I submitted that I really thought would sell Vancouver.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I hated this assignment. I learned I am not a travel photographer!