I’m a big fan of food and travel photographer Penny De Los Santos for a lot of reasons. I love her creative vision, I love her storytelling, and I love her perspective on food culture. I watched her speak on CreativeLive a while ago where she gave this advice to the aspiring photographers in the room: give yourself your dream assignment, because nobody else is going to give it to you.



Penny is completely correct and got me to start thinking about my own dream assignments, past and present. In February of this year, I went to Cuba to photograph the dichotomy of poverty and personal freedom in Havana. In May, I went to China to photograph hidden ethnic cultures in the country's southern provinces. In June, I went to Norway to hike and photograph the largest glacier in continental Europe. All dream assignments, all self-assigned, self-funded, and self-enabled.

At the intersection of my experience as a photographer and traveler, the concept of giving yourself the dream photography assignment is no different than planning your dream trip. Nobody will give you the dream opportunity - whether it’s traveling around the world for 5 years or just visit spend a week in Paris - you have to go and get it yourself.



I have been really lucky that I found enough time between finishing my last year in college and starting a full-time job in tech to travel and photograph not one, not two, but three of my dream assignments. I am going to aim for at least two dream assignments in 2013. I have a few ideas in mind and nothing is off the table.

1. Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail: Hike the Inca Trail and trace the Wari culture.

2. India’s Golden Triangle: Visit the Taj Mahal and photograph the street life in Delhi

3. The Sahara Desert: Capture some fine art photos from the patterns and colors of the Sahara desert.

4. Northern Canada or Northern Ontario: Go capture the Northern Lights

Which dream assignment will I give myself in 2013?

Which dream trip will you give yourself?

“Yes” I nodded, glancing up from the camera’s viewfinder. It must be easy to hike to the top with his long legs, I thought.

My travel companions and I had driven over five hours to get to Jostedalsbreen, Europe’s largest glacier, situated north of the famous Sognefjord. It was my first time in Norway and my friends insisted that my trip would not be complete without a visit to the glacier. Of course, merely seeing the glacier was not enough. If I wanted to have an authentic Norwegian experience, I would have to hike to the top.

More than ten thousand years ago, the ice age left Norway covered in a large sheet of ice. As the climate grew warmer, the glacier eventually began to melt away, leaving behind what is Jostedalsbreen today. At over 480 square kilometers, the glacier covers the mountain plateau northwest of Jostedalen. For centuries, scientists have come here to study the post-glacial development of landscape and vegetation in the area. These scientists determined that Jostedalsbreen is at least 5,000 years.



Now I stood at the lake in front of Nigardsbreen, one of the most popular outlets of the Jostedalsbreen, waiting patiently to be fitted for my crampons. These traction devices would not only improve my mobility on the ice, they could also save my life.

From the parking lot at the base of Nigardsbreen, the tongue of the glacier is still a ten-minute boat trip and a 20-minute walk away. On the boat ride, I lost my thoughts in the glacier-blue water of the lake. When I looked up again we were already surrounded by steep snow-covered hills, with nowhere to go but up the large sheet of ice in front of me.

Although Jostedalsbreen is a beautiful blue sprinkled with spots of black minerals, it is a difficult three-hour hike to the top. We zigged and zagged, relying on the expertise of our guide to avoid dangerous thin ice. A few times we stopped to look at beautiful tunnels that had formed in the ice where the glacier had melted away. By the time winter arrives, some of these tunnels will have melted to a size big enough for people to walk through them. When we reached our halfway point, I noticed another group of fellow hikers. From across the glacier, they looked like black dots against the enormous backdrop of white and grey.

The last hour before we reached our final point was the hardest and steepest. The vertical incline was so great that we could no longer see the lake below us. When we finally reached the top, I was surrounded by snow-filled hilltops. As I gazed out at the pristine sight in front of me, I stood amazed at the beauty and power of nature. I had climbed Europe’s largest glacier – a piece of history that had been formed thousands of years before me, and will remain thousands of years after.

The last article on Three Easy Tips to Better Your Travel Photography was really well-received and the good news is that I have more tips to share! So, here are 3 more tips on improving your photography.

1. Have a singular focus

2. Go the extra mile

In my case, I hiked the extra mile - in Athens, Greece.

In 2011, I was in Athens for a weekend with three friends. I had researched the best place in the Greek capital to watch the sunset - Mount Lycabettus. So I made my friends hike for 30 minutes to the lookout point because I really wanted us to watch the beautiful sunset, and although I didn't reveal this to them at the time, I really wanted to photograph the sunset. We were hungry and tired from a long day of touring, but I dragged them up the mountain anyways, despite their occasional complaints. There were moments when I really felt like I was testing our friendship with this hike. But when we got to the lookout, the view was stunning. I ended up capturing some of my most favourite images from Athens there.

I've told this story about Athens over and over again because it was one of those golden moments when I realized that I was no longer a traveler and I had fully embraced the role of a travel photographer: I went the extra mile for the shot.

3. Pack light, pack versatile

It should come as no surprise that packing light has tremendous benefits physically, especially for those who engage in an active style of travel. When it comes to choosing the right camera equipment to take along a trip, I always keep it very light. I take 1 camera bag and tell myself that all my camera equipment must fit into that bag. I’m not working on crazy photo assignments so there is no reason to take many lights and lenses.