Tips for Travel Photography

"To judge a thing, one must first know the standard." - Sanskrit Proverb.

Monday, April 27, 2009
I felt relief when it stopped raining around 5 pm because I had to attend a Toastmasters meeting at JTC (Jakarta Toastmasters Club). I hoped on the way there, the traffic would be friendly. My wish came true. I left home at 5.45 and reached the meeting place at 6.40 pm. A week before, the appointed TOM (Toastmasters of the Meeting) for the evening, DTM (Distinguish Toastmasters) Harlina Indra offered me to evaluate Matthew Price's speech. I said yes to her though I knew it's not always easy for me to be an individual evaluator. And yet, I dared to take the challenge because I knew that Toastmasters is the best place to learn and to practice what you have learned. Does it sound interesting now?

So, when I met Matthew at JTC, he handed over his speech manual to me and whispered, "Vina, I think you are not the right person to evaluate my speech tonight. You don't like traveling and I'll be talking about it." When he grinned amiably at me after finishing his words, I knew he was just teasing me. Matthew is a humble and friendly guy. He is always full of creativity every time he delivers his speech. For sure, I was lucky to be his evaluator that evening.

Matthew would deliver project no. 1 (The Speech to Inform) from Advanced Communication Manual, Speaking to Inform. The objectives of this project are:

• The information is new and useful to the audience.
• The speech should be clearly organized for easy understandability and retention.
  
• The speaker is advised to present the information in a way that help motivates the audience to learn.
• Time: five to seven minutes.

And, his speech title was: TIPS FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

Now, let me share my evaluation with you:

1. Photography is a new subject to most of us so the topic is relevant to the audience.
2. I truly believe that Matthew was well prepared as he was familiar and comfortable with his material.
3. He put his own photos into 'Power Point' and used them as visual aids to enhance his message.
4. He was confident, took control of the stage with natural body movement and good eye contact.
5. His speech was clearly organized.

I would like to explain in more detail regarding point number 5 above. A good speech should have a strong opening, organized body and a memorable closing or conclusion.

On his presentation, Matthew directly grabbed the audience's attention with a strong opening. He took out his pocket camera and was directly into action as if he was taking pictures. Then, body of the speech which plays an important role to enhance his message. In this part, he started showing his slides while explaining the three important aspects of photography, i.e. people, landscape and creativity.

1. People

If your focus is people, please make sure that they are clearly seen and big enough to become center of attention.

2. Landscape
Put the horizon line on the upper or lower part of the center line. In other words, don't put the horizon line in the middle.

3. Creativity
Be creative in your photo shooting.

At the end, Matthew closed his speech with a beautiful and creative slide. It was the picture of him jumping in the air. I thought his closing would even be stronger if he also jumped in front of us imitating his pose on the last slide.

Anyway, Matthew's message was educational and effective for me. I learned new thing that night. And, for sure that I would remember these three simple aspects of photography long after that night. Thank you Matthew for sharing your knowledge with us and for giving me the permission to share three of your photos here.

Before I left JTC, Matthew gave me a beautiful calender from the Australian Embassy. From total of thirteen pictures, three photos taken by Matthew were included. I was grateful and said to him that I would keep it as long as I could.

At last, let me close this writing by sharing a beautiful words from Goldsmith: "People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after."