WHY TRAVEL MAKES YOU AWESOME

People always ask how travel has changed me. If I look back at who I was before I began traveling and compare that to who I am now, I would have to say that travel has made me a better and more well-rounded person. I’m way cooler now than I was at twenty five when I first left to explore the world.

Simply put, I’m a lot more awesome now than I used to be.

In fact, I think travel makes everybody a more awesome person. We end our travels way better off than when we started. I’m not saying this to be conceited or egotistical; I’m saying it because I believe that travel is something that makes you not only a better human being, but a way cooler one too. The kind of person people gravitate towards and want to be around.

You become like the Dos Equis guy.

How and why does travel make you more awesome? Let me count the ways:

1. More social – It’s sink or swim on the road. You either get better at making friends or you end up alone, crying each night into a pillow. You learn to make friends out of strangers and get more comfortable talking to new people. When I first started traveling, I was kind of an introvert and uncomfortable talking to those I didn’t know. Now, I’ll happily talk to strangers like we’ve been best friends for years.

2. Better at conversation – Travel not only makes you comfortable talking to strangers, it makes you better at it too. After talking to people all the time, the same questions get boring. You start to even bore yourself. After a while, you don’t care about where people are from, where they are going, how long they’ve been traveling, and yada yada yada. Those kinds of questions don’t actually tell you anything about the person. You’ll get better at small talk and how to ask interesting questions – the ones that matter and tell you more about the person.

3. More confident – You’ve traveled the world. Hiked Mt. Everest. Dived the Great Barrier Reef. Wined and dined that beautiful French girl in Paris, navigated unknown cities, and conquered your fear of heights. In short, you did awesome things. How can you not be more confident? How can you not be sure about your abilities? After accomplishing so much, you’re going to feel a lot more confident in your ability to achieve anything you set your mind to.

4. keep calm and stay awesomeMore adaptable – You’ve dealt with missed flights, slow buses, wrong turns, delays, bad street food, and much, much more. After a while, you learn how to adapt your plans to changing situations. You don’t get mad, you don’t get angry, you just alter what you are doing and move on. Life throws you curve balls and you hit them out of the park. Why? Because you’re awesome like that.

5. More adventurous – When you become confident in your ability to do anything, you do anything. Last week in Austin, Texas, despite not liking spicy food, I ate the world’s hottest pepper and some pure capsicum extract. Why? Because I wanted to. What’s the purpose of life if not to break out of your comfort zone? My mouth was on fire for ages but I’d do it again.

6. More easy-going – All those mistakes? They did something else for you, too. They made you more easy-going and relaxed. Why? Because you’ve dealt with all those errors and you don’t care. You go with the flow now, because if travel taught you anything it is that it all works out in the end and that there’s no need to stress.

6. Sexier – Stress causes aging. Those carefree, relaxing days on the road are going to make you more confident, radiant, and age slower. You’ll look young and sexy. Unless you are George Clooney, who definitely got better with age.

7. Smarter – Unless you sit at a resort drowning your brain in frozen drinks, travel will teach you about the world. You’ll learn about people, history, and culture, and arcane facts about places some people could only dream about. In short, you’ll have a better understanding about how it works and how people behave. That’s something that can’t be learned from books; you can only pick it up with on the road experience.

8. Less materialistic – On the road, you learn just how little stuff you actually need. You’ll realize that all that crap they sell at the mall is pretty useless in leading a truly happy life. Coming home, you’ll find yourself a minimalist simply because you realize what you need to live and what you don’t. As they say, the more you own, the more it owns you.

9. Happier – Travel simply teaches you how to be happy. You’ll become more relaxed, more confident, and see the world as a brighter place. How can you not be happy about life after all of that?

Think about all the famous, successful people in the world. How many of these qualities do those people exhibit? A lot. Why? Because being outgoing, funny, social, happy, confident, and smart are all qualities that make people more successful in everyday life.

Travel makes people better people. When you learn more about the world and the people in it, push your boundaries, and try new things, you become a more open, outgoing, and awesome person. All the people I’ve known who have traveled are better people ’cause of it. With all the ways a trip can make you more of an awesome person, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be planning your next adventure now – whether it’s around the world or just a short two-week vacation to Mexico.

You can sit at home, wishing you were somewhere exotic, having fun, and doing something cool.

Singapore's 6 most outrageous hotel suites

In a city filled with gleaming skyscrapers, designer stores and sophisticated travelers, Singapore's luxury hotels have a lot to live up to.

But with rock-star bath tubs, private chefs and service fit for royalty, the Lion City's most lavish definitely doesn't disappoint.

1. Extreme Wow Suite, W Singapore Sentosa Cove

The W Sentosa's Extreme Wow Suite lives up to its name with an abundance of marble and purple furnishings.

And that's just the start of it.

It's filled with bold statements -- from the eye-catching lighting and wall design, to the half-circle sofa and standalone bar.

Particularly stunning is the bathroom, where an elaborate chandelier hangs over a circular bath, plush daybed and designer exercise bike.

The overall feel is a cross between a nightclub and a playboy crash pad, right down to the DJ booth and inside and outside hot tubs.

Priced from SGD 12,000 ($8,430) a night, plus taxes.

 

3. Chairman Suite, Marina Bay Sands:

Marina Bay Sands' VIP guests (they're not naming names, but we're guessing celebrities and high-rollers visiting the adjacent casino) are put up in the Chairman Suite.

With two living rooms and four bedrooms and bathrooms -- all with Jacuzzis -- it's a biggie.

As well as panoramic views over the bay and South China Sea, there's more than enough to keep a seen-it-all celeb happy: a baby grand piano, media room and karaoke, plus a massage room, fitness room with steam and sauna facilities, and hair salon (perfect for those impending media appearances).

Unfortunately though, it's only available by invitation.

Rates: Priceless

4. Sarkies Suite, Raffles Singapore

The Sarkies Suite: Good enough for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
All the rooms at Raffles are suites -- there's nothing so humdrum as a mere room -- but not all suites are created equal.

Spiffiest of all is the Sarkies (U.K. royals William and Kate stayed there).

Named after the original owners, it's in prime position in the main building, overlooking the famous driveway.

Inside is a 1930s handwoven Iranian carpet as well as Tiffany & Co silverware and china, for banqueting at the antique dining table.

The master bedroom's vast veranda has a view of the gorgeous Palm Court, the hotel's expansive garden lined with tall palm trees.

All in all, fit for a princess.

Rates from SGD 10,000 ($7,200) per night, plus taxes.

5. Shangri-La Suite, Shangri-La Hotel Singapore:

Not only do Shangri-La Suite guests arrive at the Valley Wing entrance -- more exclusive than the main hotel lobby -- they also have their own personal entryway.

Then it's a private elevator ride to the vast Shangri-La suite.

His and hers dressing rooms, a gym and sauna await, as well as personalized bathrobes, pillow cases and stationery.

Butler service is available around the clock.

Want gourmet cuisine or hawker food (Singapore street food) served on fine china at the walnut dining table? No problem.

In addition to the master bedroom, there's an en-suite twin -- usually occupied by guests' security detail.

From SGD 8,800 ($6,180) a night, plus taxes.

6. Presidential Suite, The St. Regis Singapore

This is just the dressing room of the St. Regis Presidential Suite.
St. Regis's Beverly Hills-meets-Versailles vibe is writ large in its Presidential Suite.

Lavish furnishings include hand-painted silk panels and a wall fountain water feature.

There's also a baby grand piano and original works by big-name artists.

Outside on the wraparound terrace a private chef will whip up dinner on the grill for guests, or -- if they prefer -- inside in the more genteel 12-seater dining area.

And to cap it off there's the option of complimentary daily massages for two, in suite.

From SGD 12,450 ($8,745) a night.

Vietnamese street food an experience not to be missed

 

Enjoying Vietnamese street food is an experience should not to be missed once you visit Vietnam. Some of delicious street foods that you should try including Vietnamese noodle soup, Vietnamese fermented pork roll, and Vietnam rolled cake.

 

Choosing Vietnam as a destination for this summer holiday was my very wise decision. To be honestly, I had a wonderful holiday with some new experiences. Admiring the stunning and peaceful landscapes, meeting friendly and hospitable hosts, participating in traditional festivals are some of my unforgettable experiences in Vietnam. However, the best part in my journey was enjoying Vietnam street food in a unique and comfortable way. I have to recommend that your trip to Vietnam will not be complete without tasting the street food here.

Street food is a unique culinary feature in Vietnam cuisine. Street foods are often sold in street vendors. Vietnamese street vendors are easily found in every corner of the country from the biggest cities like Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon), Hanoi, Da Nang, etc. to smaller ones such as Hai Phong, Quang Ninh and so on.

Street vendors are divided into three types. I do not know the exact names of these street food vendor’s types, but I can describe them. The first one I met is a very simple restaurant with plastic chairs placed on pavements. Customers will use some chairs to sit and another one to become a table. The second kind is also a simple shop in which food are sold on sidewalks. And the last one is a “moving shop” – a kind of street vendor that sellers can move around either by bike or on foot.

 

Street food in Vietnam are also quite diverse, however, the three types I like best including noodle soup, fermented pork roll and rolled cake.

Firstly, talking about Vietnamese noodle soup, this is a very famous food to foreigners. It contains of broth, linguine-shaped rice noodles, a few herbs and meat (made from beef, chicken, pork, and snail). In one early morning in Hanoi, I got up, walked around and found a breakfast food stall in a small corner of Hanoi. I called for myself one bowl of sliced well-done flanks noodle soup. Luckily, as soon as a friendly host realized a foreigner in his vendor, he welcomed me with a warm-hearted attitude and guided me how to eat the noodle bowl like Vietnamese people. I have to emphasize that it was a very interesting experience. I felt the noodle soup is more delicious and special than the previous times. Before tasting the noodle, I took some vinegar (made from garlic, chili and water) and squeezed some drops of green lemon on the bowl. This stage will not be missed if you want to have a truly Vietnamese noodle bowl. At first, I took in a little broth with my spoon, slurped in some to get a taste of it, and then followed it up with the rice noodles using your chopsticks. Then, I selected pieces of ingredients from the bowl and enjoyed them individually or together with the broth and noodle. Slurping the noodle bowl in the noisy and crowded street stall is an unforgettable experience in my life. Some foreigners may feel a little bit embarrassing when eating like this, but this is the exact way Vietnamese people enjoying a noodle soup in the most comfortable condition. And I promise to you that eating by that way makes your noodle soup tastier than the other times you ate.

Another favorite street food of mine is Vietnamese fermented pork roll (Nem Chua). Nem Chua is a meat roll made from minced pork, sliced pigskin and a mixture of seasoning and garlic with and spicy taste including sweet, sour, salty which makes the mouth salivate with each bite. There are some kinds of Nem Chua, but I prefer the grilled and unfermented one. Eating the grilled and fermented pork roll with some chili sauce is the greatest mixed flavor that I have tried. Until now, I still salivate once thinking about this food.

Vietnam rolled cake is also a well-known street food for foreign tourists. There are a plenty types of rolled cake for different tastes of customers including egg rolls, vegetarian rolls, shrimp rolls, meat rolls, etc. However, to me, I like meat rolled cake the most. Enjoying meat rolled cake with some dry onions and Vietnamese sauce is the strangest flavor. The dish has fatty taste of dry onion and meat and a little bit sweet, sour, salty and spicy of sauce which is made from fish sauce, chili, sugar and green lemon. It has very wonderful flavor in my opinion.

Besides, there is a variety of delicious street foods in Vietnam such as stuffed pancake, shrimp in batter, young rice cake, and so on. Nonetheless, I had no chance to try all of them because there are so many delicious and eye-catching foods in this beautiful country. I myself now have a strong desire to come back Vietnam again to explore the things I have not tried.

HO CHI MINH CITY TRAVEL GUIDE

Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it it is still sometimes called, is Vietnam’s largest and most chaotic city. I love the chaos here, though you need to be careful when walking across the street! Motorbikes, cars, and rickshaws go where and whenever they please. It’s a city with a billion things happening at once. There is a lot of information here about the war, from the War Remnants Museum to the Cu Chi Tunnels. There’s a great historical museum here, though the English translation leaves a lot to be desired. The city has a lot to offer: great shops, fantastic nightlife, and delicious food. After Hoi An, it is my next favorite city in Vietnam.

1. Typical Costs:

- Hostel prices – Dorms cost around 65,000 – 200,000 VND, while private rooms are around 220,000 – 650,000 VND for a double room.

- Budget hotel prices – A night in a budget hotels starts at 130,000 VND, but 260,000 – 650,000 VND is the norm.

- Average cost of food – Eat the local food and you can get a meal for around 22,000 VND.  Sit down restaurants are also inexpensive at around 75,000 VND. A western burger might cost around 32,500 VND.

- Transportation costs – Public buses around the city cost 3,5000 VND. Taxis are more expensive at 12,000 VND for the first kilometer and 10,000 VND per kilometer thereafter.

2. Money Saving Tips:

- Taxis – Taxi drivers will rip you off so agree to a price ahead of time. Or better yet, skip them and walk. Or rent a bike and try to navigate the chaos of the city.

- Markets – When shopping in any of the city’s markets you may feel like a wallet on legs as the traders call out to you. Be firm and be ready to walk away.

- Eat street food – Street food in Ho Chi Minh City is inexpensive and delicious. Be sure to try a banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich popular in the south.

- Enjoy Happy Hour – The bars in the Pham Ngu Lao area have plenty of Happy Hour drink specials, from half-price drinks to dollar cocktails.

3. Top Things to Do in Ho Chi Minh City:

- Crawl through the Cu Chi Tunnels – Crawl through the extensive network of nearly 500 km of tunnels utilized by the Viet Cong in the 1960s to fight American soldiers.  Tours involve a description and tour of the tunnels.

- Get lost in Chinatown – Chinatown is a hive of activity; it is a maze of temples, restaurants, jade ornaments, and medicine shops.   Aside from the sprawling Binh Tay market, you’ll find some fascinating temples in the area including the Chinese Chua Quan Am Temple and Cha Tam, which is a Catholic cathedral.

- Visit the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City – Not to be confused with the “Ho Chi Minh Museum”, at one point or another, the city museum has been a Governor’s Palace, committee building and Revolutionary Museum.  Nowadays, its picturesque grounds attract newlyweds posing for photographs. You’ll find a collection of weaponry and memorabilia from the country’s revolutionary struggle as well as captured U.S fighter planes and tanks.

- Check out the Vietnam History Museum – The History Museum is a great place to learn about the colorful events of Vietnam’s past.  The museum houses a fantastic collection of ceramics, weaponry and cannons. There are photographs, clothes and household objects dating back as far as the 1700s. The English translations leave a lot to be desired though.

 

- See the Emperor Jade pagoda – Emperor Jade is one of the most impressive pagodas in Vietnam.  The intricate carvings and depictions of deities including the Emperor Jade himself.

 

- Admire the Notre Dame Cathedral – The Notre Dame Cathedral is an imposing red brick building built between 1877 and 1883.  The two towers that front the cathedral tower over visitors at nearly 200 feet tall while the neon-lit statue of the Virgin Mary is also an arresting site.

- Visit the War Remnants Museum – The War Remnants Museum is a must-see for anyone with an interest in Vietnam’s history of combat with both the French and the Americans. Inside you’ll find informative exhibits focusing on biological warfare, weaponry and in-depth statistics of Vietnam’s armies during the conflicts.  The museum’s best exhibit is the collection of bombs, tanks, planes and war machinery which can be found in the courtyard. The museum has a very pro-communist, down with the capitalist pigs bent to it and it’s interesting to see. It’s as much propaganda as it is history.

- See the Cao Dai Holy See Temple – The Cao Dai religion is relatively new at less than 100 years old.  The temples are distinguished by the “all-seeing eye” which dominates the architecture. This Cao Dai temple is the main temple for the religion and is hugely ornate and impressive.  Most people combine a trip to the temple with the Cu Chi Tunnels excursion.

 

- Shop at the Ben Thanh Market – Though the market is crowded and rife with pickpockets, it is the ideal place to pick up a bargain or try some traditional (and inexpensive) Vietnamese food. It’s an ideal shopping place.

 

- Escape to Can Gio Island – The Can Gio island is popular with tourists and Ho Chi Minh locals as a way to escape the chaos of the city. The beaches here aren’t mind blowing like they are in Thailand but it’s a great place to relax and one of Vietnam’s better islands.  The island’s monkey sanctuary and mangroves are great for wildlife fans.

- Ascend the Saigon Skydeck – For a 360 degree panorama of the city, you can head to the Saigon Skydeck tower. The observation deck is on the 49th floor and entrance costs 200,000 VND.

Unwind in the Twenty-Three September Park – In the hours just preceding and just after the working day, this park is packed with people exercising and playing games. Watch a Tai Chi class, play a badminton game, or chat with one of the many students who hang out in the area.

HOW TO TAKE THE PERFECT PHOTO: ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe, continues his five part series on taking better travel photos. Photographs are an important part of the travel experience and with so many of you being budding photographers, Laurence’s series is here to help you improve your photography skills. We’ve gone a lot of the basics in this series so, in part four, Laurence is taking it up a notch to give some advanced photography techniques such as long exposure shots, HDR, star shooting, and more!

One of the challenges we face as travelers is that so many of the places we visit have already been photographed extensively. In today’s post, I want to share with you some techniques that will help you get more creative with your photography. These more advanced concepts build upon the ideas in the first three posts in this series.

(If this is your first time reading this series, do check out the other posts before diving in here. In the first, I focused on the basics of photography, including composition. The second post was on getting the best out of specific travel scenes. And the third post went into some detail on picking the right gear for your travels.)

I’m going to cover four topics today that will open up new creative possibilities for when you’re out and about.

1. Long-exposure photography:

Have you ever seen a photo of a waterfall where the water looks white and fluffy? Or a shot of a street at night where the cars have been replaced by streaks of light? Here’s an example of a waterfall to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

This was shot in Glencoe, a stunning part of the Scottish highlands. As you can see, the water’s surface has a silky, flat look, and the waterfall itself looks more like cotton than water. Additionally, the clouds in the sky have a sense of motion.

I talked a little about using shutter speed in post two of this series, and how too low a shutter speed can result in blurry images due your hand movement. Long-exposure photography is all about taking advantage of that blurry effect, but as a result of the objects in the scene instead.

You are going to need a tripod to make this work, as otherwise your images will be blurry everywhere rather than just where you want them to be.

The secret to long-exposure photography is to put your camera in either shutter-priority or manual mode, which will allow you to set how long the camera’s shutter is open for. This will be marked as “S,” “Tv,” or “T” mode on the mode dial if your camera has one. If you’re shooting using a smartphone, many recent models, such as the LG G4, also let you manually set the shutter speed via the camera app.

For waterfall shots, you’re looking at any shutter speed slower than 1/15 of a second. For traffic, it will depend on the speed of the traffic, but you’ll need to shoot at speeds slower than one second. Both of the long exposure shots I’ve shared above were shot with a 30-second exposure.

If you are shooting in daytime, you might need a neutral density filter in order to compensate for the amount of light available (see the photography gear post, the third in the series, for more information). If you’re shooting in manual mode, you’ll have to set the aperture to get the correct exposure. Try to avoid apertures higher than f/16 though, as they often result in lower-quality images.

Long-exposure photography will have you looking at the world and motion in new ways, and it opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Have fun with it!

2. Shooting the stars:

When I travel, one of my favorite things is getting far away, to the middle of nowhere, and just looking up at the night sky. Away from the city lights, it’s is one of the most spectacular views available to us, and gazing up at it always helps me gain a sense of perspective.

Of course, once I’m done looking at it, I want to try and capture it as a photo. This isn’t as hard as you might think and, apart from a tripod, doesn’t need a great deal of expensive equipment to achieve. But shooting star trails does require more thinking than just pointing your camera at the sky and hitting the “expose” button.

There are two main types of star photography. First, you can do a long-exposure shot and turn the stars into streaks of light, like this:

This was a two-hour exposure I shot while camping in the Western Australian outback. Yes, two hours! (You need a lot of patience and a decent battery for long-exposure star photography.)

You can also do multiple long exposures lasting from 30 seconds to a minute, and then stack the resulting photos together using specialist software like this. This reduces the “noise” that super-long exposures are known for, as well as the risk of your battery going flat mid-shoot, but it does require more work afterward.

However, most cameras won’t let you shoot for longer than 30 seconds in manual mode. You have to switch to “BULB” mode, whereby the shutter button will stay open for as long as you hold the shutter down. Some cameras have this in manual mode rather than a dedicated BULB setting — check your camera manual to find out how your model of camera works.

You are unlikely to want to stand with your finger on the shutter button for two hours, but don’t worry, you have some options. The easiest is to invest in a remote release cable, which will let you “lock” the shutter button down for as long as you want. Alternatively, if you have a more modern camera with Wi-Fi built in, you might find that there is an app that lets you control the length of the exposure beyond 30 seconds.

Next, don’t forget composition. Just because you have moving stars in your shot doesn’t automatically make it a great shot! Think about using your foreground to give your viewers a sense of scale, either by including a person or an object in your photo.

Finally, consider the movement of the stars. The earth rotates from west to east, so if you want circular star trails, you’ll need to point your camera north or south. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, composing around the North Star (which remains stationary) is a good place to start.

The other type of star photo is where you capture the night sky without motion. This will likely still require a long exposure, but one that is not so long as to result in the stars blurring from motion. Around a 30-second exposure is the maximum before the motion of the stars from the earth’s rotation becomes apparent. Here’s a 30-second exposure of Venus setting in the Galápagos as an example:

The setup is very similar to star trail photography, in that you will need a tripod and will have to consider your composition. However, with only a 30-second exposure, you are going to need to increase the ISO on your camera to get as much light in as possible.

Modern cameras are capable of shooting at ISOs of 3200 and 6400 without introducing too much noise into the image. In addition, you’ll want to open your aperture as wide as possible — depth of field isn’t really a consideration when shooting the infinite! Open it as wide as it’ll go, preferably in manual mode.

In some ways these shots are easier because you’ll be able to see the results a lot more quickly. Here’s a shot of the stars over France:

The Milky Way is an excellent subject for static star photography — it’s a natural leading line, as you can see in the shot above. This was a 30-second exposure at ISO 6400 and f/4, shot on a Canon 6D in manual mode.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of basic star photography, you can start to be a little creative. At these exposures, even a little light can make a big difference, so you can try “painting” objects with light, by using a flashlight and shining it on objects near you.

Alternatively, find sources of illumination like a fire and compose around those, such as this shot taken at – 35 degrees in Finland, during a fruitless hunt for the northern lights. The possibilities are unlimited!

3. High dynamic range (HDR) photography

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your camera fails spectacularly to capture an image as your eyes see it? For example, the sky is too bright, or the shadows areas are too dark?

This is because our eyes have a much greater “dynamic range” than a camera has. Dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and lightest part of a scene that can be observed, and our eyes are able to resolve a much wider range in darkness and brightness than a camera can.

The problem is that cameras struggle to capture the full range of the exposure, from the dark shadows through to the bright highlights. Either the sky will be a white washout, or the landscape will be dark and unrecognizable.

The solution is a technique known as high dynamic range photography, or HDR. This simply requires you to take multiple photographs of the same scene at different exposures, and then put them together. This is also known as exposure blending.

If you have a relatively modern smartphone or camera, then it will probably have an HDR mode built in. The iPhone in particular has an excellent HDR mode. You can access this from the settings menu in your camera or smartphone menu. On a Canon camera for example, the menu is as follows:

Using your device in HDR mode is very simple, and it will do everything for you. Your device will take the necessary number of photos, align them if necessary, and then blend them together to give you a photo that looks more representative of the scene you saw.

The disadvantage of this is that you are leaving the camera to make all the decisions, and you won’t usually have the source images — you’ll just be presented with the final HDR image, and your camera will discard the interim files.

If you want more control over the final image, then you’ll need to set your camera to “bracket” the exposures for you. This will allow you to take a sequence of photos of different exposures just by holding the shutter down. To find this mode in your camera, look in the menu for auto exposure bracketing, or AEB.

Then you’ll have to use computer software to merge the images together into a single photo. There are a variety of software tools available to merge your images. I use Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix Pro, but there are many others out there.

Shooting multiple photos at once does mean you need either a very steady hand or — you guessed it— a tripod. If your hand moves between the shots, then the images will likely need to be aligned, which doesn’t always work perfectly. In addition, be aware of moving objects, as these can create odd ghost effects as the software tries to combine images.

HDR works best in largely static, high-contrast scenes, particularly landscapes where there isn’t much movement and the difference in brightness between the darkest and lightest parts of the scene is pronounced.

4. High-contrast scenes:

Speaking of high-contrast scenes, don’t forget that you can use these to your advantage. You don’t have to use HDR; instead, you can use all that light to create wonderful silhouettes of your subjects.

This is a great way to get a different take on a subject, and used creatively can give you some standout images.

The shot above is a silhouette of a boat against two islands in the Seychelles. Shooting directly into the sun like this means that you are going to have to decide which area of the shot you want to correctly expose. If I had set up the shot so the boat was correctly exposed, the sky would have been a giant white mess as a result of the light from the sun.

I could, of course, have shot an HDR image, but in this case, a silhouette of the boat and two islands was a more attractive composition.

Other great subjects for silhouetting are people, trees…really, any object with a distinctive outline.

This sort of shooting will require a little practice, as the camera won’t know what sort of exposure you want. The joy of digital is that you can review a shot and try it again — particularly in a scene like this, where you have a bit of time to get the shot right before the sun sets. Be aware that your exposure meter might be indicating that you are over- or underexposing the scene.

The easiest way to get good results is to shoot in manual mode and set everything yourself. Keep the ISO rating as low as possible, and adjust your shutter speed and aperture according to the composition you want to achieve, considering depth of field and any long-exposure effects you might be trying to achieve.

I use all the above techniques on a regular basis when I’m out and about in the world, looking to put a fresh perspective on a familiar scene. Admittedly, these are individually complex subjects to tackle, and it will take time to master each of them, but the rewards are very much worth it.