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| © Brenda Tharp |
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The very thing that makes Great Smoky Mountains National Park such a fruitful photographic destination, says Brenda Tharp, is also what makes it a photographic challenge. "It's easy to get to, and easy to get around in," she explains. "In the Western parks, you usually have to trek into the high country to really experience them. But in the Smokies you can park by the side of the road along a beautiful stream and spend the entire day photographing everything from salamanders to Dogwood blossoms. It's very accessible."
Yet the accessibility that draws people to the Smokies -- the park, which overlaps Tennessee and North Carolina, is America's most visited -- sometimes makes for uninspiring pictures. "You can end up with images that look the same as anyone else's," says the photographer, who cites the view of sunrise from the park's Klingman's Dome as one such easy shot.
California-based Tharp, who has led many workshops in the Smokies, asks her students to look more closely at the park's visual abundance. "Instead of going for the grand view, look for the movement of water through the rocks or reflections in a pool," she suggests. "And the park's famous fog creates beautiful atmospheric effects." For Tharp, a successful stock shooter whose expertise is collected in Creative Nature and Outdoor Photography (Amphoto, $26), such qualities distinguish the American East as a photo subject. "There's a lot of variety to choose from, from mountains to swamps," she says. "But the East is a more intimate experience than the West."
-- Russell Hart
Mongolia
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| © Luca Trovato |
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Although he has shot commercial and editorial work throughout the cities and resorts of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia, photographer Luca Trovato says his most vivid memories are of one of the world's least densely populated countries: Mongolia. "I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place," says Trovato of the Asian country that borders Russia and China, which he visited on assignment for Travel + Leisure magazine in the summer of 1998.
Trovato traveled to Mongolia, which in recent years has become a coveted adventure destination, during the country's annual Naadam festival. "They have this incredible horse race where most of the jockeys are kids between the ages of 5 and 10," Trovato recalls of the scene at left. "Most of them are bareback, and they ride nonstop for 30 miles! There are hundreds of people waiting for the arrival of all these jockeys. It's amazing -- you feel like you're in a movie set."
Traveling with three guides and a reporter, Trovato explored Mongolia's arid, remote plains, surrounded by austere beauty and nomadic tribes. "We camped at night in a conventional tent," he says, "and nearby were nomads who stayed in one of those typical Mongolian tents called a ger, or yurt. They would invite us to their tents and offer something to eat or drink. Very hospitable, generous people. Most of them are herders of horses, yaks, camels, and sheep, and they move around with the green pastures."
In contrast to the Mongolian cities Trovato visited -- such as the capital, Ulan Bator -- the countryside showed few traces of modern life. "They don't have electricity or running water," he says. "They live pretty much how they lived a thousand years ago." That enamored Trovato. "I travel with an open mind," he explains. "I'm not looking for anything in particular except to find the true essence of where you are."
-- Jack Crager
Zambia
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| © Francesco Lagnese |
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On November 17, 1855, a Presbyterian missionary and explorer became the first European to see the great sheet of falling water that local people called Mos i-oa-Tunya, or "The Smoke That Thunders." The missionary, David Livingstone, decided to rename the great waterfall, formed when the entire width of the Zambezi River plummets several hundred feet. He called it Victoria Falls, after England's Queen Victoria. Later the British occupied the area, which was claimed as a protectorate and named North Rhodesia. The country gained independence and adopted the name Zambia in 1964. Today some 300,000 people visit Victoria Falls each year, making it one of Africa's top tourist attractions.
Such popularity does not diminish the visual grandeur of the falls, says New York-based travel photographer Francesco Lagnese, who journeyed to Zambia in 2006 on assignment for the U.K. edition of Condé Nast Traveler. Lagnese has photographed great destinations around the world -- Thailand, Greece, Italy, the Maldives, and Morocco, to name a few -- but the raw beauty of landlocked Zambia holds a special meaning for him. "You are immersed in nature there," he says. "The focus is more on open nature than enclosed game preserves. You can stay at places that don't have doors or windows, with just curtains between you and the calling lioness or hippo. The sense that you are connecting with something wild is very strong."
Originally from Italy, Lagnese began his career after assisting a number of photographers, many specializing in fashion. He quickly decided he liked travel photography because it allowed him "to see something else" beside clothes. "I need to be able to shoot nature, portraits, and architecture," he says. "You never know where the next assignment will take you. You might be shooting the Italian royal family or hanging in an ultralight over Victoria Falls."
-- D.S.
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