Greece
Beyond the Beautiful Obvious

You're planning a Greek Island trip. You decide on which islands. Buy airline tickets. Contact boat lines, to get from one island to the next. Make hotel reservations. Car reservations. Etc. Now get your camera ready. The Greek Isles are picture-perfect. So much so, that most of your photos will be just another Greek Island cliche. Unavoidable. Because you, like every visitor, will be enchanted with the overall scene. And want to shoot it all: The antiseptic white architecture. Blue-domed churches. Flower festooned villages. Colorful harbor scenes. Do take photos of the beautiful obvious. To show your friends where you've been. Shoot early morning for better light contrast. And less crowds in the way. Shoot late afternoon. To catch the warmth of a setting sun on your subjects. After that, unload the cliche & find a different Greek Island picture. Do a study of something, indicative of the island you're on: Lace curtains in windows. A brigade of old women, coming out to tidy their sidewalks. Cats in doorways. Or how about a study done only in Black & White? Like William Abranowicz did in his wonderful photo essay book, "The Greek File," (Rizzoli 2001). Pure mood. Peel back the layers of a favorite place, like photographer Glenda Kapsalis does. Or concentrate on color, contrast & texture of anything that suits your fancy. Like Helmut Witte did. In his photo shown here, contrasting a cobbled street & doorway. Set yourself up to catch islanders going about their business. Be careful not to offend anyone. If you can't get a candid shot from far enough away, ask permission to photograph. It certainly won't be as candid. But it's the only polite way to zero in on the creases of hard living & old age, found on a Grecian face. (And when you get home, buy that zoom lense you've been thinking about for times like this.) Come back with photos that don't just tell your travel story. Come back with photos that show a deeper understanding of the Greek Islands. Cliches aside. And so much more satisfying to your artistic soul.