Travel

In the course of interviewing more than two dozen professional travel photographers, we picked up some advice. Here are their best hints for the journey— and photos—of a lifetime. Doing Your Research -- Learn as much as possible. Start with the tourism website of the destination that you will visit.

Now is a Great time to visit the desert. When much of the country is still gripped in snow and ice, temperatures in the desert start to reach that justright point in late winter and early spring, and clear skies mean brilliant light at sunrise and sunset. As a bonus, desert flowers bloom in March, adding a rare splash of color to an otherwise barren landscape. So pack your gear, some sunscreen, and lots of water, and head on out. Here are a few of the extraordinary things that the desert offers to nature photographers, and the best places to find them.

On a recent photography cruise to the Galápagos Islands, my group and I had just finished a long walk at Urbina Bay on a successful search for big, yellow land iguanas to photograph. Just before 11 a.m., the sun had broken through the light clouds, and it was obvious that we were finished shooting—the light was simply too harsh.Or was it?

For Michael Hughes, inspiration came from a postcard. "I was on assignment for a newspaper 10 years ago in the Rhine Valley to photograph the Loreley rock," an outcropping where, legendarily, a siren lured sailors to their deaths. When the day dawned gray and Hughes struggled to find an interesting shot, he reached into his pocket and found a postcard given to him by his daughter. "It had a picture of the winner of a 'Miss Loreley' competition, sitting right where I was looking," he says.