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Join Tom Franklin de Waart, a photography-loving pilot, for a tour of some of his favourite locations that should not be missed by travelling enthusiasts
Fly away with pilot Tom Franklin de Waart to his favourite photographic locations from all around the world
My mission as a photographer is to showcase the beauty of earth. Our planet is facing many problems and we need to realize this and start respecting it. Through photos, like these, I’m trying to make others aware of these issues and help people understand why we should respect our planet.
I am a full-time pilot, and over that time I’ve visited about 60 countries. Sometimes it’s hard to get around in-between work as some countries are renowned for poor weather or challenging terrain. This is why I need gear I can rely on, like my D750; the sensor on it is great, and having such a strong lens makes it all the better.
I love landscape and travel photography, so when travelling to Jordan last month I had one photo in mind to encapsulate both topics; I wanted to capture a group of camels with the beautiful Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum in the background [1]. Wadi Rum is a protected area and is only accessible by a four-wheeldrive vehicle and a guide. I arranged the necessaries and, when the guide picked us up, I told him about this specific shot – we headed out right away since the conditions were simply perfect.
Nearby, a Jordanian was moving some camels, and after speaking to him I found out he was heading right for my spot! We drove ahead and I got set up, tweaking exposure and composition. I was looking to get that amazing red sand, the stunning mountains and the camels all in the same frame.
In the humid Karst mountains I had to hike to reach the viewpoint I wanted,
but once there I could see the beauty of the landscape [2]. But, after the struggle of getting up, setting up my camera was the next issue. Even the widest of wide-angle lenses aren’t able to capture all of the scene in one shot, so I decided to shoot several images and composite them together later. I wanted to include the river below, so I had to hang my tripod over the fence in such a way that I could have the river in the frame and still leave some space around it – I knew I’d lose some to cropping and post.
My final photo was taken during sunrise at one of my all-time favourite locations [3]. I awoke at around 3am and began the hour-and-a-half jeep ride to get to the location. I had asked the driver to pick me up earlier than usual since I wanted to beat the crowds and find myself a good spot. When I got there I was blessed with an absolutely incredible formation of thunderstorm clouds and gorgeous pink tones during the sunrise. This gave me so much dynamic range and depth in the photograph.