Cultural photo etiquette from the pros

1. Always ask permission

“Even if you don’t speak the language, you can communicate by simply holding up your camera and pointing at it and then pointing at the person,” says Justin Gibson, a photo-expedition leader for Natural Habitat Adventures.

2. Follow your own cultural etiquette

“I remind clients that they wouldn’t pull out a camera and start shooting strangers on the street in America,” Gibson says. “Remember how you like to be treated at home and carry that forward.”

3. Be an active participant

Ask the person if they’d like to share a photograph with you and have a friend snap the shot of the two of you and show it to them. “This allows you to connect with the subject,” Gibson says. “They understand that you are really interested and engaged.”

4. Don’t gang up

On a group tour, if a fellow traveler is photographing someone let them work one on one, photographer Mark Edward Harris says. Find your own person to shoot or wait your turn. “Do not surround one person and start shooting as a group, or it ends up feeling like a rugby scrum and the subject is the ball,” he says.

5. Learn the language

“Knowing even a few words of the local language can go a long way,” says Harris, who always uses Pimsleur ahead of a trip to learn a few key phrases. “If anything, my bad pronunciation is usually a great ice-breaker.”

6. No paparazzi shots

“I from think a distance it’s incredibly with a disrespectful long zoom lens to hide and shoot people as objects,” Harris says. “The people know you are there. I prefer to use a wider lens and get up close and interface with people rather than treat them like an object.”

7. Keep it real

“I am dead set against using local villagers to put seed pods or flowers in their hair just to capture a portrait of ‘Wild Africa,’ ” says Graeme Lemon, general manager of Wild Expeditions. “Avoid situations staged for tourists.”