Are photo tours a waste of time, or... not?

[@mitchellkphotos]

What are your thoughts on photo tours? Good? Bad? Not for you? Any great stories? SHARE! 🙂

[@DavidKatz]

Good analogy to hobbies. I like this

[@paullafleur6112]

Always a pleasure watching your videos. Thanks for sharing your insights

[@marcioa99]

Hi Mitchell! Your thoughts and insights are always great! I completely agree with your ideas about photo tours, even though I've never had the opportunity to be on one so far. I'd like to, for photography is a hobby to me, and I consider myself a photography enthusiast. With limited resources, especially time and knowledge about the places, I suggest adding another important factor about photo tours: the price. Usually, they´re expensive or very expensive, charged in dollars, euros, or whatever other strong currency. For instance, I´m from Brazil, and I get paid in R$ (reais), so you can imagine the problem...Anyway, thank you again, and enjoy your journey in Brazil!

[@mitchellkphotos]

True... BUT... you can look to join local tours led by Brasilian photographers. Though Brasil ain't cheap either. :) But, sure, being from outside the few "privileged" areas of the world makes things more difficult.

[@richardzelinka9411]

I'm a hobbyist who does mostly landscape and city life and cityscape photography. I have done lots of reasonably priced tours, and they have all been grood experiences. The groups ranged from 3 to 6. I usually combine a tour with a longer trip. City photography I do on my own. I use the tours to get to out-of-the way locations so I don't have to deal with renting a vehicle and driving on sketchy or dangerous roads, or being alone in a remote location in a foreign country. The tour leaders have all been very knowledgeable, offering tips and suggestions to improve our images, and they often take us to areas they haven't been before to see if there is anything there worth photographing. I enjoy interacting with other photographers and learning from them. You would be amazed how different workshop participants can produce totally different images at the same location.

[@mitchellkphotos]

Interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing!

[@ИльяЩукин-о4ы]

Новый материал - отлично!❤💥💫

[@allenahale1]

Why do I do a photo-tour? I go on a photo tour (no more than 10 guests - often 5). I go to experience a special place and more importantly unique peoples for the first time. I then return alone again or even more times utilizing the local company and guides that I have encountered on the "photo tour". My return trips are typically one-half the price or twice the length, once both, for what I paid for the first visit. The benefit is that the guide is familiar with the way I operate and what my photography goals are. It is the local company and local guides who do all the work and have all the local knowledge and local contacts. This has worked out fabulously for me in Cambodia, Ladakh India, Nepal, and Omo Valley in Ethiopia.

[@mitchellkphotos]

Yep! Great way to go, I think. You save time the first time, get great contacts and then, like you say - you save money and can go deeper.

[@Rng3000-o2v]

Hi Mitchell, I am from Brasil and living in Australia (Perth), I have been following your work for the last few years (I don't like photo tours and I don't like shopping centres either. kkk, you know what I mean), take care. By the way: is BraSil, not BraZil.

[@mitchellkphotos]

Shopping centers suck... UNLESS you need to hide from heat in North East Brasil and do some video editing in a cafe. 🤣

[@KnockingNews]

Please make one video every week. its not suggesting your videos

[@mitchellkphotos]

I got no time or energy to do that, haha. But, I'll try more often.

[@montanaylago]

I have done small, “local” photo tours just to photo-scout… particularly in areas that are considered not supper safe. Like hiking in to a new (for me) “ridge line” or “downtown night” photography… then coming back for my own enjoyment

[@BrentODell]

I haven't done any real tours, but have been to some studio meet-ups. I'd really like to have the time and money to join some of the smaller tours I've seen. I think having someone local who know where everything is can be a huge benefit.

[@tjsinva]

Good points. I've been on a couple of good ones. With limited time, having someone handle the logistics makes for an easier and more fruitful journey. Carry on.👍🥂

[@marcusnz232]

I’ve done a few. If you pick the right leader and the right destination, they’re a useful experience. They can also be a way to see places that are hard to travel in (for example Myanmar). They’re also great fun if you get the right one.

[@belaacs5238]

Never do photo tours or workshops. Travel, street, and documentary photography, what I do, is not a teamwork. If photographers want to socialize, they should join a dance club and dance whatever everybody else, dances there. Certainly, everybody does whatever they like to do and if they like what the other 20 or so photographers do and have all the same images, they join a tour or a workshop. "I never join any club where they want me to be a member" WA

[@mitchellkphotos]

I don't necessarily agree with everything you say, though my own thinking is along the same lines as yours. But, I also think for people for whom photography is a hobby, it's also a great way to make friends. Not everyone likes to dance 😋 and photography doesn't mean the same thing to all people. :)