Maralyn and Michelle at the Conrad

Michell and I were fortunate to both be included in a Press Trip to Puerto Rico for Saborea.

In addition to be on the first panel of judges for the cook-offs, we met some other great members of the press.

While Michell was riding a horse, I was following Robin Daniel Frommer,Editor-in-chief of Grafenstein, experts in tourism communication.

Daniel is an exceptional photographer and I watched him take photographs with people as subjects. While we were all having lunch, I asked if I could share what I had observed. He had no idea what I was talking about, but said okay.

“He says, ‘Excuse me, can you give me a Sunday smile.’ If it’s not a big enough smile, he asked for another one.” I went on to say how positive the reaction was.

Michelle asked, if he always did that and he replied:

“You have to engage your subject. So many photographers just snap pictures. The good photographers don’t, they get permission. So when you ask for a smile, you are establishing a rapport (ask) ‘May I have your Sunday smile?’”

“If you study the great photographers, they spend time building a relationship with their subjects. When you just snap it’s not the same. Snapping is an intrusive, aggressive act. People don’t know who you are or who you are taking photos for. They are apprehensive. Engage them.”

Michelle and I both wanted to pass on this hint as we feel we can all learn from it. Thank you Daniel for granting us permission. If you want to learn more about Daniel go to the Grafenstein website. Daniel is a well-know speaker at tourism conferences.

Tags: photo tip, Robin Daniel Frommer

This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 1:39 am in the IFWTWA blog "Totally Food Wine & Travel". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.