Nature photography tour of a lifetime…
Photographic Ecotourism – A Growing Niche
Text and Photos ©Gregory Basco 2009
Foto Verde Tours, the Costa Rican ecotour company that I started with local ecologist and tourism entrepreneur Paulo Valerio, has grown since its inception three years ago, and this growth is providing a platform for us to expand our own benefits to conservation and local communities.
Foto Verde Tours offers open signup tours and customized photo travel. We run a number of photographic tours with set dates that have a particular theme. Some trips are co-led by other professional photographers (from the US, Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Argentina to date) and local Foto Verde Tours staff while others are led directly by local Foto Verde Tours staff. Interested participants register for the trip of their choice, and the group travels and photographs according to the pre-specified itinerary.
Sample themes include general wildlife, natural landscapes, and hummingbirds. We also work directly with individuals or small groups of professional and/or amateur photographers to design custom itineraries that fit each client’s particular interests. In both cases, Foto Verde Tours takes care of everything (transportation, lodging, meals, naturalist guide service, and photo instruction) from the moment our clients step off the plane in Costa Rica until they moment they board their return flight home, leaving all trip participants free to pursue photography while leaving the logistics of photo travel to us.
Expanding Ecotourism Benefits
Nature photography has long been an important tool in conservation by portraying to a wide audience the amazing beauty of our planet’s ecosystems, flora, and fauna. At Foto Verde Tours, we believe that our photo tours have a diffuse effect in terms of spreading knowledge about Costa Rica’s biodiversity. Indeed, many of our clients return home and prepare presentations and slideshows that they share with their local camera clubs, birding societies, and schools.
>> Find Foto Verde Tours on Ecotourism Explorer!
>> Read more about the featured ecoDestination, Costa Rica
Comment by: Andrea Matone
andreamatone@gmail.com
http://www.andreamatone.com
Discovering nature through photography is a great way to stay in touch with the environment while learning about the animals, plants and the land that you photograph. Sounds like a truly fun tour not just for those that are experienced outdoor people but also for those that wish to try something new like me.
I am also a photographer and run an entirely different photo tour, one that runs through urban architecture and the ancient sites of Rome Italy. I take pictures of people visiting the city spontaneously and authentically trying to add creativity and fun to the photo shoot using different methods that run from photojournalism techniques, portraits and HDR photography while keeping the urban city of Rome both ancient and modern as a backdrop.
Here is a link to my Rome Photography Tour page to view some of the imagery: http://www.andreamatone.com/photo-tours/
I will take the time to show you all the details and curious aspects of an off the beaten track tour where you will be able to visit, see, experience and tour places, situations, people that would be otherwise difficult to come across if you were to move on your own. You will avoid the tourist pedestrian highways and will take more secluded, intimate and truly Italian passageways. Let it be romantic, creative, fun and friendly, the astounding images will do the rest.
Beautiful pictures of you in Rome which will finally include everyone and not just everyone but the one behind the camera.
I also am a photographer who takes guests on photo tours. These types of excursions are so much fun and ultimately very good for the local conservation efforts. Photographers are very good at sharing the best of a place, and this can only be a positive for the destinations visited.
What concerns me is the number of traditional tour operators who are trying to say they are a photography tour when they have no professional photographers involved in the hosting and your itinerary is not at all specialized from the typical tourist The other end of the spectrum is the photo tours hosted by photographers that are more about their egos than the guests.
My photo tour to South Africa is neither. I take up to 8 guests to my small lodge which I built myself and we simply spend as much time as possible taking photos and learning digital photography techniques.
I can not believe that with such a small number of slots to fill on my 2x per year trips and my modest price, that I still struggle to get guests. Where do photographers find honest eco tour photography tours? I want to share this extraordinary place with other photographers and I wish to find non-factory trips to go on myself. I just dont know how to find them or be found.
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