What makes Steve Davey's photo tours different?
Steve led his first travel photography tour with Intrepid Travel in 2006, and believes that over the intervening years he has created a completely unique product. The combination of his lively and energetic personality and approach to travel and photography, combined with his collaboration with Intrepid Travel mean that our tours and completely different from anything else on offer.
The primary thing that Steve is intending with his tours if for you to improve your travel photography and to come home with more incredible pictures than you ever thought possible. But he is also mindful that this is a holiday as well as a photographic tour. Whilst people are encouraged to take advantage of as many photographic opportunities as possible, you are also encouraged to relax, shop, sight-see and fully experience the country that you are travelling in.
This will include the opportunity to head out for many convivial group meals, and drinks in the bar after a long day of photography, where we can discuss photography, review pictures or simply relax and enjoy the moment.
As these tours are a completely separate product to Intrepid trips, Steve has the freedom to pick and mix from the various Intrepid styles to give you a totally unique experience. Sometimes we will stay in more luxurious and comfortable hotels, other times more basic accommodation will give us better access or a better experience!
The travel arrangements are organised to give you the best experience and also the best possible photo-opportunities. Most of the time we will be travelling in our own private vehicle, which means that we have the freedom to stop for pictures and travel at times to suit us. Occasionally we will use public transport when it is more convenient or adds to the experience.
Steve believes that his tours should be as rich an experience as possible and so has tried to include as much as possible in the tour price. A list of what is included is set out on the itinerary page of each tour.
Steve passionately believes that travel photography shouldn't be a chore, and that done correctly, travel photography can help you to get more out of your destination and can be the perfect excuse and motivation to engage with the world and the people you will meet in a more profound and active way. Quite simply, if you follow Steve's vision, you will get more out of your trip by being a photographer, than you ever would if you were travelling without a camera - and will come away with some great pictures as well.
This is one of the reasons why our trips are popular for non-photographing partners. Even if you are not a keen photographer, they are an incredible experience, and you will be encouraged and supported into completely engaging with the country you are travelling in and the people we encounter along the way.
On every trip we will be accompanied by one of Intrepid Travel’s incredible local leaders who will be perfect to aid you in this engagement. Steve has worked with many of Intrepid’s best leaders over the years and some have become close friends. Uniquely Steve is able to pull strings with most local offices and work with the same leaders when he returns to a destination.
Steve always empowers the Intrepid leader to include everything that they would normally include on a tour, so you truly get the best of both worlds. More than this, he always encourages them to suggest unmissable things that they think should have be included. This might be a local market, a particular temple, a viewpoint or even visiting something at a particular time of day. On most long journeys Steve will see if there is anything interesting along the route – such as a local brickworks, and will always keep his eye out for random things like farmers working in fields.
Steve has decided not to simply run annual departures of a limited number of trips. This doesn’t suit his psyche, or the huge number of repeat travellers. He has a selection of destinations and tours that he runs on a rotation, and is always looking at developing new experiences.
This helps to keep everything fresh, and the energy and effort that Steve puts into each trip means that running back to back trips simply isn't feasible.
You might think that all of this comes at a high price, but because of our collaboration with Intrepid Travel and their Worldwide network of local offices and DMCs, Steve’s trips are incredibly well priced. Our daily cost per day is usually at least half of what most of our competitors are charging - even if you factor in any single supplement.
This is borne out by our unparalleled level of repeat business: our most loyal customer has done 15 trips, our top three have done 42 trips between them; and we have one regular traveller who was on our first tour in 2006!
This level of repeat business also means that the atmosphere on our trips is always friendly, nurturing and very convivial, with those with more experience helping and nurturing those who are starting out.
The photography tuition on any trip is flexible and responsive, depending on the requirements of the group. Some people are keen to learn as much as possible – others just want to take advantage of the opportunities, the company and the photographically-minded atmosphere.
Rest assured though that through a mix of illustrated talks, on the spot tuition, picture reviews and personal instruction you will get the level of tuition you require.
Steve is always on hand to answer on the spot questions, point out photographic angles, approach people on your behalf and encourage you to push yourself and help you to develop skills of your own.
Steve's tours don't just concentrate on the technical aspects of photography. Steve will teach you how to plan your coverage of a place, assess a scene and decide how you are going to photograph it, how to previsualise how your picture will come out and then how to achieve this. He will cover how to approach people to ask to take their portraits and how to decide on your composition when you are looking at a subject. This information will be useful to you no matter what camera you are using.
It is this emphasis on engagement, enjoyment and involvement that make our trips so popular with non-photographing partners. They appreciate how we move through the World and embrace every possibility to experience as much as possible.
Travel photography is a fantastic motivator, and can galvanise people to see more sunrises, climb more mountains and probably most importantly, approach and interact with more people than if they were just travelling. In Steve's life, travel photography has been a catalyst, an inspiration and an excuse to get out and see and experience more of the world: and this is how he runs his tours.
"Your love of photography and travel is infectious and I can honestly say I have never laughed or learnt so much on a holiday before!"
This comment from a previous tour is the closest we have to a mission statement, and more than anything sums up what Steve is trying to achieve with these tours. Yes, we want people to learn as much as possible about photography, but it is also supposed to be an enjoyable trip which gives you as many happy memories as it does great photographs.
