Get Fantastic Travel Photographs – Jeff Johnson Photography Tips

This is the full edit version of my interview with Jeff Johnson, who has a dream job as a Patagonia staff photographer. He gives his tips for outstanding travel photographs. Jeff  is also the lead in the film 180 Degrees South which retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia. Jeff talks about how the movie came about and his experiences along the way as a photographer.

A few of the questions that I asked him were
  1. How do you tell stories with your photographs?
  2. What’s the story of making the film 180 South?
  3. How was it transitioning from still to motion?
  4. How do you approach a photojournalistic assignment?
  5. Any tips for capturing great light?
  6. How did you do the voiceovers for the film?
  7. How about your tips for composition?
  8. How do you get the “mojo” in your photographs?
We  talked about a whole lot more, so give this full version a watch!
Marc Silber:

View Comments (4)

  • Mark this is so well done! I really enjoyed listening to Jeff and it's such a bonus to have a long interview like this one. Great work!

  • When I initially saw this man I thought, "he doesn't look like a photographer". But as I watched the interview I realized that one can form an erroneous image of a person based on previous experiences, and that image can be totally wrong. He may not "look like a photographer" but he is certainly one. You see it in his passion, in the expressions in his face when he's talking about his art, in the tone of his voice... This is perhaps my favorite interview of all the ones I have watched. Thanks for posting the long version!