Captivating travel portraits- “Rabari” by Mitchell Kanashkevich

Have you ever wondered how come that so many excellent travel photographers come back from their trips with beautiful, evocative portraits of locals, pictures telling stories about the place and people’s lives?

If the answer is yes, then you should take a look at the new documentary and travel photography e-book series from “Light Stalking”. The first e-book, launching the series, was written by Mitchell Kanashkevich. “Rabari. Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe” features ten of his portraits, among them some award-wining and cover-quality photographs.

Just take a look at the image opening the e-book (click on the image to see larger version). It is my favorite in the project. Wide open, dark eyes of this young girl, expression somewhere between light smile and serious, and play of light and shadow on her face- it all makes the image unique and simply beautiful.

Although e-book features full page images in the portfolio style, “Rabari. Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe” is not only about the photographic project focused on people of rural India. It is a guide, and in such, you will find a lot of value in the lessons from Mitchell, regarding the trip itself and the photography. In fact, chapters (one for each image) are organized in the same way, which I found very logical. There is a back story of the image- how it came about, what is the subject of the image and what was the purpose. It is followed by the technical description, including lighting (mostly natural light with reflector) with simple but very helpful lighting schemes. Then the author talks about posing and composing the image, presenting some other frames from the shoot, to show how he “worked” the subject”. There is a place for few additional tips, like short “take home” messages. And each chapter is finished of by short description of the post-processing steps, more like outline that detailed Lightroom or Photoshop tutorial, but with explanation why each step was needed and what it contributed to the final image.

The one memorable tip from the e-book for me is the one on posing to achieve natural looking photographs. How Mitchell does it is described for many images in the e-book, so take a look for yourself. For me, it was the “aha moment”- that’s how its done!

If you would like to see, how the travel and documentary photography projects are done, what are the main things to consider, organizationally and photographically, then “Rabari. Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe” is just for you. Also, if you would like to take stronger portraits, telling something about the people and their culture, at home and away, you will find useful information in the e-book.

“Rabari. Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe” is priced at $24.95. However, use the special introductory offer- using code HAPPYXMAS at check-out, you can have instant download of Mitchell Kanashkevich e-book for only $19.95. The offer is valid till Christmas. With the Forever money back guarantee from Light Stalking, theere is just no need to wait. Click here to buy “Rabari. Encounters with the Nomadic Tribe” now.

You can also check other e-book by Mitchell Kanashkevich, which were reviewed here on blog. He published “Journey through Java” in Print & Process series of Craft & Vision, as well as “Captivating Color” and “Getting published in photography magazines” as part of “Going Pro” kit with Digital Photography School.

The links in this post are affiliate links. I was also provided a free review copy of the e-book. See details of our affiliate policy here.