TRAVELING in style : PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Photography can be as important a part of traveling as a passport. Both have a way of opening doors for you, and both can provide a lasting account of where you have been and what you have seen. But don’t let the seemingly obvious limit your pictorial record taking (there’s a whole visual world beyond conventional picture-postcard views) or allow negative climatic conditions to make you miss an extraordinary photo opportunity that can suddenly develop when totally unexpected. Rainy days, for example, need not mean caping your lens. Here’s a personal experience of mine: In England, I was faced with photographing Bath’s 15th-Century Abbey against solid-ray skies. Not too promising, but my interest increased when a noontime concert band arrived. Moving around to shoot the music-makers, I noticed that the church’s reflection appeared in the tubas. Pictured here is the result. Windows, puddles, even shiny car roofs could provide similar interesting mirror images. But leave the Polarizer off, since it removes the reflection from your view.