JourneyLearning: - Your journey guide

For sheer variety of subjects--architecture, interesting faces, open-air markets, historic landmarks, parks--nothing competes with the urban whirl of a city. Best of all, you can change subjects as your mood or your ideas evolve and usually just by turning another corner. In Manhattan, for instance, the glamour of the United Nations, the glitz (and grunge) of Times Square, and the cool shade of Central Park are mere blocks apart. Unlike zooming through the countryside in a car at warp speed, hoping that a wonderful vista will pop up beside you, trekking a city's streets immerses you in its most intimate details. The kind of photographs you're likely to find will depend a lot

on the personality of the city. If your stay is brief, take a short bus tour to find out exactly where you are and hatch some good picture ideas. In cities where old and new live shoulder to shoulder, look for scenes that reveal that contrast. (See the photograph of the contrast of the gothic architecture of St. Patrick's Cathedral with a modern steel and glass Manhattan skyscraper, taken with a 28 mm wide-angle lens.) In frenetic hubs like Tokyo or London, you can catch the energy by using a very long telephoto lens to compress crowds or a long exposure to intentionally blur the bustle. Whatever the locale, an advantage of city photography is that you can--and should--travel light with respect to equipment. A point-and-shoot or SLR that provides auto exposure and auto focus will free you to concentrate on your compositions and enable you to respond quickly to picture opportunities. A zoom lens in the 28 mm to 85 mm range will embrace wide views and still let you close in on interesting faces or architectural details.