One of the things about travel or holidays is seeing new places and storing them in your memories forever. Add photography to the mix and what you have are tangible memories in your hands, memories to look back at a later point in time. Perhaps, that is why travel photography is in itself an incentive enough to explore new places. Yes, for many, many years later, these photographs would help you reminisce and see those places all over again.

A traveller not only discovers new destinations through her eyes but through her camera as well. This tiny detail actually makes a camera more than just a device for the travelling soul. It becomes a companion. And these days when everyone loves to travel light, a good camera phone becomes imperative for travel photography. With the heavy camera equipment, it makes sense to have a phone which doubles as an excellent camera as well. That’s where Asus ZenFone 3 comes in. With its sharpness, picture quality, battery life and memory, it is a perfect fit for the travel hungry soul.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to one such soul, travel photographer Dikshit Mundra. Let’s find out what he thinks about travel photography and ASUS Zenfone 3.

1. What is your favourite part of Travel Photography?

TRAVEL itself is the sufficient answer but more to this, I think sometimes the world with the camera’s lens turns out to be a different kind of beauty.  Moreover, getting to know a place and the local crowd, exploring its culture and what people, different from us, live like. And adding photography to that gives you an opportunity to connect with those people. I can confidently say that travel photography is an adventure that endorses you to grow.

2. Tell us a bit about your trip with the Asus ZenFone 3

We travel photographers have to really rely on the equipment we use. Now when it comes down to cell phone it has to be the best. In terms of camera, battery life and the memory to store all your data. The Asus ZenFone 3 proved to be pretty great in everything.  The brilliant camera performance , excellent battery life that lasted me 3 days during my  trek ( Flight Mode on) and enough memory to store all my captures without the need of an extra micro SD card. It didn’t lag or heat up at all and that’s what I loved.

3. What do you look for in a Mobile Camera and how does the Asus ZenFone 3 measure up?

Picture quality, Sharpness and the correct colour frequency is what really matters to me when it comes to cellphone photography. The Asus Zenfone 3 measures up to all these. The TriTech Auto Focus with an f/2.0 stop was quick and really easy to use. The low-light shots were decent with the primary camera. The given Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Electronic Image Stabilization ( EIS) were just icing on the cake. Overall the performance of the camera was impressive with brilliant modes to experiment on.

4. What were your favourite camera modes on the Asus ZenFone 3?

Manual Mode, Depth Of Field, Slow Motion, Super Resolution and HDR Mode

5. Share a tip or trick you discovered for travel photographers using the Asus ZenFone 3?

While travelling there are times when you can’t charge up your cell phone. Be it the remoteness of the area or basic electricity issues. I was facing the same while my recent trek to Kheerganga. Now what I did was, turn my cell phone to flight mode and use only the camera. That little trick gave me 3 days of hassle free captures during my entire trek. Works even better if you have a spare cellphone on you. You can transfer your sim card to it and need not to worry about juicing up your device or missing any calls.

6. What first drew you to photography and what is your favourite part of photography today?

It was when I came across the TED talk by Frans Lanting where he spoke about the animal kingdom, and how you connect with rest of the ecology around you just by using a camera. Initially, I was drawn to wildlife photography for the sole reason of never being able to stage animals, it will always be in its raw form. And meanwhile, I learnt how the concept in a photograph is more important than just the composition. To sum it up, conceptual and wildlife photography would count as my favourites.

7. Tell us about your most memorable trip

Leh Ladakh September 2016. The bike ride on the shaky and bumpy hill roads of Ladakh sure is an adventure and gives you a sense of achievement. The challenges we faced made it an exhilarating experience altogether. The religious culture starts to absorb you in it. The kind of peace we experienced in Leh couldn’t be really defined.

Every single passing moment of that trip reassured of Ladakh being a great gift to this world.

8. What advice would you give a beginner travel photographer?

First of all, I would tell them to loosen up and let go of their fears. Getting absorbed in a place by connecting to its locals is the ideal way to getting to know the city on a personal level; because the common information is anyway all over the internet. The foremost advice would be – learn when to differentiate travel from photography and when to combine them.

9. What has been the most scenic trip you’ve been on?

Roads and raw hills of Leh Ladakh and; the Sand Dunes of Rajasthan were the most exquisite experience for the eyes.

10. Pick a photo taken on the ZenFone 3 and tell us how you composed it

There is this one photograph focusing on the tree bark with beautiful bokeh in the background and sunlight adding up to the whole scenario. While trekking I saw a spot where usually people took a break. I saw everyone taking pictures there with the same background. I just wanted to show something different. So I place my cellphone Asus ZenFone 3 against the bark facing up, using Depth of Field mode and focusing on the tree bark and blocking the sun rays with my other hand. The result really impressed me. I have never seen such a beautiful bokeh created by a cellphone camera.

Pic Credit – Dikshit Mundra