He Shoots, He Scores

Upend a tourist and a camera is likely to fall out of his pocket, but few shutterbugs know how to put their camera to best use. Holiday photos are often more Addams Family than Ansel Adams and usually draw only polite murmurs from captive audiences. Yet an increasing number of photography breaks are helping amateur photographers tap their creative juices.

Courses last from a weekend to a fortnight, in destinations from Bhutan, where students learn to capture the color of the Jambay Lhakhang Festival,

to Iceland's volcanic landscape. Experts help to transform snapshot-happy tourists into travel photographers. They advise on lenses, composition, framing, lighting and photographic content. "It's about putting the photos in the context of the landscape and the people," says Peter Noble, chairman of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Travel Group, who is also a guide with specialist agency Light & Land. The RPS recommends that you sign up with a well-known photographer and travel with a group no larger than 15; prices will vary according to group size and quality of accommodation.

You can search the Web to see if your favorite travel photographer runs courses, or book with an agency such as Light & Land, tel: (44-1432) 839 111; www.lightandland.co.uk, which offers vacations to places like Zion National Park in Utah, above, with top photographers. Photo Adventures, tel: (44-1665) 830834; www.photoadventures.co.uk, offers a variety of locales under the direction of author and photographer Lee Frost. For many trips you'll need a working knowledge of your camera and a tripod. Just think — when friends and family say they want to see your holiday photos, for once, they'll actually mean it.