Walter Shepherd Photography FAQ's


How extensively have you travelled and what camera do you use?

The longest trips where overland from Singapore Malaysia Thailand Burma to Katmandu then via India Pakistan Afghanistan Iran Turkey Europe to London in the 1970's. The next big trip was across the Trans Siberian railway in winter. Starting the trip in Hong kong -Taiwan - Japan - Trans Siberian railway through to London, Scotland - France, Italy , learnt skiing in Austria then to Canada, USA and back to Australia. The third trip in 2012 was to Sth America covering Chile, Peru, Bolivia , Argentina and Brazil.


Memorable Exotic places apart from places visited on the longest trips include Papua New guinea, Egypt , Bhutan, Cuba, Guatemala, Turkmenistan, UAE, Tanzania and Namibia


Most beautiful landscapes I have found in Iceland and New Zealand.


Fortunately I travelled extensively for work (in the Medical Diagnostics Industry) to companies and scientific conferences in USA, Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgian, France, Italy, UK and Ireland), Singapore, Hong Kong, India and China and have happly gained the life long Qantas FF gold status.


Tripadvisor advised me by email on 23/5/2017 “ Did you realise how many travellers you've guided with your good advice? You have 3,766 readers. Impressive!"


When did you get into photography? What camera gear do you now own?

My first serious camera was a film camera the Olympus OM2.


For travelling i needed a lightweight camera so I chose cameras from the Olympus mirrorless OMD range Em1ii, Em5ii together with most of the Olympus Pro lenses and a long reach zoom the Panasonic 100-400 F4-6.3. I also have Fujifilm and Sony cameras.


I also have purchased a Nikon 850


How have you learnt about photography?

I am self taught. My Master's Degree in Applied Science has helped me to teach myself. So far I have not needed to attend a formal photography course however i did attend a 10week course on "the study of portrait" at contactsheet.com.au

Facilitator - Paul McDonald with Guest speakers -
Moshe Rosenzveig (Director - Head On Photo Festival)
Sandy Edwards (Director - ArtHere)
Kellie Leczinska (Fine Art Photographer | Portrait Prize Finalist)
Hugo Sharp (Large format portrait photographer)


I have been on a number of photography tours/workshops and learned from photographers such as
www.adammonk.com to Bhutan twice
www.joshuacripps.com to Sth IslandNZ
www.alfonso.com.au to Japan,Tasmania,Sydney vivid

and Haukur Snorrason an Icelandic photographer from www.phototours.iswww.photos.islooknorth.is

I have learnt a tremendous amount through accessing photographic material available from lynda.com , creativelive.com , Udemy , Craftsy and subscribing to youtube channels such as B&H, Joe Edelman, Tony and Chelsea Northrup, Thomas Leuthard, Photoshopecafe, Kelbyone, post processing mastery, professional photography tips, f64 academy, Ted Forbes the art of photography, PHlearn, School of visual Arts


Studying lots of photography books obtained from preachpit.com and Amazon.com. I can recommend the following authors : David Duchemin , Michael Freeman and Roberto Valenzuela


Learning from videos online is the way to go. I have learnt from these photographers videos Serge Ramelli, Peter Eastway, Joshua Cripps, Matt Kloskowski, Matt Granger, Jimmy McIntyre



I joined a number of camera clubs (Castle Hill RSL Photography Club,St George Leagues Club Photographic Society, Aust Photographic Society), gained judging critiques and attended seminars. Also joined SMH Clique , attending workshops, submitting photos for critique and hanging out with Fairfax paper photographers.


Finally learning from National Geographic Photographers is as easy as getting steaming videos or DVD's from www.thegreatcourses.com

The Art of Travel Photography: Six Expert Lessons Fundamentals of Photography I and II
National Geographic Masters of Photography