The late Ron Levy, a great photographer and friend, always said that he does his best work after just being in a place, observing it, feeling it, until he realizes the essence of the place. It is only then, he often said, that he felt really inspired. It is then that images seem to just jump out at him. It is then that his creativity peeked.

          How do you get an image of a place that captures the essence of that place? How do we make images that scream out the place it is from? These are images that are typical of the place, of its character. Yet, as photographers, we need to be creative. We do not want to display and image that has been shot to death, the same old thing. We want to capture the essence of the place while yet being fresh and new. We also need to capture images that scream out our own personal style. Just like someone should be able to look at any picture that captured the essense of a place and know where the image is from our images should also be recognizalbe simply because of our own developed style. A winner is an image that captures the essense of a place creatively and also places our style on display.

Here are a few tips to capture the essence of a place:

• Look around and observe the place

• Ask yourself what the place is famous for

• Ask yourself what about the scene screams out the answer to the previous question

• Find a composition that captures or amplified the answer to the previous question

What is the essence of a desert? Sand, dry, hot, parched, lifeless or struggling life ... Now find a composition that showcases that ...

To me, this image just screams everything we just discussed. Yet it is not the typical image of Deadvlei, Namibia. It is unique and different. It conveys what the desert is all about.

          The essence of a place is that which summarizes it in one image. Grab that.