Efraín M. Padró is a full-time professional photographer specializing in nature and travel subjects. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Efraín speaks fluent Spanish and has led numerous photography expeditions to destinations including Spain, India, Morocco and Turkey.
Efraín’s work has appeared in Travel+Leisure.com, Geographic Expeditions catalogs, Frommer’s Budget Travel Magazine, and many other publications. He is also the author of The Photographer’s Guide to New Mexico and The Beginner's Guide to Magazine Photography: Professional Secrets for Fast Results, which ranked as a Kindle best-seller last year.
When not behind the camera or leading workshops, Efraín likes reading about history, art, and philosophy, and collecting antique maps (copies!). As a former bicycle racer, he still exercises every day and follows Le Tour every July.
Today: I travel to beautiful places to take pictures, teach or on assignment. I also teach locally. I am my own boss and enjoy my daily commute to the basement.
Love to: Get up early in the morning when nobody else is around.
Hate: Writers who use fancy-pants words when a simple one will do (For example, instead of “Know All Men by These Presents”, just say “Hey!”).
Favorite book: Selling the Invisible, by Harry Beckwith, was very helpful when I started my photography career.
Taking photos to accompany an article you’ve written may seem easy at first. If your article is about, say, the five best ethnic markets in Amsterdam, you go out and take pictures of the five markets. But here is where it gets tricky. Should you take wide-angle pictures of each market? Should you focus on […]
Whether you’re submitting a feature article for publication, a 200-word blurb, or something in between, your goal as a travel writer is the same: Get the editor to say “Yes.” There are many ways to accomplish this, including researching your subject thoroughly and editing your work carefully. But another great way to get your article […]
Stock photography is an excellent launch pad for your photo career. It allows you to build an image portfolio at your own pace, and you have the freedom to take pictures of whatever you enjoy photographing—such as people, landscapes, or architecture—without having to deal with editors or being on assignment. And because stock agencies take […]
Like many things in life, photography has a set of rules that, if followed, will yield better results than not following the rules. This sounds very strict. However, and fortunately for us, photography’s compositional rules are more like suggestions. What constitutes complying with the rules is subjective… and breaking them once in a while is […]
On Nov. 15, 2013, I turned 10 years old—not as a human being but as a travel photographer. During my first 10 years, I learned a few things about photography (most of them the hard way), so I jotted them down as I reflected on the previous decade. Some of the things I learned are […]
I’ve been a full-time travel photographer for years, and throughout my career, I’ve heard this mantra from countless other photogs: Carry a camera at all times. Their rationale is that the “shot of a lifetime” might occur at any moment. You don’t want to miss it, right? Like a hawk, the thinking goes, a photographer […]
Ranger Rick: Find out how you can sell your photos to kids’ magazines by reading on…
photograph moving water
There’s a sign at the beginning of a trail in Rocky Mountain National Park that reads: “The Mountains Don’t Care.” In other words, even if you love nature and its beauty, nature couldn’t care less about you—so be prepared for anything. The same applies to travel photography. Even the best laid travel and photography plans […]
Over the past 14 years, I’ve worked on a number of assignments, ranging from a simple image of a cup of hot cocoa… to a magazine cover shot involving models, lights, and assistants… to a six-week assignment for a Frommer’s travel guide about Puerto Rico. During the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Photography Expedition this week, we […]
