A perpetual challenge for landscape and travel photographers is capturing original images. One photographer went underground in pursuit of that challenge. His images will inspire you to look deeper on your next photography trip.

Photographer Tomas Sentpetery recently collaborated with Nikon Europe on a photography project called Look Deeper to encourage and inspire travel photographers to seek out new perspectives in instantly-familiar locations. Sentpetery traveled to five popular European destinations, London, Paris, Krakow, Naples, and the southern coast of Spain and captured images both above and below ground.

Sentpetery contrasted the views choosing to create a vibrant, colorful style for the above ground images and a starker, more desolate look for the underground shots. He wanted to showcase the tourist-free nature of the underground sites, especially in comparison to the world-famous views above such as Big Ben and Parliament in London and the Eiffel Tower as seen from Trocadero in Paris. He chose underground sites that are all open to the general public as the goal was to find places that were not well known but still accessible. Sentpetery told me that he found it particularly enjoyable working with local guides as they were excited to show off places that were not often visited by tourists. 

Sentpetery used a couple of Nikon camera bodies and a variety of NIKKOR lenses for the project including the D850, D7500, 14-24mm f/2.8, 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5, and 24-70mm f/2.8. While he didn’t find the underground shooting to be technically challenging, he did utilize flash guns and external lights at times for illumination and in order to better capture the look he pre-visualized. He also tried to explore as much as possible underground in order to find unique angles. Sentpetery was constantly amazed at the dichotomy between being by himself in a place like the Wieliczka salt mines versus being surrounded by tour groups above ground in Krakow.

Sentpetery’s main take-away from this project was to constantly push himself to seek out new locations and angles from which to product beautiful images. He says, “There are hidden worlds all around us and I wanted to show there is more to popular tourist destinations than we might expect. Do your research before you travel and don’t be afraid to look deeper. With the right kit and a thirst for adventure it’s possible to deliver stand-out travel photography.”  

For more information on the project, you can check out the Nikkon Look Deeper page or check out this short video:

Images used with permission of Tomas Sentpetery and Nikon Europe.