Towns can be exciting places for a photographer. They present a huge variety of picture opportunities. So how do you ensure that you make the most of your time in town?

Photograph: Seattle, USA © Philip Dunn for You magazine

The buzz
Good townscape pictures capture something of the spirit of the place and people who live and work there. We all know that the atmosphere in every town is a little different; there are scruffy towns, stately, dignified towns, sleepy towns and towns that really mean business. All towns and cities say something about the people who inhabit them, so they can be exhilarating places to take pictures. I can't believe, for instance, that any photographer could visit New York or Hong Kong without feeling the buzz of these places.

In busy towns there are a host of subjects to chose from - broad architectural views, as well as countless opportunities to move in close and pick out patterns and details of texture. You need never be short of subject matter because even in cities with little architectural merit there will always be something worth photographing. It might be the brickwork of some of the older buildings; contrasts in dilapidated housing and modern office blocks; slick new skyscrapers, or wet cobbled courtyards. And the action doesn't stop when the sun goes down, either; neon lit street signs and the flow of car lights on busy roads can all produce dazzling images. The subjects will stretch your photographic skills and ingenuity to the full, bringing into play every technique in the book to capture the moods, angles and colours of the buildings, streets and inhabitants of the towns you visit.

People in town Never miss an opportunity to photograph the people you meet in town. If you are compiling a photo essay about a place, these pictures will add life, colour and a real sense of vitality. Photographing people is usually easier in town - there's more choice of subjects for a start, so if one is not happy about having his picture taken - there are plenty more to choose from. Candid photography, too, can be easier - people are usually so busy and pre-occupied they rarely bother with a photographer taking pictures of them

Gear
Every piece of equipment you carry will be used at some stage to surmount the problems of framing, colour, reflections and light . You will have an opportunity to use wide-angle lenses to emphasise perspective, distance and converging vertical and horizontal lines. Telephoto lenses will isolate details of individual structures, compress traffic jams and shorten streets. They can even be used to photograph a town from a distance at sunrise or sunset for really atmospheric pictures.

Zoom lenses can inject action and vitality into crowded street scenes and be of tremendous value when tight framing is needed to cut out unwanted and distracting details. The graphic, angular qualities of some town subjects are perfectly suited to monochrome treatment - so don't just think in terms of colour.

Polarizing filter You will have an opportunity to use every bit of the equipment in your camera bag when you photograph towns and cities. The picture of the pier house in Harwich, on the East Coast of England, was taken with a 24mm wide angle lens with a polarizing filter to darken the deep blue of the sky and to bring out the colours of the wooden boarding. The wide angle lens has accentuated the building's odd shape. Photograph © Philip Dunn

Personal photography tuition is available with Philip Dunn in beautiful Galloway, Scotland.
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