As Santa Barbara’s main street moves downhill towards the sea, its exclusive shops and restaurants gradually give way to less expensive pursuits. These locals were enjoying a friendly chat as I watched and waited for a gesture that would draw the eye and tell the story. As the woman turns towards the fellow whose hand rests on the back of her bench, she extends her hand, adding emphasis to her tale. I moved my position to frame the man within the red background panel. Two primary colors drench this image – the blue costumes and signs, along with the red panel, combine to warm the image and intensify the neighborly feeling.

These are local pharmacy students, celebrating an event by marching through the streets of Valletta carrying balloons and blowing whistles. I was able to capture their exuberance here, spontaneous gestures expressing feelings of joy and prankishness.

While visiting this small village just outside of Cuenca, we were exuberantly welcomed by a pair of schoolchildren. One of them waved a scarf, grazing the head of the student standing next to her. The flying scarf complements her arm gesture, while the gap-toothed grin of the other schoolgirl adds another dimension to the image.

These women had stopped just outside the Scottsdale library to have a discussion. Expressive images can come out of such simple events as this. As the woman in the background took out a notebook to jot something down, the lady in the foreground suddenly brought her index finger to her lips, closed her eyes, and simply focused on whatever she was thinking about. The gesture she uses here symbolically seals her lips, forcing her to converse with herself for a moment through the power of thought.

Three Muslim women share a bench in the park that runs alongside of Istanbul’s most important mosque. Their gestures reflect their feelings at the moment. The woman at left seems tired. The woman shrouded in black looks intensely at the camera, her gaze intensified by the fact that much of her face is veiled. And the woman at right adjusts her head covering at they wait their turn to enter the mosque. By relating multiple gestures to each other, I strengthen the image’s message: although sharing a common experience, each person responds in their own way.

Gesture, body language, and expression are at the heart of this image. An abstracted man cradles a child in his arms. A little girl wearing an oversized hat throws back her head as she seeks approval from a man who thrusts his open hand towards her. Another child seems to see none of it as she retreats into her own domain. Meanwhile a woman nurses an infant behind them. Such is the nature of family life, as human responses flow back and forth around the vividly colored shopping bag anchoring the image.

Arizona’s Old State Capitol building is now a history museum. Among its exhibits is the old House of Representatives chamber, which offers visitors a trip back into time. The room is kept exactly as it looked in 1912, when Arizona became a state. Every day, school groups tour the museum, and all of them spend some time in this room, listening to guides tell them stories from out of the past. I made this image of a schoolteacher, seated at a desk on the chamber floor. I used a 400mm telephoto lens from the second floor chamber gallery, high above her. I framed her behind two softly focused antique light fixtures, and found her brightly illuminated hands clasped before her as she gazed around the room. I found a catchlight in one eye, and an expression of awe upon her face. I hope her students were as impressed with the stories of Arizona’s political history as she seemed to be.

Clutching his cell phone in one hand as if it were a good luck charm, this fellow is virtually pouncing on his opponent’s markers. He vigorously proclaims the effect of his move with both expression and gesture. I use the interplay of light and shadow to highlight the hands, and reveal part of his animated face. I leave the rest to the imagination of the viewer.

Guellala has always been Tunisia’s pottery town. While others in our tour group shopped for pottery, I prowled its streets, shopping for an image. I found it on a street corner, where two residents, dressed in traditional clothing, carried on an animated conversation. Using burst mode and a fast 1/400th of a second shutter speed, I was able to freeze dual gestures here. One woman is firmly pointing at the other. The other woman responds with fingers only. Notice the negative space flowing between these gestures – it crackles with energy and tension.

I watched these two construction workers for several minutes as they had a discussion under a covered walkway during a break. I built this image around the gesture of the man at left, who stood in profile before a brilliantly illuminated textured column. He brings his hand to his face and raises a finger for emphasis. Coupled with his open mouth, we get the feeling that he is giving advice to the woman at right. Her gestures were passive, while his were active. She seems to be preoccupied with a wrapping, and fades into the shadows.

This park contains a collection of Gold Rush architecture, offering visitors a living museum. This couple had been sitting for a while on top of a wagon parked on the main street – sharing a moment together out of the past. They could not see me, since they were looking into the late afternoon sun and I was standing in deep shadow. I used my long 420mm telephoto lens to make this exuberant image. The man climbed down first, and the woman screamed as she fell into his waiting hug. I used my multiple exposure feature, keeping my finger on the shutter button as she moved from the wagon to the hug. This was the gesture that says it all.

I framed my subject tightly here to stress the gesture – the way the hand delicately plays the string of the kite, almost as if it were a musical instrument. His expression adds context to the gesture – he is relaxed yet concentrating intensely on his task.

Six people sit in the sun, taking it easy. The woman closest to the camera tries to sleep. Her companion offers his back as a pillow while he studies a map of the city. The fellow in the bright red shirt comments on the flow of tourists from around the world walking through the square. The man with all the beer watches the watchers, a woman reads, and another man turns his back on the whole thing. This image tells a collective story, defining a moment in time where each person in this group becomes an individual by using body language or gesture uniquely.

A flock of sheep in search of buyers has just been unloaded at Tineghir’s weekly market. The sheep are context here – it is the gestures of the sellers that I was interested in photographing. Each of the eight people in this image is playing a role in the unfolding story. The most forceful gesture comes from the man in the middle. He seems to be in command, summoning his sheep to gather round and notifying potential customers to come and have a look. Meanwhile, money already seems about to change hands – the man at far right forcefully expresses his preferences with a single digit. The other six people are, for the moment anyway, more passive participants. The man at far left is a shepherd – he carries a stick in his hand. Moments after I made this shot, he took over and marched the entire flock away from this parking area. Meanwhile, a young boy uses both of his hands to guide a wandering sheep back to the flock. The other three people have already done their jobs – they wait for further orders. This array of gestures tells the story of a moment in time, and does so in very human terms.

I made this image a few moments after the preceding picture. The hands of the woman seen in both of these images have known a hard life. Yet there is much grace and beauty in how she uses them. (That is not polish on her fingernails. The red color is from henna, which is rubbed over the hands.) She was obviously getting accustomed to our presence. She unfolded the scarf that had veiled her face, and lets it fall around her shoulders. As she handled it, I made this image. We don’t see much of her face here – I let her hands speak for her. There is gentle, caring, graceful quality to her gesture.

This image is a good example of expressive body language. I made it from a distance at full-telephoto range (420mm). Three of the four men in this street discussion have their hands in their pockets. The other has his arms folded to his body. They are playing it, as we Americans would say, close to the vest. Nobody is committing themselves here. They play a wait and see game. The man doing the talking here is the fellow on the left – even though we can’t see his face, he seems to be leaning forward and expressing himself to the man with folded arms. The two robed men are really bystanders in this discussion. They mimic each other’s posture. I also like the tension created by the spacing here. The man with folded arms is allowing the smallest amount of space between himself and the others. But the tension within that narrow space is palpable. All of this is due to the dynamics of the body language. As expressive photographers, we must learn to read body language and then use it to tell our stories.

I am not sure if the young man hamming it up for my benefit realizes that he is echoing the exertions of the lady on the billboard behind him. Like most Moroccan children, he only wants his picture taken. The body language of the woman in the advertisement is exuberantly posed. The child’s posed body language also makes use of both arms, but they point inwards instead of outwards. The ad wants us to come join the fun, while the kid is telling me to take his picture. Meanwhile, the third party to this image trudges past with head down – he wants no part of either the ad or the camera. He is the only party in this image who is not posing.

Multi-tasking often reveals expressive body language. This man was loading luggage on top of his truck in the town square, while trying to maintain his balance at the same time. I abstract him by shooting from behind, simplifying the picture and calling particular attention to his precarious posture. With a mosque and soaring clouds as background, he shows complete confidence in himself. He must have felt that someone was watching over him.

I made this photo outside the Royal Palace, headquarters of Morocco’s government. I saw the thrust of the palm shadow on the wall, and waited for someone to step in front of it. This soldier obliged – his jaunty step is a perfect complement to the upward sweep of the palm shadow. The body language – swinging arm and a full stride -- suggests self-confidence and positive attitude.

These girls display a variety of emotional responses as they greeted us in the lobby of a state-operated boarding institution for worthy students who come from outlying villages. When possible, I like to compare and contrast one response against another. Each girl feels differently about my presence. The girl at left finds my camera amusing. She enjoys the limelight. The other two girls are not as self-assured – their hand gestures and expressions convey uncertainty and caution. The girl in the center abstracts herself with a blurred hand – is she shy? Or simply excited? The spontaneous gestures and responses in this image ask questions and demand answers from the viewer.

After making this image in the souks of Marrakesh's medina, I had more questions in mind than answers. The woman’s hands to face gesture can mean different things. Is she trying to remember something she came to buy? Or is she stifling a sneeze? Perhaps a quick prayer is being offered? Her hands are stained red from decorative henna. The more questions a picture asks, the more thought provoking it can be. Ambiguity, rather than certainty, is an important principle in expressive travel photography. The more an image appeals to the imagination of a viewer, the richer and more rewarding the viewing experience becomes.

A cup of mint tea or strong coffee is all someone needs to buy in order to occupy a seat in a Moroccan cafe for hours at a time. The cafe is a public living room in Fez, and smokers are welcome. His gesture and expression reveal a good deal of character. I was using a long lens (250mm) and burst shooting; he never noticed me. I was drawn to him by the black jellaba he was wearing which blends into the heavily shadowed background. The strong morning light on his face strengthens the detail in the gesture, illuminating both the veins in his left hand and the character lines on his face. Some might wonder why I did not convert this image to black and white, since most of the color in the image is in the skin tones. I tested this shot in black and white and the meaning changes entirely. The warmth of character vanishes in black and white – he becomes timeless, almost medieval in nature. The smoking gesture becomes cold, calculating, and stylized in black and white, while it is warm, relaxed and real in color. This exercise points up the danger of automatically presenting pictures in black and white as a matter of personal style. Monochromatic presentation can completely change the interpretation and meaning of gesture and response. As communicators, we must never choose our medium based on form alone. We should choose the form that best suits our content.