EVERYONE at one time or another has harboured ambitions of becoming a photographic virtuoso, whether it be capturing a thinly-clad beauty silhouetted against a paradisal backdrop or transferring rousing images from the frontlines of a war zone.

As the contents of this newspaper will testify, there are many would-be lensmen out there who exhibit a talent that had they chosen the road less travelled could have seen them operating in a professional capacity.

It is an unwritten truth that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, as those haunting images of Hector Pieterson, Che Guevara and Eugene Terre Blanche atop a moth-eaten stallion have proved over the decades.

In light of this the Travel Channel series PhotoXplorers is a must for all shutterbugs, both proficient and amateur. Through the show the viewer is introduced to an adventurous band of guerrilla photographers as they slip behind the barricades to capture haunting images of abandoned buildings frozen in time.

Contrary to expectation though, the PhotoXplorers are not the kind of photographers obsessed with there mere antiquity of a structure.

Rather they are emboldened by the belief that gets to the root of how the best in the business think with regard to obtaining the perfect shot.

They constantly dodge security guards and barbed wire fences in an attempt to find a way into dilapidated buildings, risking life and limb for their art.

Having said that, their antics are a far cry from the paparazzi brand of photography that has become the subject of much contention since the death of Lady Di. This, as they say, is the real deal.