Jeb Bush talks 2016 with donors

• Jeb Bush met with South Carolina donors and business leaders Thursday


• Bush said he was seriously considering a presidential run in 2016

Washington (CNN) -- Jeb Bush was blitzed with questions Thursday about his presidential ambitions in a private session with top South Carolina donors and business leaders, multiple sources at the meeting told CNN.

Bush was politely non-committal, as he is in public, but said he was seriously considering the possibility and would make a decision after the holiday season.

Bush, brother to one former president and son of another, was also pressed on whether he thought his last name would be a liability in a national campaign.

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The former Florida governor responded that "he quit worrying about that a long time ago," according to two people in the room.

"He said that everybody has things about them that are positives and negatives, but he said he loves his brother and loves his father, and that every campaign is about telling people who you are," said one source. "He said that my last name is the same, but I am not them. That my job is to show people who I am as a policy maker and a man, and that's the same job everyone else has."

The former Florida governor was in the state, which happens to hold the first presidential primary in the south, for a round of campaigning with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is expected to win re-election next month.

READ: Rand Paul to lay out foreign policy

Bush has traveled the country raising money for Republican candidates this cycle, but the South Carolina visit marked his first trek to an early primary state as questions about his national ambitions build.

Following crowded public events in Greenville and Lexington, Bush headlined a fundraiser for Haley in Columbia that included a high-dollar roundtable with about 30 of the state's leading lobbyists, business leaders, and Republican officials including Pamela Lackey, the president of AT&T South Carolina, Mikee Johnson, head of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, and former state Attorney General Henry McMaster.

In the roundtable — where price of entry was $10,000 — Republicans exchanged pleasantries with Bush about his family before diving into questions about his political future.

"This wasn't a politically agnostic business crowd," said one person in the room who did not want to be identified. "They dialed right in and wanted to get into politics, the horse race of 2016."

Bush, this person said, was "very engaging, but he was very non-committal about running. He said he has to have joy in his heart to do it. And he said he gets the question wherever he goes."

Ed McMullen, a Republican lobbyist in Columbia, said the response to Bush from the donor crowd was "unbelievable."

"He said that if I am going to run, I would run because I have a positive vision to take the country forward and unify people and do something that the other people in the race are not talking about," McMullen said. "He had that positive Reagan vision of creating a majority that transcends parties and races and brings people together. I'll tell you what, he makes it very easy to be for him."

READ: Hillary Clinton is returning to Iowa

At one point, Bush expressed annoyance with the polarizing fights and constant negativity of the political news media — he singled out Fox News, saying he usually watches the channel for a few minutes a day before switching over to SportsCenter — and said he is "frustrated" by the toxic climate in Washington. Republicans, though, need to do more than just criticize President Barack Obama, he added.

"He said, 'It's easy to criticize. I turn on the news. I am frustrated. I get the temptation. But that can't be the only reason that people elect you, that you're not the other guy," one source at the fundraiser recalled. "The next Republican has to run about their ideas and what they will do. I get the temptation but that can't be the only reason that people elect you is that you're not the other guy."

Bush told the donors he admires the restraint of his brother, former president George W. Bush, for not criticizing Obama even as the security situation in Iraq deteriorates.

"He talked about how proud he was of his brother," said one GOP donor. "He said, I couldn't do it, but what a class act that he knows it's not his place to come out and publicly criticize the sitting president. He said it's tearing his brother up."

READ: Warren: Dems must 'stand up and fight'

Ebola dominates Senate debate

• Ebola was the first issue as candidates squared off at a CNN / NH1 debate in New Hampshire


• Former Sen. Scott Brown said Ebola presents a "rational fear" and the government should do more


• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen accused him of "fearmongering"

Concord, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Republican Scott Brown used the latest potential Ebola case -- this time, a doctor in New York -- to blast President Barack Obama's handling of the virus outbreak in a debate against New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Thursday night.

It was a local debate that turned on national issues as Brown called for a ban on travel from the West African epicenter of the outbreak and defended his suggestion that Ebola could come across the border with Mexico.

New Hampshire's Tight Senate Race

He blasted Obama's appointment of Ron Klain as the nation's Ebola response coordinator as someone "with no experience in his field." He criticized Shaheen for not voting to close the U.S. border with Mexico. And he complained that the New York doctor should have been quarantined when he returned to the United States.

Brown even said the Ebola threat would be minimized if Republican Mitt Romney had been elected president.

"Had he been president, I feel he would have had a clear and concise plan. He would have reassured the American people," Brown said.

Shaheen, meanwhile, criticized Brown for "fear-mongering about this issue," and said neither she nor Brown have medical expertise on the issue.

But Brown shot back that "she calls it fear-mongering; I call it rational fear."

The exchange -- in a debate being moderated by CNN's Wolf Blitzer and held at the NH1 studios in New Hampshire's capital city of Concord -- was the latest demonstration of Brown's effort to nationalize the race -- connecting Shaheen to Obama and national Democrats and accusing them of wobbly responses to threats that have emerged this summer and fall.

Brown has focused his campaign on national issues, also blasting President Barack Obama for his handling of ISIS, illegal immigration and a host of other issues -- then latching Shaheen to Obama by pointing to her votes for his initiatives.

FILE - These 2014 file photos show Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Scott Brown, left, and incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, right, in Concord, N.H. They will face each other in the Nov. 4 general election. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

Shaheen, meanwhile, has questioned the former Massachusetts senator's move into New Hampshire, casting him as a political opportunist and accusing him of being vague on his support for abortion rights, equal pay for women and more.

The two have both dodged answers about whether they would support their parties' leaders -- Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Mitch McConnell -- for majority leader.

Entering Thursday night's debate, the race was a dead heat. A new CNN/ORC International poll found Shaheen with 49 percent support to Brown's 47 percent -- well inside its margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Brown's favorability rating was underwater, with 50 percent of the likely voters surveyed

saying they have unfavorable views of him versus 48 percent saying their views are favorable. Shaheen, meanwhile, scored a 52 percent favorability rating.

However, the race could turn on whether Shaheen is able to keep on her side voters who

have turned on Obama. His approval rating dropped to 39 percent in New Hampshire -- which has driven Brown's efforts to connect Shaheen with the president.

Related: Poll shows dead heat in New Hampshire

It was what dozens of supporters of both candidates were talking about while cheering and chanting for their favored candidates outside the NH1 studio before the debate started.

Alice Chamberlin, a 64-year-old environmental lawyer from Warner who stopped by to pick up a pro-Shaheen sign before the debate, said some voters are turned off by Brown's approach.

"I think you can talk about the national issues all you want. People get that Scott Brown is just using us for a national stage," she said.

She pointed to Shaheen's support for equal pay and access to health care as issues that will help drive Democratic-leaning voters to the polls, and praised Shaheen's deep political ties to New Hampshire, including her three two-year terms as governor.

"We who have lived here for a long time -- and I've lived here since 1976 -- know what she's done," she said in a veiled shot at Brown, the former Massachusetts senator.

Brown supporters said he has more than enough connections to the state.

"I think anybody that was born in this state has every state to run for Senate in the state that they were born in," said Paul Schibbelhute, a 59-year-old mechanical engineer from Nashua who said he had crossed into Massachusetts in 2010 to volunteer for Brown's campaign there.

He said the "biggest issue" in the race is that Shaheen has backed Obama's policies in the vast majority of her Senate votes, calling her "carte blanche for the president."

Secret war threatens al Qaeda

• Houthi rebels battle al Qaeda-linked group for territory in Yemen


• Houthis took over some ministries in Sanaa last month, demanding role in government


• Analyst says Yemeni state is collapsing and militia forces are taking control

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Yemen is going through its greatest upheaval since protests erupted during the Arab Spring more than three years ago. Only this time, it's not a cry for democracy but a bitter sectarian battle for power -- pitching al Qaeda and other Sunni groups against Shia Houthi rebels.

The Houthi -- whose stronghold is northern Yemen -- swept into the capital, Sanaa, a month ago, where they met little opposition. Since then, they've taken control of Yemen's second port, Hodeida, on the Red Sea.

Now they're trying to challenge al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in its heartland in central Yemen. Hundreds of Houthi fighters converged on the provinces of Ibb and al Bayda in recent days. Yemeni Interior Ministry officials tell CNN Houthis have taken heavy casualties because of roadside bombs planted by AQAP.

"Houthis are used to military clashes, while al Qaeda uses guerrilla tactics against its enemies," said Abdul Salam Mohammed, president of the Abaad Strategic Center in Sanaa.

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Protests in Yemen turn deadly

Officials estimate that at least 75 people have been killed in fighting since Saturday, the great majority of them Houthis -- including 22 killed by a roadside bomb Monday in the town of Rada'a. There were further clashes in the town Tuesday, with AQAP claiming it inflicted heavy casualties on Houthi fighters.

AQAP has taken control of the town of Al Odayn in neighboring Ibb province, as Yemen threatens -- again -- to become a patchwork of rival fiefdoms where the central government has little influence. Al Qaeda claims that some Sunni tribes have joined it in repelling the Houthi incursions.

Writing in Al Monitor, commentator Maysaa Shuja al Deen says AQAP is "forging political alliances with tribes that view the Houthis as enemies... Indeed, the organization has expanded to new areas in response to Houthi control."

Jalal BalEidi, a senior figure in AQAP, said the group will confront the Houthis' advance, in what appears to be a new front in the larger Shia/Sunni struggle across the Middle East.

The Houthis have long complained that they have been marginalized and persecuted by Yemen's Sunni majority, and have been involved in series of rebellions since 2004. But never before have they taken so much territory across such a wide area of central and northern Yemen. They are demanding a substantial presence in a new government and a voice in the writing of a new constitution.

After taking control of ministries, the state television headquarters and other government facilities in Sanaa last month, Houthi leaders signed a peace agreement with President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. But their presence has sparked protests among hardline Sunni parties and groups and has given al Qaeda a new rallying call. Al Deen says the agreement tried "to legitimize the fall of the capital and cover the truth on the ground, which is the collapse of the Yemeni state and its replacement by militia forces taking control of its streets and expanding militarily to the rest of the country's provinces."

Adding to an increasingly volatile situation, a secessionist movement in the south of Yemen, al Hirak, is stepping up protests in Aden, Yemen's chief port and the largest city in the south.

Al Qaeda resurgent in Yemen amid political turmoil

For Washington, Yemen's descent into a conflict of many groups -- whose alliances can change quickly and unpredictably -- is the worst-case scenario. For al Qaeda, it is fertile ground. In some ways, events in Yemen, with outside powers all jockeying for advantage, are beginning to mirror the disintegration of Syria.

CNN's Hakim Almasmari reported from Sanaa, with Tim Lister reporting and writing from London.

The airport that refuses to die

Berlin Tegel Airport was scheduled to be decommissioned by 2012. Two years later it's still going strong.

Tegel's involvement in aviation began in 1896 when a military barracks was built for an airship battalion. In World War II it became a rocket testing site and then an air force training ground.

French forces agreed to build an airport after the Berlin blockade began in 1948. Tegel took shape in just 90 days.

Tegel's hexagon-shaped terminal was completed in the 1970s. Its design meant that only one terminal was needed and connections were short.

Tegel's relatively small size means that times between check-in and departure can be greatly reduced.

It's diminutive proportions also mean it can quickly become overcrowded and overwhelmed during peak travel periods.

For all its faults, many Berliners love Tegel because of its proximity to the city center.

Tegel-based Air Berlin says delays in opening Tegel's replacement, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, have hobbled its expansion plans.

Some regular Tegel travelers complain the airport lacks the facilities of larger air hubs.

Tegel was originally designed to handle 6 million passengers a year. It now copes with more than three times that number.

• Berlin's Cold War-era Tegel Airport handles more than three times the passengers it was designed for


• Airport granted a stay of execution due to delays to Berlin's new Brandenburg Airport


• Airport officials no longer willing to put a completion date on new airport to avoid further embarrassment

(CNN) -- It's Friday afternoon and Berlin Tegel Airport is overwhelmed.

Several flights are delayed and passengers crowd the terminal, scowling at the departure screens and tapping away at their smartphones in frustration.

It's not a typical scene at Tegel but hardly a surprising one.

The airport was built 40 years ago to handle just 6 million passengers a year in a city that was then an island surrounded by the former East Germany.

Berlin has since changed almost beyond recognition, becoming one of Europe's major capitals and a popular travel destination.

Tegel now handles 20 million passengers annually and should've closed down long ago, but an embarrassing series of setbacks and delays to the city's state of the art new Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), have earned it a stay of execution.

The new airport was originally due to open in 2012, but there's currently no scheduled launch date.

Surprisingly, rather than becoming increasingly frustrated with using Tegel's creaking facilities, many locals are glad it's still operating.

"Tegel has grown in Berliner's hearts," says Lars Wagner, a spokesman for the Berlin Airport Authority, the body that will eventually have to sign Tegel's death warrant.

"As so often in life, people find it hard to part with what they're used to."

MORE: Watching the watchers -- a spy's guide to Berlin

Proximity to the action

Suzanne Stoffe, flying to Frankfurt after a conference in the German capital, is among those who have developed a deep affection for the airport.

"I hope Berlin Tegel stays for a long time," she says. "It's just so easy to reach and to go back and forth."

More than 20 million passengers a year pass through Tegel Airport.

Stoffe's colleague, Torsten Warg, agrees.

"I always find the check-in very quick, it's super," he says. "The new airport will never be ready anyway, so there's isn't really a question of flying from somewhere else in the near future."

Just a 20-minute taxi ride from the city center, many travelers love Tegel's proximity to the action.

"It's super convenient," says Winnie Heun, a Berlin-based cinematographer and Tegel fan flying to Kiev to film a commercial.

"Because of the round design, you can drop off at the gate and from there it's 30 meters to check-in. And right behind the check-in, is security. It's super fast."

He also likes Tegel's rather outdated but distinctive hexagonal style.

"The great thing is the design of the airport," he says. "It's really marvelous, it's really retro and it really fits Berlin."

Other passengers aren't as enamored.

On this particular Friday, the simultaneous conclusion of several international conferences stretches Tegel's already overstretched systems and there's a backlog at check-in for the afternoon flight to London.

"Up until this point I was quite impressed, but I'm not impressed now," says Alan Frost, a British business traveler who's been standing in line for some time.

Fellow Brit Trevor Smith, who travels through Tegel two or three times a year on business, is also frustrated by the airport experience.

"It's normally terrible, because there's no facilities," he says. "You always have to queue.

"The sooner the Germans sort out their new airport the better. It needs a decent airport, one that caters for passengers."

MORE: How to crack Berlin's hip arts scene

Blown budgets

Tegel's small size does have advantages.

Two flustered passengers are allowed to check in with bags just half an hour ahead of takeoff.

Each gate has its own luggage belt, so even latecomers have the chance to make the plane.

Berlin's Airport Authority says the new airport won't work in quite the same way, but it will have a modern and fast check-in system.

Today, though, the beautifully designed wooden check-in desks at BER are empty, new equipment wrapped in plastic while technicians work through a series of glitches.

"One of the main problems we still have is with fire-safety issues," says the airport authority's Lars Wagner.

Tower of strength: Two years after it was to close, Tegel's still going strong.

This isn't the only headache for the airport's developers.

With construction ongoing since 2006, costs are running at least double the original budget of €2.8 billion ($3.6 billion).

"The airport is different to the one which was originally planned. We've grown over the years," says Wagner.

"It's like when you plan a home for one family, but over time you realize you need a home for three families. But that's no excuse for the mistakes which we made.

"A lot was done wrong and a lot was planned badly. We have to correct that."

Another issue is that air passenger traffic in Berlin is growing faster than anticipated.

BER was originally planned for 27 millions passengers, but with the city's two existing airports currently handling close this number, the concern is the new hub won't be able to cope.

MORE: Art and the Berlin Wall -- 8 places to visit

Controversial closure

For airlines the new airport can't come soon enough.

Air Berlin is currently housed in a temporary terminal at Tegel Airport that's so makeshift it has a corrugated iron roof.

It says it's had to put growth plans on hold because of the delays.

Tegel has limited capacity for long-haul jets -- it's runway is too short for the Airbus A380 super jumbo -- so airlines are unable to expand their route networks until BER opens.

Air Berlin's Robert Peres says the delay is affecting the entire German travel industry.

"Clearly, Berlin needs a modern and fully operational airport," he says. "We all need BER. We are looking forward to the day it will open."

Global travel expert Simon Calder says Berlin is coping, largely because its old Cold War division bequeathed it an airport on either side of the city: Tegel and the east's Schonefeld.

"The one really regrettable thing is that Tempelhof was closed -- the city center airport would be thriving today had it been allowed to continue," he says.

Since its controversial closure, Berlin Tempelhof Airport -- famous for its role in the 1948 Berlin airlift -- has been turned into a public park, its old runways crowded with cyclists and skaters and visitors filled with nostalgia for their most beloved inner city airport.

Departure bored? Tegel's size means a limited destination list.

Berliners are equally interested in the new as the old, and while BER might not be ready for takeoff yet, it's already welcoming tourists.

For €10, visitors can take a bus tour of the new facility and can even buy T-shirts and teddy bears with the airport logo.

MORE: Cycling the death strip -- Berlin Wall by bicycle

Runway bus tours

Tour guide Christian Franke says BER has had more than a million visitors to date.

"Many people are from the area who know about this project," says Franzke. "There's been a lot of talk about the airport and we want other people to be able to join that conversation and to see what's happened in the past few years."

Visitors can speed down the new runway on the tour bus -- the closest they'll get to flying from here until the airport actually opens.

"We hope it isn't too much longer," says Antje, a visitor from Berlin, "because we stood in front of the check-in hall and it was really nice compared to the other airports we have here."

Airport tourist Michael Schulz was pleased with what he saw, too.

"I thought it would be a big construction site, but it actually looks ready," he says. "It's quite nice. It looks good inside, the wood, a lot of light, a lot of glass. I'm not sure when I'll be using it, but it will be good for Berlin."

Any possible opening is still a long way off.

Authorities are reluctant to announce a date and face further embarrassment of yet again having to reschedule.

So for now, those who enjoy flying out of Berlin Tegel Airport, can be assured it will be operating for some years to come.

Not such good news for those who find the travel experience at this small local airport frustrating.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport tours run every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; +49 30 6091 77778

World's best photography trips

If there's a new way to photograph Cambodia's Angkor temple complex, the Belmond La Residence d'Angkor tour will help you find it.

Aurora Zone's Torassieppi northern lights photo tours teach aurora photographers to adjust their camera settings to the changing displays in northern Finland.

"The tour embraces that quintessential feeling of what winter should really be like -- powdery snow, snow-capped trees and those amazing skies," says Gareth Hutton, who will lead a tour to Torassieppi in Lapland in early 2015.

Natural Habitat Adventures specializes in wildlife photography tours, including trips to take pics of Alaskan grizzlies.

"Coming within feet of these giant creatures in 100% safety is difficult to fathom, and the photos you can get as a result are unparalleled," says Ted Martens of Natural Habitat Adventures.

"Wear loose-fitting, light clothes that you don't mind getting dirty," says Tim Gerard Barker. "Often the best shots are taken while lying flat on the ground." Barker leads photography expeditions in Southeast Asia with Art Photo Expeditions.

Art Photo Expedition trips are collaborations between the New York-based company and Swedish camera company Hasselblad. Participants have access to high-end Hasselblad equipment.

Tips from Barker: "Never be satisfied with your first view of a place or scene. Look at how the light is falling and walk around your subject to work out the most interesting angle."

Leica and Exclusive Resorts have teamed up to host a series of photography expeditions. Destination in Focus: Miraval (based at the Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona) is the last of 2014's four-night excursions still available for booking

Attractions on Leica excursions with Exclusive Resorts include private infinity-edge pools and hot tubs.

Natural Habitat Adventures claims it offers the world's best polar bear viewing/photographing tour. The company holds exclusive permits to tour the entire Churchill Wildlife Management Area in Manitoba, Canada.

Participants can wait for the perfect shot in the Tundra Lodge -- a mobile hotel.

National Geographic Adventures offers photo trips that pair travelers with star photographers. The 13-day adventure to Namibia (pictured) is mostly an easy walking trip with one day of kayaking.

NGA's Morocco Photo Expedition is an 11-day trip with a renowned National Geographic photographer leading the way.

Offered by Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai, Shikumen tours in the city's former British Concession are a great way to pry into the vibrant local community.

Led by a local photographer Gang-feng Wang, Shikumen tours venture through alleys and inside the communal mansions.

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• With Pulitzer-winning instructors and $100,000 lenses, these photo tours get you shooting like the pros


• Some tours have exclusive access to some of the world's best spots for photographing bears


• Tips from pros include wearing loose-fitting clothes you don't mind getting dirty


• But some tours are headquartered in luxury resorts

(CNN) -- Remember that giant grizzly in Alaska that came inches from your face?

Or those magnificent northern lights on that winter night in Finland?

No?

OK, maybe neither of those amazing photo ops have passed in front of your lens just yet.

But when they do, you'll want to be ready.

The best photography tours not only put you in the right place at the right time to capture magic moments, they impart the skills to turn them into photos worth sharing.

The tours below feature award-winning photographer-instructors, exclusive experiences and even the use of $100,000 worth of camera gear.

READ: 11 of the world's best urban resorts

Alaska's Coastal Grizzlies: Kodiak to Katmai Photo Tour

"Coming within feet of these giant creatures in 100% safety is difficult to fathom, and the photos you can get as a result are unparalleled," says Ted Martens of Natural Habitat Adventures, a travel partner with the World Wildlife Fund.

Those "giant creatures" Martens speaks of are Alaskan brown bears, the world's largest coastal grizzlies.

Natural Habitat Adventures' eight-day Alaska photo tour is a luxe, eco-friendly trip for a maximum of eight travelers that gets close to the famed and feared bears.

The draw is exclusive floatplane access to the remote waterways of bear-filled Katmai National Park and Preserve.

The tour also makes a stop on wild Kodiak Island, home to Kodiak bear (brown bear) and animals such as whales, otters and puffins.

Alaska's Coastal Grizzlies: Kodiak to Katmai Photo Tour , Natural Habitat Adventures; departures from June to September in 2015; from $8,895

MORE: Extreme shots by daredevil adventure photographer

Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia: A Photographer's Journey through Southeast Asia

Art Photo Expeditions leads a unique photo tour through Southeast Asia.

Lane Nevares of Art Photo Expeditions, which leads a unique photo tour through Southeast Asia, talks about his company's equipment-laden tour in terms of a high-performance vehicle.

"It's like Ferrari offering a trip through southern Europe that allows participants to drive Ferraris in various locations," he says.

That's Nevares' description of the 14-day tour led by ace photographer Tim Gerard Barker, which features loaner gear provided by Swedish luxury camera brand Hasselblad.

"Photographing people in Asia is a wonderfully rewarding experience," says Barker. "A wave of the camera and a smile is often enough to gain acceptance into their space."

Participants get the benefit of Barker's years of experience.

"I frame dynamically and look for the best angles and the best light," he says. "I like to work with wide lenses, so I'm often in very close."

Travelers bring their own gear but they can try H5D-50c and CVF-50c medium format cameras, and all Hasselblad's H lenses on the trip.

Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia: A Photographer's Journey through Southeast Asia , Hasselblad Xcursions and Art Photo Expeditions; November 10-23, 2014; from $11,900

Torassieppi Aurora Photography

Even if you're lucky enough to catch the northern lights, you can't brag about it back home if you can't photograph them right.

Aurora Zone guarantees those bragging rights, as long as you're lucky enough to see the aurora in Lapland, the northernmost region in Finland.

"In addition to a passion for searching for the northern lights, our expert guides have a comprehensive knowledge of Lappish culture, people and landscape," says Alistair McLean, founder of the Aurora Zone, a company that specializes in northern lights tours.

Gareth Hutton, a Lapland-based photographer, will lead a tour to Torassieppi in early 2015.

"The tour embraces that quintessential feeling of what winter should really be like -- powdery snow, snow-capped trees and those amazing skies," says Hutton. "Not only are the northern lights spectacular, but the long winter sunsets are pretty magical, too."

Participants learn the most challenging aspect of photographing the northern lights -- having the right combination of camera settings and adapting these as the night sky changes.

The group stays in cottages on a reindeer farm during the trip.

Torassieppi Aurora Photography , Aurora Zone; departures from January to March 2015; from £2,108 ($3,440)

MORE: Best places to see the Northern Lights

Shikumen tours allows participants to glimpse inside the historic mansions in Shanghai.

Shikumen Tour in Shanghai

"All of this used to be old shikumen (stone-gate houses), but they've been demolished now," says Gang-feng Wang, photographer and tour guide, standing outside a construction site in Shanghai.

"But don't worry, we'll build you lots of nice museums so you can see how it used to be," he cracks.

Wang is the irascible guide of the Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai's four-hour photography tour through the disappearing shikumen houses of the city's British Concession.

It's a great way to pry into the local community.

After photographing the maze-like alleys -- garnished with clotheslines, chatting neighbors and cages of messenger pigeons -- travelers are taken inside some of the houses.

Originally built for British traders, the houses -- each now occupied by multiple local families -- are still adorned with imported British floor tiles.

"This one houses more than 30 families," says Wang, as the group walks up a set of squeaky wooden stairs to a rooftop, where the tour finishes with a panoramic view of the Shikumen complex.

Shikumen Tour , Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai; available throughout the year; from RMB2,400 ($390)

Tundra Lodge polar bear photo expedition

Natural Habitat Adventures claims it offers the world's best polar bear viewing/photographing tour.

It may not be exaggerating.

The company holds exclusive permits to tour the entire Churchill Wildlife Management Area in Manitoba, Canada.

It also has a mobile hotel, called the Polar Rover.

With a gourmet kitchen, lounge area and sliding windows, travelers can photograph polar bears without leaving the Polar Rover's toasty rooms -- except when they want to head to the moving hotel's open observatory deck.

According to the company, curious bears often wander up the lodge, allowing travelers to photograph them from inches away.

Tours last eight days.

Tundra Lodge Photography Expedition , Natural Habitat Adventures; departs in November in 2014 and 2015; from $7,995

MORE: 7 of Europe's most luxurious ski chalets

Destination in Focus: Miraval, Tucson, Arizona

Leica and Exclusive Resorts have teamed up to host a series of photography expeditions.

Destination in Focus: Miraval (based at the Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona) is the last of 2014's four-night excursions still available for booking.

Participants bring their own gear, but they also have access to the newest equipment from Leica, including the recently launched Leica X Vario camera, and more than $100,000 worth of equipment.

They also get to interact with Leica Akademie's team of instructors.

Participants learn to shoot sunrises and motion photos at a Navajo Hoop Dance Performance.

The trip wraps up with photo-editing classes.

Destination in Focus: Miraval , Tucson, Arizona; Exclusive Resorts and Leica; November 12-16, 2014; from $3,599

National Geographic Adventure photo tours feature celebrity photographers as instructors.

National Geographic Expeditions

Desert sunsets and snake charmers in Morocco.

Leopards and rare desert-adapted black rhinos in Namibia.

Giant tortoises and other wildlife on the Galapagos.

Winter snowscapes and Old Faithful geyser erupting in Yellowstone.

The photo ops on National Geographic-organized expeditions are reliably world-class, and so are the celebrated photographers who join trips and lead lessons.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers on the star-studded trips -- which range from one to two weeks -- include Ken Geiger and Jay Dickman.

Winter Wildlife in Yellowstone Photography Expedition ; departures in January and February 2015; from $3,645

Galapagos Photo Expedition ; departures between Febrary and June 2015; from $5,490

Namibia Photo Adventure ; December 4-16, 2014; from $8,595

Morocco Photo Expedition ; departures in May and October 2015; from $5,995

READ: Paris colors-- one photographer's multi-hued take on the city

Wildlife Photo Master Class at Mayakoba, Mexico

"The winning aspect of photographing birds at Mayakoba is the world-class mangrove forest within the resort, which houses more than 200 species of wildlife," says Steve Winter.

One of the star photographers who leads Banyan Tree Mayakoba's photo master class in Mexico's Riviera Maya, Winter has been a photographer for National Geographic for more than two decades.

"Transportation (through the mangrove) is via beautiful, silent mahogany electric boats, so you don't disturb the wildlife," says Winter.

Photographer-instructors provide one-on-one coaching with students, "whether that be working on composition out on the boat or reviewing the day's images back at the hotel," according to Winter.

In addition to photography skills, tour guides share knowledge of the birds and other wildlife of the area.

Boat-billed heron, little blue heron, roseate spoonbill, egrets, cormorants and anhingas are some of the birds students can expect to photograph.

Wildlife Photo Master Class at Mayakoba ; Banyan Tree Mayakoba, Mexico; available until the end of 2014; from $2,499

Zooming in on Cambodia

If there's a new way to photograph Angkor Wat, this tour will find it.

Belmond La Residence d'Angkor offers photography packages that include two-night stays, a three-day pass to the Angkor temple complex and a full-day excursion with an in-house photographer.

A standard photography itinerary includes a longboat tour along the Kompong Phluk water village bordering Southeast Asia's largest lake, a private kayaking tour through the eerie floating forest and shopping at a local market.

For an additional cost, guests can add photography experiences such as trawling down the Siem Reap River on an elephant or taking a helicopter ride over the Angkor temple complex.

Zooming in on Cambodia ; Belmond La Residence d'Angkor; available throughout the year; from $1,400

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