Shutterbug Sunday is moving into the world of travel documentary photography this week, with the spotlight being placed on Mitchell Kanashkevich, a freelance travel and documentary photographer who is represented by Getty Images. More after the jump. Clicking on the pictures will take you to different parts of Mitchell’s portfolio and blog.

I recently came across Mitchell’s work by way of his Lightroom tutorial e-book, Understanding Post-Processing. As someone who has been using Lightroom since it was first released in a beta form, I consider myself fairly competent at it, but after looking at the preview of this e-book, I immediately decided I needed to buy the full copy. Using five different images, Mitchell takes you through all the steps from RAW image to final product. I highly recommend this e-book to both Lightroom users, and those curious about the process a professionally taken image goes through to get from camera to finished photo.

Mitchell’s bio and artist statement tells us a bit more about him.

I am a tirelessly curious world wanderer and a travel/documentary photographer. My main passion lies in capturing disappearing ancient cultures and the human condition in unique, challenging situations.

My range of subjects is fairly broad, but whether I am photographing nomadic shepherds in India, life in the last traditional villages of Eastern Europe or sulfur miners working in a volcanic crater, my common aim is always the same – to capture the human element.

I freelance and shoot documentary photo stories on the above mentioned topics. Much of my travel/documentary photography is represented by Getty Images, while my cultural portraits, both colour and black and white are in the private collections of photo lovers and collectors worldwide.

Worth spending some time reading is Mitchell’s travel photography blog. From stories about the journey to becoming a travel photographer to highlighted images, there’s something for anyone interested in these genres.

Finally there’s the portfolio. You will easily spend a long time browsing through the various galleries here. The images are breathtakingly beautiful and expressive.

As long as the links above, Mitchell can be found on Twitter where he posts as @mitchellkphotos. I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks featured photographer. Stay tuned tomorrow for some musings on creativity and seeing. Comments, sharing and retweets encouraged. And remember that the photos in this post are copyright. Contact Mitchell for any licensing, sales and usage information.