My fascination with travel photos a long time ago. I remember my first camera. It was blue, and it was given to me for my 5th birthday. You could take pictures, and they would magically shoot out of the whirring box in your hands, shortly followed by every adult in the room telling me to lay the photo down flat because it’ll develop better that way. Solid advice. I took pictures of everything, for about a minute, that is, until the film ran out.
I didn’t know much about choosing a subject matter at that age, and the travel bug didn’t yet bite me. That was all to come. What I did know is that cameras were fun. Some of my work even made it onto our memory wall (you may also wish to make a collage with your pictures – discover different options at hello canvas).
Now that I’ve grown up, and now that I’ve been and seen and snapped away, I’d like to share my advice on how to choose a subject for your travel photos.
Pick Something That Resonates With You
Travel photography is memorable only when it’s done with passion. Otherwise, it’s just taking a picture of something. For example, there’s no photography involved in pointing a camera at a dog in the park and taking a picture that cuts off the dog’s tail.
If you want to look back over your photo sets and get excited about the possibilities of after-effects and framing your work, you need to be excited about the subject matter.
Some travel photographers are drawn towards people. For others, it’s animals. There are those among us who wake up each day with a burning desire to photograph things like architecture, old steam trains, food markets, nature, aviation, fashion, etc.; the list is endless. When you find your niche, hang on to it for dear life. Learn how the best in the trade have photographed your chosen subject matter to significant effect in the past, and think about what you could add.
Availability vs. Rarity of Travel Photos
Choosing a subject is made all the more difficult when traveling alone or with your loved ones because of an unknown place’s unpredictability.
Should we spend our time searching the side streets and back alleys on the edge of town searching for a photo that tells the wholesome real-life story of people who live there?
Or should we instead opt for something more predictable but available, like landmarks and natural features? It’s a tightrope we all must walk.
You could try splitting your time, of course, but that eats into the time you have available to find that one killer moment of split-second photography that rarely comes from standing in all the usual places and clicking at all the ordinary things. The best advice? Be adventurous.
It’s the only way. Capture photographs of what you love while soaking up new cultures and experiences along the way. There is nothing better!