Travel photography is perhaps one of the broadest genres of photography as it overlaps with most others. It covers a wide range of shooting styles and scenarios to accomplish one simple goal, which is to illustrate and tell stories about a place. Because a particular place is always made up of different intersecting dimensions, there is no single approach or style that can be encapsulated in travel photography.
Following the usual trend of generalization and simplification, there are various definitions of travel photography that derive from the usual iconic photographs that informally represent the genre. These and other similar photographs have shaped the way people generally perceive travel photography. Travel portraits and environmental portraits are perhaps most popular because of the way they begin to tell stories about the people and culture of a particular place. Street photographs and documentaries talk about how people interact with their environment, whether rural or urban, and illustrate activities that represent and represent their culture. Landscape photography is also often labeled as travel photography because of the obvious fact that most landscape photographers have to travel a fair distance to get the shot. It’s also important to note that a lot of people often mistake travel photography as a nicer term for vacation photos, typical of what we’re used to seeing on social media.
The Essence of Travel Photography
With all of the above examples, most of which are valid, travel photography is clearly a much larger and broader genre than most people understand. The wrong definition of travel photography oversimplifies it to take pictures while one is traveling, which (in my opinion) doesn’t do justice to the impact of travel photography in educate people about culture, history and even social and environmental issues.
The true essence of travel photography is the ability of a single photograph (or a set of photos) to tell stories, document, and even immortalize the culture and history of a place and the people who live it. there. Whether you’re photographing the most remote island inhabited by isolated people or a busy city driven by commerce and innovation, the place, the people and the way they interact will always be there. countless stories to tell.
Personalize your travel photography
Given the breadth of travel photography, there are many reasons why your approach should be personal to it. This is especially true when taking travel photography as a hobby or if given considerable artistic freedom. Most of the time we travel barely having enough time to see and experience everything about a place, which is why our output is often limited as well. How much of a place we can cover depends on our own strengths and limitations, as well as our personal preferences and biases. If you generally lean towards portraiture or capturing real moments, your advantage will lie in the same approach. Some photographers tend to stick with photographing landmarks and iconic locations because that is what interests them among the multitude of subjects in that location. Similar to other photography endeavors, you should start with the aspects of the task that you can best perform.
In particular, for me, since I love to shoot landscapes and shoot architecture professionally, the focus of my exploration in a particular city is the same. I recently made a quick trip to Singapore, which I have visited quite a few times in the past. In the hope of being able to explore more of the city than just circling in search of cityscape vantage points, I spent quite a few days walking around the structures. This is fueled by the satisfaction that Singapore’s buildings are built according to smart urban planning that makes it amazingly easy to photograph without clutter or obstructions.
The relevance of architecture in travel photography
For the purposes of travel photography, there is a lot of architectural photography of a place that contributes to illustrating and telling the stories of its people, culture and history. Often, even in the most developed and even futuristic cities, you can still find architecture preserved from previous generations that are related to the history of the place. Most commonly, you can easily find older “leftover” architecture in government buildings such as town halls, post office buildings, or other related structures. Some parts of the world also do a good job of preserving the traditional architecture of residential spaces and have converted such houses into functional facades. These structures offer a harmonious blend of the architectural history of the place as well as reflect a more modern use of such spaces.
Depending on the location you are visiting, you can also be sure to find a number of modern buildings that represent the growing status of a site. While Singapore is particularly known for its rapid growth and innovation, the abundance of such newer buildings is sure to vary depending on your location. In most cases, a great way to photograph the cultural relevance of a place as well as give a clear view of how drastically the place has changed as it progresses. to modernization is to take pictures of old and new together. Placing structures, buildings, or other visual elements in photos that represent two or more different periods in time is a great way to characterize a place and tell its stories.
Approach to discover architecture while traveling
If you’re someone who just likes to walk around a place with a camera in hand, this way of taking travel photos may be familiar to you. Most of the time, a “photowalk” when traveling is done with the use of a standard zoom lens or walking around a zoom lens. However, in the hope of photographing architecture and how people interact with these important structures, I brought a wide-angle shift lens with me. Hoping to be portable and able to adjust to the available space, I installed Laowa 15mm f/4.5 . Interchangeable Lens up my Sony a7 IV. While I’m well-equipped to shoot cityscapes at the end of the day, a snappy yet versatile approach is to use quick exposure compensation to maximize what I can do later. for raw files. I either shoot sequences in a single frame with the lens shifted to get the right perspective and proportions, or shoot multiple frame exposures while also shifting the lens to capture variable panoramas. This not-so-ideal architectural photography workflow follows an ideal approach to travel photography.
Travel photography is often much bigger and broader than most people understand it. A place consists of a lot of different elements made up of people, places, activities, creativity and interactions of each and every one of them. Being flexible with your travel photography means being able to take the approach that best suits your interests and strengths. Your goal is to tell stories, and the most important step in doing so is figuring out what interests you so that you understand the story you want to tell.
