How Travelling Can Help You Become A Better Photographer
When I first started photography, I only wanted to take photos around Downtown Los Angeles because I loved seeing the incredible photos from other street photographers who lived in cities with high-rise buildings (New York City, London, Tokyo, etc.)
While I enjoyed my start into street photography, I’m glad I have had the opportunity to explore different parts of Los Angeles and even travel to different countries as a photographer. Being in new environments has challenged the way I approach photography from the subject matter I photograph to how I compose shots and even to how I edit.
I’m mostly going to be speaking from the perspective of a travel and street photographer since I shoot outdoors, but I hope that some of these tips will be helpful regardless of your photography medium.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN DIFFERENT WEATHER
As an outdoor photographer in Los Angeles, I end up taking a lot of photos in sunny or slightly overcast weather. Every once in a while, it rains and I get the chance to go out and do some rainy street photography, but it was never something I had a lot of practice in.
When I travelled out of the country as a photographer, I had the opportunity to photograph in the rain in Tokyo, London, and Berlin. I had a lot more opportunities to get reflection shots, photograph people with umbrellas, and work quickly to get certain shots since I didn’t want to stay out for too long and get sick.
During my 7-day trip to London, I also got to experience snow for the first time when doing street photography at night.
Getting the chance to photograph in different weather conditions (or just general conditions you might not be used to) can challenge you not just on the field, but also motivate you to edit your photos in a certain way. I shoot a lot of sunsets in Los Angeles and end up going for more warmer colors in my edit. When editing afternoon rainy images, I usually go for more muted colors to fit a moodier vibe.
PRACTICE PHOTOGRAPHY WITH DIFFERENT COMPOSITIONS
Downtown Los Angeles is a great place to find high-rise buildings and interesting architecture, but I always found Los Angeles to be limiting when it comes to the metropolitan vibe I was aiming for.
When I travelled to both London and Tokyo, I was excited to photograph not only new architecture, but capture buildings at different angles. There are a few rooftop bars in Los Angeles, but I found in only the week I spent in both London and Tokyo, that I was able to capture a wider variety of compositions in the city.
Whether it was at the Shibuya Sky or The Garden at 120, I was able to practice photographing architecture and experiment with different compositions.
Conversely, if you live in a city where there is a lot of architecture and you decide to travel to a place with not as much going on, it can challenge you to find new ways to approach a scene.
ADAPT TO NEW LIGHTING
A trap that I fell into when starting as a photographer is that I would always take the same route and visit the same spots. When I would do outdoor portraits in spots like Santa Monica Beach or Venice Beach, I had to learn how to work around a location where I didn’t have as much available shade during the afternoon compared to Downtown LA, which had high-rise buildings I could easily use.
Going to the beach, you can see sunsets peeking through the beams of the piers in Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Going to the mountains at a higher elevation, I was able to take photos of sunsets that I would have never captured in Downtown LA or at the beach.
FINAL WORDS
You don’t need to travel to a completely different country, or even a different city to give some of these ideas a try. If you find yourself in a rut and taking photos in the same place, you might want to try to experiment in new destinations.
If you’re still limited, then you can try to go out at different times of the day or experiment with different compositions that you have never tried.
Ultimately, I think you’ll see results and progress in your images the more you practice photography and editing. For me, travel was a great way to explore new locations and I felt motivated to go out every day and photograph for hours.
I hope you enjoyed this blog and thank you for reading!
