5 Fabulous Life Lessons from Travel and Photography
The intersections where travel and photography reinforce each other beautifully.
I hated graduating from high school (big ceremonies and being the center of attention make me uncomfortable), but I loved my graduation present! My mother, perhaps knowing I would soon fly away and wanting to share my experiences, gave me a brand new Minolta SLR film camera (it was 1988).
When I packed up a few months later to go on my first trip to Europe solo, I bought a bunch of 200 speed film and I was off.
My first efforts at photography were mediocre at best but I loved it. Photography was perfect for me. I enjoyed that it made me look at things in different ways and slowly I began to experiment with the camera, adjusting the depth of field, playing with shutter speed and trying to figure out just what to include in the frame.
Discovering the world and discovering photography went hand in hand for me. Many of the lessons I learned in one, also apply to the other.
Lesson 1: Perspective is Key
To Change both your photograph and your travel experience, change your perspective.
Often, the difference between a ho hum image and a great image is perspective. As I experimented with getting higher, getting lower, standing behind something, moving to the left or right, I began to realize that there is no fixed truth.
What you see and what I see are radically different not only because we are standing in 2 different places, but also because we are looking at everything through our own emotional perspectives and cultural experiences.
If you find yourself in a funk while you are traveling, grab your camera and head up to the highest place you can find, this might be the top of a cathedral, the top of a hill or the rooftop terrace in your hostel, then point your camera down. What do things look like from up there? Can you see anything that you couldn’t see from down below?
If you find yourself judging the people and place where you are negatively, and ruining your experience, try changing your perspective. Imagine you are a reporter, observing things through a neutral lens in order to report what you see accurately. Become a tour guide pointing out interesting details to yourself or become a historian, interested in what happened in that place in the past.
Photo Challenge: Find something around you that you find interesting in some way. Take photographs of it from at least 3 different perspectives. What can you see from one perspective that you can’t see from the others?
Lesson 2: There is always a big picture and a little picture, both can help you understand the world better
I love taking big sweeping landscapes that make me feel the power and beauty of nature and my small place in it. I also love focusing in on the details of something that I may have missed when I first looked at it.
Photography gives us the chance to freeze moments in time so we can study them at our leisure.
Looking at both the big landscapes and the little details are both important. If I only look at one, I have an incomplete picture of the world and that can lead to making huge mistakes.
Sometimes when I get caught up in the stresses and discomforts of travel, I start to focus on only the little things. The shower that only spits out cold water and not very much of it. I am hungry and the only kind of food available isn’t to my liking, someone said something rude to me. If I stay there, in the details, my day becomes a burden.
If I can pull myself up and out of the details and see the big picture however, I can see that things really aren’t that bad. I am traveling after all. The sun will come up the next day even if it is behind the clouds.
Photo Challenge: Take a photograph of a whole scene, then zoom in on just one part of that scene. How does your understanding of what is happening there change? Does the mood change? What do the two images make you think about?
Lesson 3: Contrasts make for interesting images and experiences
Photography is the art of light. Powerful images can be made with light and shadow but the contrasts don’t need to stop there. Look around and see what other contrasts you can find. Old and new, soft and hard, angry and happy, fast and slow, the possibilities are endless.
While you are traveling you may be upset if everything is not perfect but remember, perfection can not exist without imperfection. Remember to notice and appreciate the contrasts. After a long day of hiking, savor the stillness when you stop. When you come in from a cold day of skiing, notice the warmth of the fire. It is often at those points of contrast when we appreciate things more.
Photo Challenge: Look for contrasts today while you enjoy wherever it is you are. You can take an image that contains two contrasting things or take two images that contrast with each other.
Lesson 4: Focal Point- Find one!
Some of the most effective photographs draw your attention to one thing. Photographers can use color, leading lines and depth of field to direct the eye. Without a clear point of focus, the viewer can get lost. The eye skips around, gets tired and quickly moves on to the next image.
When you are traveling, all of the new sights, sounds, smells and tastes can get overwhelming. In Istanbul for instance, traffic is chaotic and loud. In New York, every square inch is covered with something that is screaming for your attention. It can be exhausting. I find focusing on one thing can help me enjoy my experience more.
For example, I have a hard time enjoying art museums even though they seem to be one of the major things to do in any given city. There is just too much art for me, I get overwhelmed, I don’t know what to look at and I just skip from one painting to the next trying not to let my shoulders sag and my head explode.
When I have something to focus on the experience becomes so much better though. I like to find one piece of art and really get to know it. I sit in front of it, maybe sketch it if I can, and study whatever the artist was trying to convey. I give it my full attention and by doing so, I save my sanity.
Photo Challenge: Take several photographs keeping a strong focal point in mind. Make one image that gets rid of a cluttered background by keeping just one thing in focus and blurring out the rest (shallow depth of field). Take another that has some lines leading into the thing you want to focus on, and take a third that features something that pops out at you because of its color.
Lesson 5: Tell a Story
Humans love to hear and tell stories. When you are traveling, all kinds of stories are happening all around you and you are a part of them in big and small ways. As you are traveling, keep a diary so you don’t lose your stories. I wish I had done this 30 years ago but I didn’t and now I regret it. I do however have my photographs from that trusty first camera my mom gave me and the many others that followed.
Those photographs do tell stories and help me remember, mostly the good things because for some reason, in my early days, I thought that only the fun, happy, shiny moments were worth recording. A good story also has drama though so it would have been a good idea to take pictures of those moments too.
Photo Challenge: Take a series of photographs showing not just the highlights of your journey, but also the rough patches, the sad moments, the struggles. If you were going to make your trip into a book, what images would really help your reader understand what if felt like to be there? Take those images.
I recently came across this article by Jamie Ryder that connects photography with philosophy. It is worth a read!
What photos do you treasure from your travels? What kind of inspiration and life lessons have you gotten from your camera?
