#TravelTuesday is here again, and travel photography is the whole reason I’m guesting on this blog every Tuesday, so I figured this week, I’ll tell you exactly what travel photography is in my eyes. I’m Dave Williams, a travel photographer from the UK – let’s get into it!
I started getting serious about photography around 12 years ago. I knew I enjoyed photography and wanted to find out what it was that I really liked. I tried everything – landscapes, flowers, portraits, architecture – and I couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what I liked, all I knew was this journey was making me a little better at taking photos and it was making me move around. As part of this journey, I also discovered that I needed some new gear, and that was going to cost me. I knew I was good enough to make some money from my photography to pay for the new gear I wanted, so I started to venture into paid work. I still didn’t know what my niche was, though.
As I continued to explore in search of my niche, combined with a thirst to see the world as a result of some personal circumstances, I still wasn’t quite sure where I fit in among the photography genres. I was shooting paid work at events and weddings, but when it came to my personal photography I was shooting all kinds of things. I was still shooting architecture, nature, landscapes, macro, food, you name it, I was shooting it, but here’s the thing: – I was enjoying it! I was aware that in order to push forward with professional photography I needed to find my niche, but I was confused because I just wasn’t finding it – I was shooting everything.
I think it was around this point that I realised my niche was not so much the subject, but it was the feeling. I was travelling and taking photos, and I was shooting those photos with the purpose of showing off the location. I was shooting travel.
Travel photography isn’t a genre like any other, as I discovered. Travel photography takes landscapes, cities, street photography, night photography, and all other genres, and any or all of them can be travel photography if one thing is achieved, and that one thing is this: – it’s not a subject – it’s a feeling.
Travel photography is imagery that makes the viewer want to be there, at that place, at that time, experiencing that feeling. It’s any image that makes us want to be there.
My niche was travel photography. I’d found it. And I absolutely love it.
Thanks for taking a moment with me today.
Much love
Dave
