Local vs Travel Photography

For many people, including myself, photography is an excuse to travel, explore, and experience new places. Equally, photography can be a great tool to get to know your local environment more intimately. In this blog, I will briefly cover the pros and cons of shooting locally versus photographing new places. Spoiler alert: a healthy balance of both is the sweet spot.

First of all, you don’t need to travel to exotic locations to get amazing photos; in fact, some of your best work can happen on your doorstep. Whether you live in London or a sleepy village, it’s worth exploring your local area and learning as much about it as possible. You want to learn when you have the best light, whether different weather conditions have an impact, and whether there is anything of interest going on that could yield photos, such as a classic car meet, for example. By becoming an expert on your local area, you stand the best chance of capturing something unique, something only a local can. From a technical perspective, when you have to work the same area over and over again, you learn how to work a scene better and really think outside the box. This is something that doesn’t usually happen when travelling. Of course, use common sense: if your specific location is boring and you have zero interest in photographing it, then find somewhere else within commuting distance that might be more interesting. Yes, you can get photos anywhere; however, you have to enjoy being there too.

Although I advocate for shooting locally, I’m also a big believer in putting yourself and your camera in front of cool things. It doesn’t matter how much you love your local woodland; it won’t take your breath away in the same way that Iceland would. Even though shooting the local market in your seaside town brings you joy, it’s not going to push you to your limits or open your mind to new possibilities quite like shooting a busy market in Mumbai. The locations don’t need to be exotic, just different enough from what you’re used to. For example, if you’re London-based, then why not go to Lisbon for a weekend? It’s close by and familiar, yet very different for photography. By exposing yourself to different environments, light, weather, people, and scenarios, you will grow as a photographer so much more compared to if you only shoot the same thing over and over. However, don’t get hooked on always shooting new places, as this can make you lazy because everything is always easier when you’re somewhere new. This is why, whenever I’m back in London during this travel stage of my life, I always try to shoot a few times a week, to make sure my skill set is still being challenged. As I mentioned earlier, the sweet spot is to have a good balance of the two. You want to have somewhere commutable that you can easily keep coming back to, yet now and again, do trips somewhere totally different.