∴How to Get the Most Out of Vacation Photos∴

I’ve always used travel as a chance to photograph freely. Knowing I’ll be in a place for a short time means I’m not that likely to dive deeply into a particular subject, especially not to the exclusion of others. I’ll shoot, as Eggleston put it (giving scores of photographers a free pass on finding a subject at all), a little of this, a little of that.

That said, I’ve always tried to pick up on some unique aspect of the place I’m visiting, some visual icon or quality that is both particular to the place, and repeated enough to be a common sight. Here out I’ll call it a motif.

On my first trip to Japan more than 10 years ago my motif was No Parking signs, in Russia it was vodka bottles, and in Malaysia it was the colourful passageways. Looking for a motif can offer some insight to a place, its culture described by its common sights. I’ve always liked Ron Jude’s photographs of American businessmen as an example of this.

I usually give myself a day or two to identify some recurring motif, and I try to keep it fairly simple. It may not be particularly exciting or dramatic by itself, but ideally it’s novel. Then, I start collecting.

As the trip goes on I’ll gather more and more images featuring this motif. In the images I’ll look for similarities and characteristics that make them feel like they communicate with each other. Repetition of a certain colour or shape works well here, as does consistency in your orientation and focal length. Ideally the end result is a collection of images that is more than the sum of its parts.

I do all this for kind of a counter-intuitive reason. I’ve always felt a bit of pressure to come out of a trip with a set of high-quality images, as if traveling to a new place should guarantee the inspiration and energy to create a unique, dynamic set of photographs. If the photos don’t live up to expectation¹, it’s as if the trip didn’t live up to expectation either.

This kind of self-inflicted pressure does a number on morale. It also takes some of the fun out of the photo process, and the enjoyment of being in a new place. So, I get out ahead of it by doing my small, low-pressure project.

And it goes the same way every time: knowing I’m guaranteed to have a completed mini-project² by the end of the trip allows me to relax and be more playful with the regular shooting I do. This always³ makes for better photographs.

For this trip my mini-project focused on the simple pleasure of Japanese urban design. Rather than cityscapes showing impressive scale, or close-ups of details and the attention paid to them, I looked for the geometry and line-work that divides the city into pockets of design and infrastructure.

These pockets are a distinct aspect of Japanese cities, and are easy to come by. And while any one of them may not be visually gobsmacking, when gathered they begin to reveal something of the shape and charm of Japan’s urban beauty.

So next time you’re spending a few days somewhere new, and you’re excited to photograph it but feeling a little pressure too, choose a simple motif and gather some photos of it. It’s fun, and it frees some headspace for the rest of your photos.

Cheers,

Chris

1. I mean here both my expectation (‘You’re a photographer, just go there and make good images. No pressure but they better be good.’) as well as the expectation I project on others (‘Dude, you’re going to Japan? Sick, can’t wait to see the photos.’)

2. Again, I make the motif or subject nice and simple. I know I’ll be able to shoot a lot of them, and I don’t have to seek out the photos. Rather, they’re just incidental to my regular walking and shooting.

3. Always