A little homework can make your travel photography into a true narrative

ALASKA.. (USA)
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When it comes to picking a traveling companion, you can’t beat a camera. Whether you pack a massive bag of DSLRs or stick with the little camera tucked into your smartphone, the photographs you bring back from a trip will always be more impactful than a souvenir shot glass or a T-shirt with a mildly clever saying on it. But travel photography is more than simply grabbing snapshots while away from home. Some basic planning can mean the difference between a random stack of photos (be it paper or digital) and a cohesive story that not only captures the place you’re visiting, but your experience of being there.

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ZION NATIONAL PARK.. (USA)
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Last May, my friend Matt and I spent ten days exploring Zion National Park and the surrounding areas. We make a good travel team because he is a reckless Eagle Scout that likes to push boundaries and I am a middle-aged soccer Mom stuck in a twenty-something man body. I grew up surrounded by alligators and cottonmouth snakes in southern Florida but currently I live in Brooklyn, New York where the closest wildlife is the family of mice that scurry up and down the walls of my bedroom. Matt and I chose Zion because it let’s nature capture you, throw you into the crumbling sandstone, and see if you make it out alive.

I spent the first few days soaking in the landscape and cataloguing details that give Zion it's unique and other worldly feel. I took note of how the sun arced through the canyon in the middle of the day and wrote down a list of must-have shots. Over the course of the day I photographed textures, landscapes, and used Matt as my go to stand in silhouette. Every corner of the park was spectacular, the only real limit to my creativity was the pain in my knees.

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SASITHON POOVIRIYAKUL..(JAPAN)
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Each year, I try and make a conscious effort to shoot personal work outside of my assigned projects. Travel photography is a passion of mine and Japan was at the top of my list to photograph. So when a photo assignment took me to Hong Kong, I knew I had the perfect opportunity to tack on some time and head to Japan afterwards. Whenever I travel and photograph a new place, I like to get lost and just wander.

Japan was wonderful to photograph because there are so many different places and pockets to explore and each one feels so different. From a photography perspective, this lends itself to a diverse series of images.