A travel blog is just writing without some imagery, something to help you visualize the scene. One of the best travel photographers that I've run across is Erik Gauger (notesfromtheroad.com). His work is just stunning, and full of pop.
Who do you think is the best travel photographer out there?
(Note: I don't know Erik and have never met him. He's just darn good!)
Dunno but to me there is no such a thing as 'best'.
Erik does a good job, but to me he is more of a scenery/landscape/nature photographer. Looking at his 5 images of Las Vegas it do not tell much about Las Vegas itself.
You seldom see people and everyday scenes in his photography.
'Travel photography' I think it should give you a 'review' of the place, reflect the place in a way with it's people and what they are doing.
But as said there are plenty of great Photography webpages out there.
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One of my favourite photographers of all time is the great Walter Poucher.
No digital cameras in his day, just roll film and darkroom.
His favourite camera make was Leicaflex. Three legends.... Him, his cameras and pictures....
I do like Erik's blog, but not because of the photography, which is too landscapey for me. Of course, he does shoot large format, so the landscape genre make sense. I think what is more impressive are his moleskin journals and watercolor maps.
Brian
Hi all,
It was great to see this thread about my site and about travel blog photography in general – loved learning about the Lost Backpack and WA Poucher. I hope you don’t mind if I respond; this is not to try to defend myself but rather my views of the use of certain types of images or media in travel blogs in general.
A few of you mentioned that Notes from the Road had too much landscape photography, and not enough of the type of photography that you might associate more with travel blogs; images of people and action, street scenes, etc.
In general, I might agree with you, but the use of landscapes for my site is the tone of this particular travel blog, and I really, after 14 years of doing it this way, think this is the right approach for this site. Here is why. I think of my site as a travel writing site first and foremost. When I read travel literature, I love the descriptions of people and the food, and conversations and all that. It’s so important in writing to let the reader 'see' a place through the writing and not be distracted by visuals which compete with the text.
To me, landscape photography, especially of areas that are not immediately recognizable, like the Eiffel Tower, can lend a mood to a description of a place. I use the photography to try to show a feeling that I may have had while traveling through that place. I try to transcend the feelings of loneliness or awe or sense of discovery that I felt through my images - travel writing is personal, and the images should help convey that. But I definitely avoid duplicating the storyline that I am trying to tell with the words. I don't want to show every character I meet and every food I eat through the photos; I think words, especially for this blog, work better for that. Also, I usually travel to places where there are no people and little human culture. In this way, it would be impossible for me to understand that a travel blog cannot or should not have images of place.
I know a lot of travel bloggers, and many of them have trouble coming up with an identity for their blog. The travel industry itself encourages us to have guest posts on our sites, and certain types of advertising; it compels us to write in a 'review' style. There are travel blog conventions these days, where writers are encouraged to write ‘top 10 destination’ posts, and in a way, I have started to see that the travel industry are the ones crafting what travel blogs are becoming. And of course, you have specialized travel blog sites where millions post and compete for points, attention and reviews. And so I really sense that, even though there are millions of travel blogs out there, there is too much constraint on the medium by various forces saying…this is what a travel blog must be.
But the travel narrative medium should be the most open field on the web - a blank canvas. The possibilities are endless. Why then, do all our travel blogs start feeling the same? We all have the picture of the red-eyed leaf frog, and the instamatic look to a beach scene with a bonfire and a guitar. We have the close up pictures of street food in Thailand, and a picture of our luggage on a boat. Lots of close-ups of kids sitting on stairs under an awning.
Is that really what travel writing should be? I understand that landscape photography is not for everyone, but I definitely think it, as well as sketches, maps, video, poetry, doodles, multimedia, watercolors etc should all have a place in the travel blog medium. The medium would be a lot more fun if we stopped being so constrained by what it means to be a travel blog. Incredibly, after doing this for 14 years, and seeing this medium explode, I expected to see more takes on what travel blogging could be.
Thanks again ya’all! Erik
Erik...I don't think anyone was panning your ability as a photographer, or your blog. There's no reason to defend what you do, especially since I think your blog is quite well done. That being said, the OP wrote that you are "one of the best travel photographers" the OP has run across. That's a fine opinion, but after reading that, I expected a website that put the focus on travel photography. Your site, even by your own admission, isn't really about travel photography. I think those who responded were just expecting something else.
Considering this, I do think it's a little odd that the OP would write such glowing things about your photography when the site he/she references doen't really have all that much photography in it.
Brian - right, what I am saying is not a defense of my blog, but a defense of landscape photography, cityscapes or nature photography as being travel photography. Landscape photography IS travel photography, and I am always a bit shocked to hear, in a travel forum, that landscape photography is not travel photography.
My post attempts to clarify why I think landscape photography is particularly complementary to travel writing. My conclusion is about travel blogs in general, and how I think we are trying to define travel blogs too narrowly by their content and photography...
Trust me, I am not trying to defend myself or my blog, i just can't resist the temptation to explain why I think these types of photography certainly are travel photography. I run into this elsewhere as well - people saying that landscapes and cityscapes and nature photography don't count as travel photography - my whole adult life I had never considered the possibility that someone would say, well, that really isn't travel photography. Its just a take I am not used to hearing...and I hope my explanation above helps that argument. best, Erik
Erik: Of course landscape/cityscape, etc is travel photography. It's just not everyone's cup of travel tea. My own work, as you would see on my own site, has virtually no lanscape stuff. That certainly doesn't mean that landscapes aren't a worthy subject for travel.
brian
Brian - I absolutely agree with that, and by the way, I really like your work. The one image that stood out to me the most is the red textured wall and teacup, and some of the children shots in Ecuador.
There are a small number of 'travel blog issues' that I love to write and talk about - this one, the question of what kind of travel photography is appropriate for a travel blog, is one of them. To me, there are some really cool unexplored avenues for travel photography, waited for someone to invent and present.
As a sidenote, for most of my time working on my site, I did shoot exclusively with large format, so of the 40 or so images of people on the site, many of them were taken with a 4x5. That definitely presents certain technical problems...but, it also presented a neat photography challenge.
One of the things that used to make photography unique is that in the age of film, photographers all had a set of limitations because of their equipment...those limitations helped make their art unique. Now each travel photographer tends to have a similar quiver of equipment...so here is a question...are travel blog photographers more unique and creative as good equipment becomes more accessible and digital photography opens more avenues to us?
Erik
Indeed. However it is only one part of 'travel photography' and therefore does not cover a destination in it's entire.
Like Rockrug I expected something different, something that covers the places you traveled to in it's entire.
To me 'travel' photography needs more diversity, - architecture, people, street scenes, details, nature, etc, etc - to cover a destination and to 'paint a picture' of it.
OP called you a 'travel photographer', but to me you are rather a landscape photographer who is traveling (or a 'traveling' photographer if you want).
Nothing wrong with your pictures, just a difference in the term 'travel photography'.
Funny enough the shot I like really best on your page is a street shot in NY with people on it...the one where only one person is in focus, rest motion blur. Didn't view all images but of those I saw that one is certainly my favourite.
:-)
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