Travel Photography of Korea With Compact Prime Lenses

Travel photography is one of the most enjoyable genres of the craft, and counterintuitively, it can sometimes be improved by limiting the amount of equipment you take with, particularly lenses.

I love scientific, deep and nerdy videos on camera equipment and lighting. However, there are only so many you can watch before you become bleary-eyed, but I don't find that's the case with behind-the-scenes travel photography videos.

This video, while beautiful and worth watching for little more than its face value, also touches on a subject I have discussed in the past: self-inflicted limitations. This isn't a strategy for everyone, but if you're an experienced photographer — or even just north of a complete beginner — taking only one camera body and lens on a trip can be strangely liberating. It forces you to figure out how to capture the shot you want and are envisioning with a lens that is, at best, "not a great fit" and, at worst, "inappropriate." Not only does it help to improve you as a photographer, but it increases the odds that you'll come away with a unique image, especially in places where there are copy-and-paste shots.

Do you ever limit the gear you take with you to force creative shooting?

Rob Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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There are times I have limited gear to on lens. But don't waste time on a prime. Generally it's my 24-105mm for versatility. There are hundreds of times that feet zooming is impossible and the zoom allows MY vision to be far better cteated. Limiting to a single prime is to me a waste like the Fuji x100iv.