5 Travel Photography Tips From a National Geographic Photographer

Travel photography can be a tremendously fun and rewarding genre, but it comes with its own unique challenges, particularly with regards to time pressure and the need to be able to familiarize yourself with an environment and produce good images efficiently. This excellent video tutorial features National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson giving five tips that will improve your travel photographs. 

Coming to you from Jim Richardson with B&H Photo and Video, this great video tutorial features five tips for improving your travel photographs. Experiencing the world through your camera can be absolutely wonderful, but travel photography also requires your technique and instincts to be in top form, as you are often photographing new locations, people, cultures, and more as you experience them for the first time, often with a limited amount of time to produce images. In particular, I appreciated Richardson's encouragement to be competent in all major genres of photography. He places a heavy emphasis on the importance of storytelling in travel photography and advocates that to tell the complete story, you need to be able to photograph landscapes, people, environments, still life, and more and thus, need to be a very well-rounded photographer. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Richardson.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

Log in or register to post comments
3 Comments

Thank you, Mr Richardson, very informative, thinking about leaving space for typeface while shooting seems like a no-brainer after listening to you but it never even occurred to me! Warm, engaging delivery too, I feel like I just got some great tips from an old friend, thanks again

What a guy. Great advice some of which can be used for all genres. I particularly liked his images of the Stones of Stenness on Orkney which I visited and photographed last week, though my images pale in comparison. Great to see and hear an article where gear is never mentioned. A new person for me to follow. Us old guys need to stick together!

Tips #4 and #5 are the absolute best even if one is only shooting for one's self. My wife has made some books from my photos and this may help her even more in making a book from my photos. The first three tips I am fairly good at and/or aware of. But the last two tips are ones we don't often think of or properly practice. Never too young or too old to learn or be reminded. And if there is sort of an addendum to #5, shoot as many times as possible because the subject or place may not last or be there forever.