The reality of travel journalism, at its best, is not lounging about a spa pool waiting for another cocktail to arrive, but getting up at 6am to trek into the village and chase fisherman about the beach with your camera. You get back to the hotel hot and sweaty and too late for breakfast, but you don't care because the excitement of those photos captured on the camera contain an expression of the experience.
You can tell when a writer is faking the experience and you can tell when a photographer is faking being an artist. Sometimes they're lazy, sometimes they're fooling themselves. If you're not busting your ass to get a better shot then just go home and play on Photoshop.
Realities of being self-employed aside, the challenge of my creative work is something I've tried to share in detail with my website called Photography for Travellers. When I first launched the site I had a vague idea of what I wanted to say, and the content has taken shape on its own since then. The key ingredient to good photography is genuine experience. The more you know the more your images will show.
I hope that comes across in the various features and guides across the website, the idea that you can improve your photography more by changing your way of seeing the world instead of just buying a better lens. In the process of adding to the Photography for Travellers website and expanding my ideas, I've come to redefine my idea of what travel photography is all about. Experience turns into expression. The more you embrace the narrative of your photography, the more you become an artist, the stronger your voice and the deeper the message.
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