Travel Photography Tips | Give Your Photograph a Sense of Place

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Trekkers at Langtang National Park | Nepal | Himalaya

“Most travel photographers make pictures to convey the appearance of a place. I try to make them to convey a “Sense of Place.” 
What exactly is a “Sense of Place?” To me, a “sense of place” means not just what a place actually “looks like,” but rather, how it feels, what it represents or once represented, and what it might mean to us. Making images that capture a “Sense of Place” usually involves expressing symbolic ideas central to the meaning of the place, instead of just descriptively recording its appearance. “

“No single image can usually do this job by itself. To offer a true sense of place, we need to present a number of expressive images about that place, grouping them together as a photographic essay, a picture story, or a series of sequential images. Hopefully, when we have absorbed the meaning of them all, we will feel as if we can grasp the nature of that place.”

– Phil Douglis –

I don’t know about other travel photographers but for me I like to add or include human or animal elements in my photograph, I just don’t like an empty landscape without those things, yes I do take quite a few “empty” landscapes pictures but I will try my very best to wait for those element to come into my frame, just like the photograph above, while trekking this Langtang Valley trek, I saw from afar few trekkers coming down and I think they will add context to this photo, so I wait at one small corner where I did not block their way, and when they come into my frame, I just press the shutter.

Personally I think, those trekkers is what make this photograph stronger, without them, this is just an empty landscape, yes this place is beautiful on its own, but it lack in term of sense of place, those trekkers really fills the slot to create a sense of place, I believe some of you who saw this picture, wish they were the one among the trekkers there, those trail and stream, leading towards the mountain, really say something about this place, it says, “Adventure is Out There.”