The Pros and Cons of Traveling Solo For Photographer’s

© 2012 Ahmad Shukri | A Photograph of Me Standing (Posing) on a Hanging Bridge in Langtang Valley | Nepal

To begin with, I’ve never done any solo traveling before but I can share with you guys what I think about solo traveling, it’s pros and cons, and to begin with, I will never get the photos of myself above standing on that hanging bridge in Langtang Valley if I were traveling alone, the picture above were taken by my traveling companion, Ahmad Shukri, we takes turn photographing each other.

Traveling solo or alone is not for everyone, and if you ever wanted to try solo traveling, I highly recommended that you have a few experience traveling with your friends first before you embark on your solo journey. Actually nobody knew yourself better than you do, anyway do you feel comfortable eating alone, do you feel comfortable talking to strangers? This are few things that you need to take into consideration before you think about traveling alone. Anyway here’s pros and cons of traveling alone as a photographer’s;

THE PROS :

Independence : You will learn to be independent, you have to and this will have a great impact on your self esteem, you will learn how to do homework or research on your own before you start your journey but then, are you that kind of a person, do you like reading lots of books, reading lots of travel blog. You need to know a lot of things if you wanted to travel alone and if you can do this kind of things, you will become a better person, independent that you can be proud of.

Meet new friends: It make sense, you really have to make a new friends along the way, be it your hotel manager or simply the person staying at the same room as you are if you choose to stay at hostel.

Flexibility : Sometimes when I’m traveling with my friends I wish I travel alone, the reason is “flexibility”, if you travel alone, you can make your own schedule, you can go as you wish, make your own itinerary, no need to wait for your friends to get ready. You can change your itinerary as you wish without anyone complaining. You can make a split second decision even while you are walking to change routes, you don’t have to discuss it with your friends (this will eat up your time) about change of plan, you can changes your plans as you walk.

No Conflicts : Same like “flexibility” there will be no conflicts of interest, you can make your own decision without annoying your friends, when it comes to photography, you may have a different taste of genre, some of you may like spending huge amount of time shooting landscapes while some of your friends might wanted to go out and shooting street photography and maybe some of your friends wanted to go out shopping. This kind of things will never happen if you share the same interest, if your group consist of a hard core landscape photographers, then it should be no problem, so if you think you can’t find any photographers who share the same interest as you do, then traveling alone is the answer, you can have a total control of your times.

Photographic Opportunity is Abound : If you like taking a portrait, human interest especially, then traveling alone will give you a better photo opportunity, imagine if you are trekking or travelling somewhere and you saw a beautiful or someone who is photogenic, and you wanted to photograph him or her, all you have to do is just talk to them and if your manner is good enough, they might be  agreed to be photographed but on the other hand, lets say, you are traveling  with five group of photographers and  you saw this beautiful lady wearing a beautiful traditional dress in a busy market of Bhaktapur Nepal and you wanted to photograph her, for sure, all of your friends also wanted  to photograph her as well, and this will make her  feet uncomfortable with all the lenses pointed on her face. You will also lost “exclusivity”, your friends also have the same photograph as you as well. If you wanted to get an exclusive and intimate portrait of any person in any country, then traveling alone is a good option, if you are lucky enough, you will be invited to stay at their home and photo opportunities abound when you get their trust and among the great travel photographers that I really admire and travel alone is Mitchell Kanashkevich . Looking at his photograph, you will know that traveling with a group of photographers will never brings that intimate result.

THE CONS :

Expensive : Yes traveling alone will be more expensive, if you travel with your friends, then you can split the cost and normally the cost of a single room and double room is not much of a different, so if you travel alone, the cost will be higher. Off-course you can stay at hostel, sharing rooms with other traveler but then “safety” issue will arise. As a photographer, traveling alone with an expensive camera gear, staying in a hostel with a total strangers is not a good idea.

The cost of traveling will also become expensive, lets say you wanted to take a taxi or auto-rickshaw somewhere, normally you have to pay a full fare, on the other hand if you travel with a group of people, you can split the cost. Same goes to shopping, if you travel with a group of a person and wanted to buy the same things, normally you will get a better discount than buying it alone. Off-course the shop owner wanted more money and if possible they also wanted all of you buying at his shop, hence he might be giving you a better discount. It is so much fun when a group of people haggling for a cheaper price than on your own.

Safety : This is the most important factor that you need to take into consideration for a photographer traveling alone. As a photographer, staying in a hostel is not a good option, you will be worry of your equipment when you take a bath, normally a lot of hostel room did not have an attached bathroom, you have to leave your backpack without anyone watch it in your room while you are taking your bath, do you trusted your roommate? Even if your roommate doesn’t know what’s inside your backpack, who will know that your backpack will be safe, I’m not saying that backpackers are bad people but do you feel comfortable leaving your expensive camera gear with a total strangers? Yes to keep peace of mind, you will choose to pick a single room and the cons is, “expensive”, well, if you have the money, then why not.

The other things is when you are photographing somewhere with your expensive camera gear, nobody will watch your back, you are vulnerable. It is not safe for you to go out alone where few tourist pass by, you are quite safe taking picture where there is a lot of people around where you can shout for help, when something bad is happening. For landscape photographers, it is not safe taking picture on a remote location during sunrise or sunset. Someone might be watching you from a distance and might be took advantage of your loneliness. Yes you need to take extra precaution when traveling alone with expensive camera equipment. If you travel with just a cheap point and shoot camera, then you should not be worried so much.

There are a lot of photographers travel alone but please be remind, most of them have “fixer”. A fixer is a person who helps you get around safely. She or he speaks the local language, and they can serve as a translator. If you can’t speak their  language, a translator becomes crucial in helping your Travel Photography productivity. Most of photographers that travel alone, plan their journey in advance, most of them use “fixer” to help them get around, so even though they are traveling alone from their home country, they are actually not alone  when it comes to their photographic activity. There is someone traveling along with them, normally they are the local people, I mean the “fixer”, Its like a travel agent or tourist guide, the difference is, they will never take you to the shopping malls to get “commission”. Normally most of travel photographers will keep a close guard of their “fixer”, unless you know them very well, otherwise they won’t reveal their name, talking about “exclusivity”.

Actually if you plan to travel alone, and don’t have a “fixer”, you can make friends  through facebook or any social media network especially through photography platform, photography forums, find someone from any country that you wish to visit, who share the same interest as you, in this case photography and make friends with them, commenting on their pictures, discuss about photography, a genuine friendship, this may take month or years but then, you will never be alone travelling anywhere when you have friends all over the world. They might invite you to stay with them and this will save cost.

Talking about “Fixer”, yes most of them cost money, you have to pay them, they are your guide and they will be traveling with you and maybe sleeping in the same room with you, eating the same food as you do, so you also need to take this into consideration, the cost of hiring a “fixer”, on the other hand if you have friends, then, they might be happily helping you for free, in exchange of sharing photography tips and knowledges. Maybe you need to pay for their gas if you wanted to go somewhere on a long journey. This is more about courtesy than a necessity.

Self Portrait : Off-course you also wanted to get a picture of yourself standing against the great Himalaya, wanted to be photographed against any country prominent landmark such as Taj Mahal in Agra or Ayasofya in Istanbul. If you travel alone, you need someone to take a picture of you or you can use a tripod but then, it will be a hassle for most of the times, a strangers on the street will not have the skills to operate your expensive DSLR, yes you can set it on automatic mode, so the exposure will never be an issue but the composition will, your hand might get cropped out, your legged might be chopped out or simply the horizon might not be straight or there is not enough space above your head,  it’s too tight, rules of third is nowhere to be found, you hardly will be satisfied with a picture taken by a strangers unless you asked someone carrying a DSLR to take a photo of you, they might have some knowledge about photography, about good composition but this is no guarantee, most “tourist” have a lot of money to buy an expensive camera gear but they might not necessarily have the same experience or knowledge like you do.

If you are like me, which is too “particular” about your “self portrait” picture, then you need to take this into consideration. If you don’t really care about the outcome of your photograph in the hand of a strangers, then it should be no problem.

I know there will be other Pros and Cons of traveling alone for photographer’s, this is just a few things that I can think of and to summarise it all, the most important thing to take into consideration when traveling alone as a photographer, is Safety  and Cost.

I like to end my article with Henry David Thoreau quote :

 ” The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready “.

– Henry David Thoreau –