The Most Important Travel Photography Lesson I’ve Learned

A Four-Part Approach to Travel Photography

Sean Dalton presents a four-part approach to avoiding “tunnel vision”: focusing so narrowly on a famous view that you miss other images that could tell a fuller story.

1. Take the obvious shot first. Photograph the iconic or postcard-worthy view you came for, then move on rather than letting it dominate the shoot.
2. Break the scene into details. Move from wide compositions to medium shots and close-ups of textures, colors, architecture, boats, and other details that reveal a place’s character. Sequenced with a wider establishing shot, these images can be especially meaningful.
3. Include people and human traces. Residents, visitors, or even a partly visible person—a hand, foot, or figure in a landscape—can make a photograph feel more relatable and convey local life.
4. Experiment. Use the excitement of travel to try unfamiliar approaches, such as long exposures of water and boats, shadow self-portraits, a new lens, or film photography. These images can add a distinctive creative layer to a travel collection.

Print and Sequence the Photographs

Dalton recommends bringing the photographs together in a small trip zine, a photo book, or as individual prints. Editing and arranging images reveals how they complement one another, gives quieter detail shots context, and turns the collection into more than a set of scattered social-media posts.

He describes sorting his Italy photographs into a Lightroom collection and beginning to build a sequence for a zine.

Featured Creator and Contributor

• Sean Dalton: Host and photographer
• Epidemic Sound: Sponsor and music platform

Dalton also mentions editing the video’s photographs with his Film Vibes presets, including Portrait 400, and using Epidemic Sound for music and sound effects.