Pixiq

 Why do photographers love to travel so much? Well the main reason is that we’re visually sensitive and we love the visual stimuli we get when we go to new and different places. I find I “see” more when I’m in new surroundings.

There’s a great story about Ansel Adams, who along with being a great landscape photographer, made his living for many years as a commercial photographer. One assignment he got was to do a story about his hometown, San Francisco. After three days, Ansel called his editor and asked off the project because as he said, he couldn’t see anything. Everything was too familiar.

Shooting in your own backyard can be daunting. When you go to a new place, everything is fresh and new and stimulating.  Even a meal can be novel, an adventure to shoot something you haven’t seen before in a way you haven’t looked before. Store signs. People doing everyday chores like getting a haircut. Anything and everything as you are in a heightened state of awareness.

But travel in your everyday situation, your regular routine, and the visuals becomes just background, static visual noise. What is humdrum to you visually, because it’s repeated in your mind so much, may be different and exciting to someone else just passing through.

As photographers, what we do is show the world how we see. To me traveling is the perfect tonic to stimulate my visual muscles. I’m working now to put together a photography workshop through China, one of my favorite places to photograph as not only do the visuals, the landscapes, the people, stimulate me, I just adore the food. Great photos, great meals, wonderful new places. It doesn’t get better than that for photographers. Above is just a tiny sample of my China portfolio.

So if you’re in a visual slump, get up out of your chair and go somewhere new, not just the same old, same old. Take a trip, even if it’s just a car ride. Get out of your comfort zone and see anew.

If you're interested in a China workshop, drop me a line at jack@reznicki.com