Composing with Composure: Taking the Best Travel Photos

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What makes a good image? Pro photographer Trevor Lush offers some simple rules of thumb for composing your shot (but feel free to break them!).

 

Finally, you’re here!  You’ve been navigating an exotic city’s streets for the last few hours, map in hand;  or perhaps you’ve been hiking all morning and have finally reached the summit;  or maybe it’s the end of an amazing day filled with new friends and laughter.  You dig into your pack and pull out your camera.  We all want to capture moments like these in photographs, but how do you create something that is more than a snapshot?

I often get asked what makes a good photo.  I don’t usually get into things such as composition rules and the like, because I think one’s enjoyment of a photo is pretty subjective stuff.  That being said, here are a few things I consider when making an image.

 

Simplify

The first thing I do is think about what I want to photograph.  Right about now you’re thinking, “Thanks for the tip, Photo Genius!”  Seriously, though—I slow myself down and try and figure out what it was about this particular scene or moment that made me stop and take out my camera.  Was it the sheer scale of the landscape?  The textures and colours of a farmer’s market?   The quality of the light on a friend’s face?  Once I make a decision on what the subject of my photograph is, then I can make decisions on how to draw attention to it.

My primary technique is to simplify.  As I look through the viewfinder, I zero in on the subject and remove everything that distracts from telling my story or showcasing my subject.  Get in close and fill your frame with only the necessary elements.  When I first started taking photos I found that using a tripod was an excellent way to teach myself to do this.  The process of selecting a location and picking a height to shoot from encouraged me to really look around my frame and distil my image down to its most basic elements.



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