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BY PAUL SYMONDS

Selecting the right location can have quite an impact on the travel photos you capture. You can take pictures in any corner of the world and that is the beauty of travel photography, yet many places look the same worldwide when you view them in photo format. A picture of a lake in Canada could be mistaken for a lake in Sweden or Japan. So how can you take travel photos that are more distinctive and more expressive? Read on.

It is often the case when you are a foreigner to a place (e.g., a non-Korean in Korea, or a non-Swede in Sweden), that you sometimes better notice the things that make that place different. This is often because the place is alien to you and thus you are more conscious of the differences from your normal life. Learning then how to adapt this consciousness, to take photos that reflect this awareness becomes a challenge that in turn can help to improve a travel photographer’s ability to capture the type of images that offer that little bit more.

If you are traveling Seoul, Korea for example, taking a picture of people walking in the street might look good, but if you capture the image of a lady walking holding an erect umbrella — as she walks with the umbrella on a beautiful day, using it to shield herself from the sun rather than the rain, as they often do in Korea — the image can add power to a street scene.

If you are traveling Barcelona, Spain and you want to capture an image of the beach, it might look like any popular beach in the world. If you can capture a restaurant sign in the background, it can deliver more information in the photo. The sign might for example show the local language, or it might have a Spanish or Catalan flag visible. Such things can add more definition to the image. Capturing the people, colors and distinctive features of a place can help bring even more meaning to a photo.

Taking travel photos can be fun and it should be. Be creative and add to the power of the images. Look for that extra ingredient that will give your travel photos real power. And enjoy your travels!

Paul Symonds publishes Barcelon-Culture.com and TravelPhotos4u.