Photography Random rants

The good and bad of Travel Photography

I have always wanted to share my travel stories soon after I return from any trip, within weeks if not days. It’s always fun to share memories when everything is fresh in the mind. However, I have hardly been able to do so and the reason almost always has been the photos. I take a lot of photos during my travels so once back, sorting the good ones from the not so good ones becomes a task. This task takes even more effort and time in my case because I shoot RAW. I used to shoot in jpeg during my initial days with my DSLR but soon learned about the levels of flexibility and control that comes with shooting RAW and fell for it. No regrets here.

The Elephants Falls in Shillong
The Elephants Falls in Shillong – Shot in RAW

Even though I hardly harness half or maybe even less than that, of what can be achieved by shooting RAW, I like the granular control I get over almost all aspect of the photos and the final result much more as compared to automatically created JPEGs by the camera. This, however, delays the writing and sharing a lot of stories which I would otherwise have shared already.

The blue skies of SPITI Valley
The blue skies of SPITI Valley

To tell you the truth, I have quite a handful of stories waiting to be shared, if only I can get done with the photos! The only consolation for me is the fact that, I know I am not the only one who suffers from this problem :P. I know people who have been to many exciting places and clicked a lot of wonderful photos but have not been able to share them because of this very reason. This gives me some consolation and I don’t feel as guilty as I probably should 😉 .

Tannirbhavi beach - Mangalore
Tannirbhavi beach – Mangalore

I don’t know about others but in my case, it has always been laziness and the I will do it tomorrow attitude which has prevented me from working with the photos soon enough after I am back from a trip. The good news, however, is that I have finally started working on it and have started, well at least trying to… to get to work with the photos as soon as I come back from a trip. My posts of the trek to hampta pass which I started posting within weeks of my return are proof 🙂 . I just hope to keep this momentum going and then over time, try to improve it. Fingers crossed!!

Do you face the same problem when it comes to sharing photos of any trip? Leave me a comment below, I would love to hear from you.

8 thoughts on “The good and bad of Travel Photography”

  1. Rajiv, I agree to every point you have mentioned. I have a tons of RAW file which i need to process before sharing the story. I clicked some 60GB of RAW data on my last vacation to Indonesia and still I am processing the files. Well that was in May 🙂
    Some times i do not like the processing and sometime pictures do not fit the context of what I want to write.
    Things become more difficult when you are a travel photographer and not a Traveler who take photographs. You can relate very well.

    1. Exactly Ankur bhai. Things Change when you know A-B-C of photography. You never want to share something which doesn’t seem right to you.

      I guess I need to start devoting more time in working on the photos.

  2. very informative and helpful tips for wonderful photography. I always love reading your articles and enjoy your brilliant photography. keep it up.

  3. I too have a blog, my personal blog and update it really rarely though I thought I had passion for writing and sharing stories. had loads to share not doing it… say things change about the experience you become quite after living routine life… but whatever pictures say a lot about the place to… memories and stories half showed and lived… it’s bit of fantasy for readers with some element of truth so let’s say it’s interesting… but I guess bloggers like you tell us how it was, how you felt for us to understand things better and get a true picture.. I am absolutely impressed with your trek chronicles with memories that are alive… but here I get to know another thing about shooting raw… these days reading travel, cooking and watching water sport videos become a stress buster for me… at-least I can tell people stories too nt my own but from what I read and they think its interesting so it is doing me good, to be a reader, a listener and visualiser of a different kind forgeting the routine life, not knowing the blogger person yet knowing quite a bit of a blogger… it’s quite special and pure (: … I know your blogs are good because you get sponsorship to go to karting circuits, blogger meeting and also for the Himalayan treks… your doing a good job and commend it because you do it having a full time job and other commitments too… you find time to travel, and share them… it’s sure passion and it will attract a lot of like minded people always… ok then good day… you know I thought these cool guys like go scooter travelling with friends, camp on tents etc are different people can’t get along with…turns out they are the easiest, fun forks to connect with… it’s only the others like us who live in our small world with notions of the world that don’t help us who won’t get along with others or see the nicer, simpler aspects of life… these are things I learn from travel bloggers and of-course real people been lucky enough to see here and there… good-day…also commendable you stayed away from non-veg food in your trek days to the Himalayas.

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