I’m happy to say that I am well into the process of creating a book that focuses on my travel photography. Right now, I’m tweaking a few final details in the design toward the final step, production. I have had this idea to create a book for over a year, but those initial stages raised some questions: most importantly, do I have a body of work that warrants creating a book?

I’ve been thinking about a previous post discussing how taking a break is good for your photography. It’s still on my mind, even more so as we move into the winter months. I find it very challenging to feel motivated to take photos when it’s cold and dark. And this period lasts for months. We’ve all been there: where you were once excited about the prospect of photography, now seems more of a task and maybe even a hassle.

I started photography long ago when the YouTube photography community was in its infancy, and finding helpful information wasn’t as instantaneous as it is today. At that time, the Photoshop experience was more experimental, and Lightroom didn’t even exist. Today, there is essentially an endless supply of photography content.

As we progress as photographers, reflecting on our past work is always interesting, especially as the years pass. I say interesting, but what I mean is partially nostalgic, a little bit of satisfaction, a good deal of considered deletions, and probably some choice words about previous creations. It’s a good thing no one will see these.

It is a 20-minute drive from where I live to the airport. I’ve done that drive often, to and from, dropping off and picking up. The route there isn’t exclusive to the airport, as it’s the main route from Nova Scotia to the neighbouring provinces. But those first 20 minutes always remind me of travelling. Passing the airport, the cargo planes are visible from the road, and if I’m lucky, some arriving or departing flights.

Sometimes, I feel motivated to photograph with every chance I have. Other times, and this is especially true in the winter, my motivation declines as the bad weather, sometimes bitter wind chill, and overall inconvenience of going out to shoot take over, and nothing is captured. Taking each opportunity to photograph is essential as it will help with the progression and improvement of photography and the enjoyment of doing so.

Most modern cameras allow you to shoot RAW and JPEG simultaneously, capturing your subject’s uncompressed and unedited version and a compressed and processed version of the same file. You can alter the JPEG capture with Fujifilm, giving your JPEG file various treatments by choosing a predetermined film simulation or creating and using your custom recipe.

It’s been over a decade since I started travelling more regularly, and Lisa has been there for almost all of it. It all started with our first trip across the Atlantic, which took us to London at the end of 2012 and Paris in early 2013. Since then, there have been dozens of destinations, events, and shows, with countless restaurants, concerts, and many others. With the accumulation of these events, we have many photos and videos to look back on.

I visited Peggy’s Cove a few weeks ago, which was my first time being there in years. It was a brief visit, but I saw the changes since my last time there. Our last few weeks have been somewhat gloomy, and the sun had rarely appeared, but this night, the forecast called for clear skies. I knew it would still be quite cold with the wind around the lighthouse, which is typical.

As photographers, we can focus on the result more than the experience. We can research our destinations, looking for the “best” place to get the “best” photographs. Learning more about our destination is a logical and appropriate step to learn more about what to expect and what to hope to experience when we arrive, but focusing on the experience should be the point.

I often discuss the allure of travelling as experiencing new areas hugely benefits well-being and self-development. I try to travel frequently and take advantage of every opportunity, but exploring doesn’t have to be limited to somewhere far from home.

When planning to travel somewhere, we often debate whether we should go. We wait for the perfect time to fit this into our busy lives. We may hesitate to commit as we look at the factors that weigh our decision. We have been heavily researching and eagerly anticipating, and this could now be the ideal time to book that vacation and embark on that adventure on our wish list.

As a photographer, I would put myself at the low end in terms of the number of photos I take even when travelling, but recently, the volume has increased due to my continued use of the X-E4 and choosing to shoot both RAW + JPEG sometimes, which doubles the number of photos that reach my hard drive. I don’t shoot 10,000 photos during a trip, and I rarely get over 1,000.

Film photography has experienced a remarkable resurgence in popularity. What used to be reserved for the nostalgic few gained interest, with many looking to return to a tangible process and achieve a unique look for their images. Digital photography was introduced long ago and since then has improved immensely and offered convenience and technical quality that made film mostly forgotten by many.

In Lightroom, my currently imported library contains over 14,000 photos, and my complete archive is many times that. I look through this library, often looking for those hidden gems in the ones I’ve overlooked; sometimes, I find them; sometimes, they continue to elude me, and sometimes, they were never there to discover. When I dig through my archive, I notice something evident in many of my photo sets - the first 10-25 captures are usually terrible.