A member of my writing tribe recently dropped me a text. “Can you look at these cameras and tell me which one I should buy? I just want to take nature shots.”
She’s moved to a beautiful part of the country, near Glacier National Park in Montana, on a big lake with an abundance of wilderness, flora and fauna surrounding her. Retired for the past year, she’s found herself immersed in creativity – picking up her fiction work once more, designing a house, and now, becoming inspired to capture images of nature on her daily hikes.
Photogs Tell Stories Too
“What are you talking about, Yvonne?”
I hear your puzzlement. Like writing a story, a great photographed image tells a story too.
Just as two writers presented with the same overarching theme, list of flat characters and plot points will create different stories, two photographers standing side by side will frame and shoot a scene focusing on unique aspects.
As writing a story is the art of putting words together to create mood and emotion in the reader, photography is the art of putting light, angles and subjects in the mix to communicate a new way of seeing in the viewer.
How You Can Tell a Great Travel Story Too
Whether you’re using words of images, you too can be a great and unique travel storyteller, even when you’re in a location a million others have written about or shot before. Your vision of the place is unique TO YOU and what you see, the story you want to tell about it, is from the special place of your perspective.
We bordered this Chilean ferry for two hours in the south Pacific… 
…to come to this freezing, windswept island… 
…so we could all crowd together… 
…and take pictures of Magellanic penguins and their nest holes. 
They appear unimpressed with the attention! 
Cute little things, aren’t they?
Don’t be afraid to go where others have before, because you can take that place and make it yours. How does it feel to you? What are the sights, sounds, scents and tastes of that point in time? What catches your eye, and most importantly, why?
Noticing these things and capturing them with the click of a shutter or the words jotted in your travel journal are the beginning. The next step, translating that into a story you share with others, will be the subject of next Friday’s blog post.
My friend is a primo storyteller. Her books engage you with fascinating characters and their heroine/hero journeys to reach their happiness. I can’t wait to see what she does with her creative journeying into photography.
And I want to know about how you’re stretching your travel creativity too! Please share what’s working for you as you discover your travel storytelling in the comments below.
Yvonne
Yvonne is a freelance writer, photographer, dedicated foodie, and gardening plantaholic. Travel is her passion and addiction. She writes fiction in romantic suspense and psychological thrillers, coaches creatives about their businesses and their books, and studies human behavior and the natural world as a nerdy lifelong learner.
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