Nothing opens the photographer’s eye quite like traveling. Being in a new and foreign environment is fireworks for the senses. It can be so overwhelming that our brains simply can’t take in all the information at once. Sights, sounds, smells, all assail us with a droning constancy. Back home, our brains are accustomed to filter out and ignore the commonplace so that we can focus our energies on the relevant concerns of day to day life. And our brains are so efficient at this that we end up glossing over dozens of photographic opportunities because we are not truly seeing them. There was a painting that had hung in our dining room for many years. In my subconscious it had ceased to be its own object and instead became one with the room. Returning home from some time away, it caught my eye and for the first time in years I actually saw the painting. It had been so long, in fact, that it looked different than I remembered it. That is what happens when we are in our comfort zone; we become dulled to our surroundings.
Travel in a foreign environment awakens and stimulates our senses. We become sensitized to every detail. Colors are vibrant, architecture pops out, light shines off the water, and people boil with life. Suddenly we note everything, and the artist in us wants to capture it all.
This is an opportunity that cannot be missed. The period of conflict and adjustment as we enter a new culture or environment allows us a unique perspective that will inspire our photography. It’s during this time that I’ve most enjoyed my photography and have gotten the best results.
When I first started going to Brazil, I didn’t leave my room without my camera. Every day was full of great photos… Vendors selling native fruits, wooden Mississippi steamboat styled river boats, bright contrasted colors, homemade motorcycles, barefoot kids in intense soccer matches, the occasional sloth, all foreign sights which arrested the attention and begged to be photographed. It was incredible!
Three years and five trips later, I found myself taking only a handful of photos per week. And even those weren’t inspired photos, they were only to catalog experiences or people. I had become accustomed. What once was novel now was normal, and who wants to photograph the normal?
Familiarity blinds us. Inspiration is found beyond the constraints of our comfort. Go travel! See the world with fresh eyes!