Travel itineraries

Planning is an important stage of travel. Even though spontaneity during the trip itself is crucial for being able to unplug from the daily home routine, thoughtful planning (even if it is done in broad strokes) can make a difference between an enjoyable and a stressful experience on the road. Currently, getting into the specifics of the future summer trip to Europe begins to give it a sense of reality through anticipation.

My wife and I often combine photography-focussed trips with family vacations. Having a small child substantially changed the dynamics, so the style of the photos have adapted as well. We used to like what Rick Steves refers to  as “whirlwind tours” of a country, where we would travel by car to a new location every day or two. Now, with our daughter, our preference shifted to a one or two home bases, from which we would do day trips to explore the sites.

The latter type of itinerary also better suites my current style of travel photography. I like to focus more on people than on the sites themselves, and having more time in a same location allows me to study the local dynamics a bit deeper, to look at the place through the eyes of a local person. Even just a few days in a city or a town, allows me to makes the vicinity of the home base “my own.” It is the sense of personal preferences (things that I like and don’t like about the place) and forming micro-routines (e.g. finding the best local bakery and a market) that enable this sense of familiarity with the new place to develop.