Travel Photography Tips to Improve Well-being & My Photo-experience in Mexico
I love how your photos make me feel!” - This is the feedback I got from my audience and in this blog I share my creative recipe.
This is my second trip to Mexico. In my first trip, I came back to Finland with a collection of thousands of random photos and a chaotic and restless mind obsessed about not missing any important shot… Here are the most important things I learnt about travel photography after my second trip to Mexico :
First Tip
Do not rush to photograph the most popular places. Instead, hit the streets and explore locations guided by your intuition. This felt like pure liberation for me! I became much lighter and more confident in my photographs, learning to trust my intuition more. 🤍
Second Tip
Take the time to engage all your bodily senses when you are in a new place. ➡️ Photograph how the place FEELS LIKE like FOR YOU.
* It was the first time I tried this practice and for me - it changed everything: how i frame, what i choose to look at, when i press the button and when i decide to not press it anymore 😉
Third Tip
Use your camera as your tool to connect with the new culture you are in. ➡️ Ask questions about the culture and its history to the locals or read about/ watch a documentary about its culture before you start shooting.
*I was extremely shy and insecure about myself and did not know how to talk to people. (or at least this is what I was telling myself) But after 10+ years of photography practice, here I am - eager to share all that I know with my audience. You can talk to strangers. You can have meaningful conversations if you are truly honest and interested in the new culture you are trying to photograph.
When travelling, we usually rush to get the photo to prove we’ve been there and tick it from our list. If you ask me, travel photography is much more than photographing what we think it is important, but what we FEEL is important.
Ice Cream stores are a regular thing in Mexico. I found this as an interesting aspect of the culture, so I decided to take a quick shot while I was staying in line for my ice-cream. And an important note: All ice-creams are made of real fruits and are extremely delicious!
Because ice-cream became my every day pleasure in my Mexico trip, I took this photograph as a souvenir to remember the feeling I got every time I shared one with my life partner.
And here is my post-processing recipe for travel photography:
1. It starts when shooting: Be present & mindful when you are shooting. This is how you allow your body & mind to understand how it feels while shooting.
2. Choose the most present emotion felt while you were shooting.
3. Start editing : choose the colors, textures and lighting that express your chosen emotion
And here are 3 ways on how to use travel photography to improve specifically your mental well-being:
1. Use photography as a game to flex your mind
The open-minded practice is an active practice that takes skill and effort. Your brain needs exercise to become resilient and more flexible to change 💪
How I did it?
Usually I like to plan and create my itinerary - to see as much as possible, learn, experience and photograph as much as I can. This time I made a test: I chose not to plan anything and focus to photograph only if it leaves a very strong impression for me. (During the trip, I had many moments when my mind would scream to press that button, but I managed to resist thanks to the promise I made to myself.)
A view from La Paz, Baja California Sur
2. Use photography to improve self-awareness
Self-awareness is when we pay attention to our body : what is needs, what it thinks, how it feels. The more we practice it, the better we know ourselves and the better we’re able to share our needs and articulate our thoughts with the others.
How I did it:
When I let go of the need to control what was in my frame, I was able to concentrate on what was happening inside : what I was thinking, how I was breathing or how my bodily senses were feeling the environment. Based on this perceived data, I would choose take the photograph or not to take it anymore.
And I did this for my entire trip: 21 days. Over and over again.
At first it was funny : my brain was putting so much pressure on me to photograph sooo many things. It was not easy to adjust. But it got much better at it after day 3. 🧠
I saw more things than ever in this trip because I was more aware than ever. If I would not practice that, I wouldn’t see these dogs hiding from the sun
