Photographers are constantly seeking to create new images and content. Creating new images and photographing in different locations feeds our creative spirit and helps us to grow as artists. This involves scouting, searching and traveling to new locations looking for that next image. Or does it?.
Most photographers I know love to travel to far flung locations around the globe looking to expand their portfolio and feed that ‘traveling jones’ that most of us seem to have embedded in our DNA. Iceland and Chile being the current favorites amongst landscape photographers. While I love to travel to far flung locations just as much as the next guy, I still find photographing and exploring locations close to home the most rewarding exercise.
If you are a frequent visitor to my site or my social media feeds you know that approximately 85% of my landscape photography takes place in either Rocky Mountain National Park or in and around Boulder, Colorado. This is done deliberately and with purpose. While these locations are very close to my home and are without question my favorite subjects to photograph, visiting the same locations and areas over and over again gives me a knowledge and understanding of my subject that I do not posses when I visit a location for the first and possibly only time.
Photographing the same locations time and time again in different seasons or carrying weather conditions and light allows me to not only capture the moment that is unfolding in front of my camera on that day, but it also allows me to anticipate and plan future visits to a given location with the expectation of a different result. Knowing these subjects well so close to my home allows me to adapt and plan based on atmospherics, weather conditions and lighting. Oftentimes we think a subject can only be photographed from one location, in one direction at one optimal time of day. I think many photographers would be surprised to see just how many different interpretations of a subject one can create when they are able to visit at different times in varying conditions.
I realize most peoples styles and motivations are different than mine and my approach may not work or interest other photographers. That being said I strongly recommend finding a local area, or one close to your home and becoming intimately familiar with it. The location may not be as exotic or sexy as some far flung location around the globe, but embarking on a journey to really get to know a local subject or location over time will have just as great a reward to your portfolio and creative process as would a trip to a location you may only visit once in your lifetime.