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TRVL Photography
Created in 2024, TRVL Photography is a joint tour operator business founded by Greg Snell & Brendan Van Son.
Contrary to popular belief, travel photography is not simply “photos taken while travelling”. While travelling, you can engage in basically any genre of photography: street, portrait, landscape, wildlife, etc. Just because you’re on vacation and taking pictures doesn’t mean that you’re a travel photographer.
Rather, travel photography is the art of capturing the activity of “travel”.
This can take form in a number of ways – and maybe those ways are discussion for another post all together. But, with travel photography the goal is to make the viewer of the photo look at the image and think, “wow, I’d love to go there.”
As such, there really is almost a sub-genre of all types of photography that are travel photography. For example, travel landscape photography, travel portraiture, etc.
If you love capturing this vibe in your photos, you’ll love the following destinations.
A lot of people like to describe travel photography as “generalist” photography.
I disagree.
That said, it’s easy to see why it can be seen that way. The best travel photography destination in the world are places where you can photograph a wide variety of subjects. And actually one of my big draws to travel photography as a genre was the fact that I could be photographing landscapes one day, cities the next, and then wildlife the following day. And I love destinations where there is a really wide variety of photography subjects. Mongolia is definitely one of those places.
Mongolia is one of the world’s last true wilds. And it has such a beautiful variety to it.
In the south of the country you have the incredible Gobi Desert, impressive gorges, and some stunning night skies.
Out west near the borders of Russia and China there are some of the most epic mountain landscapes. Snow-covered peaks jaggedly poke into big skies and its easy to feel very small out here.
Mongolia is also home to some really special wildlife photography opportunities. There are places where you’re almost guaranteed to be able to see snow leopards. There are even more rare cats such as Pallas cats. Of course, there are more traditional wildlife opportunities such as eagles and marmots as well.
Of course, in Mongolia getting to all these locations is also such a great adventure – and there are great photos in that adventure as well.
In many ways, Bolivia has similar characteristics to Mongolia. There’s a little bit of everything to photograph. The thing that makes Bolivia so unique is the sheer diversity. That diversity is the result of its unique geography and immense altitude changes.
The altitude changes mean that Bolivia is home to everything from jungle – down in the Amazon Basin – the alpine geography. In fact, Bolivia is the 3rd most bio-diverse countries on the planet just behind the United States and Peru. The only thing keeping it from the top spot is that it is landlocked.
In Bolivia there’s diversity in all the subjects. For example, if you’re interested in portraiture, there are the bolo-hat wearing Aymara people, the Quechua, and numerous other indigenous groups in the Amazon basin and Chaco.
If landscapes are more your thing, there are so many really cool places to photograph the nature as well. Up on the altiplano, you have the world-famous Salar de Uyuni which is the world’s largest salt flats. In the summer months it can flood making it perhaps the world’s largest mirrored surface. Up in the Andes there are also some incredibly impressive peaks – many of which are taller than 6,000m. Throw in lakes that are red and green, the world’s highest altitude geysir, and epic volcanos and you have some really special places for landscape photography.
If you’re into wildlife, there are plenty of options in Bolivia as well. Of course, you have the Amazon basin. But you also have the jaguars of the Chaco. And up in the altiplano there are flamingos, condors, Andean foxes, and chinchillas.
When talking about Indonesia it’s a bit of a disservice to call it one destination. It’s not. Indonesia is multiple destinations plopped along a number of islands. There’s diversity in the population, religion, and nature across the islands.
Of course, you have the famous islands like Bali and Lombok. These islands have some beautiful landscapes and seascapes to photograph. There are also plenty of cultural photography opportunities with a seemingly endless amount of festivals occurring.
Landscape photographers tend to flock to the main island of Java where you find Mount Bromo. The volcano landscape is one of the most picturesque places on the entire planet. Seeing the sun set here is awesome, and watching the milky way traverse across it at night is special.
I think the most underrated part of Indonesia is the opportunity for wildlife photography.
Lots of people have heard of Komodo Island – a place that’s home to these incredible dragon-like creatures that are just ferocious. In Indonesia, you also have a couple places where you can photograph orangutans. On Borneo islands you can see them in Kalimantan. There are also orangutans over on Sumatra.
Personally, I think South Africa is one of the most under-rated travel photography destinations on the planet. I’m not sure if people are scared by its bad crime rates, or they simply haven’t been exposed enough to its beauty, but it is one of the most beautiful place on earth. It also might be the most diverse country on the African continent for photography.
One of the many proofs that South Africa is underrated as a travel photography destination is the simple reality that many people have never even heard of places like the Drakensberg Mountains or Blyde River Canyon. These are 2 natural landforms that rival any of the big national parks in the United States. The Drakensbergs are awe-inspiring. Blyde River Canyon is awesome. Both are great places for landscape photography.
There are some other cool landscape photography spots in South Africa even in and around Cape Town itself.
Of course, you have lots of wildlife in South Africa as well.
I think the coolest thing about the wildlife photography opportunities in South Africa is that you can actually do it fairly easily and cheaply. For example, Kruger National Park is home to the Big Five and so much more, and much of it can be driven on pavement. There are great camp and lodge facilities too. Over on the northwest, I also love Khalahadi Transfrontier Park. It’s a great place to spot lions and leopards, and it’s completely under-visited.
Unlike South Africa, I feel like people know how awesome Vietnam is. It’s not a secret anymore.
That said, I still think there’s so much of Vietnam that is underexplored and ripe for travel photographers to capture.
Places like Ha Long Bay, Hanoi, and Hue have been photographed by so many people. However, up in the north of the country there are some incredible places that very few photographers get their lenses.
Sapa is one of the most famous locations up in the north. It’s home to steps of rice terracing that stretch on for kilometers and kilometers. It’s up here in the north where you also have Ban Gioc Waterfall which isn’t known by many, but worthy of so much more tourism than it receives.
Created in 2024, TRVL Photography is a joint tour operator business founded by Greg Snell & Brendan Van Son.