Do You Need to Travel Far Away to Take Meaningful Photos?

This impromptu photo project was meant to reflect on one question — Do you need to travel far away to take meaningful photos? Please read on and find my answer.

Photo by author. Shot in Pittsburgh.

I love to travel and take photos from different cities. The novelty of new places and the surprises I often encounter are what make those photo-taking experiences exciting and unique every single time. However, after visiting and taking photos from 50 plus cities around the world, all of a sudden I asked myself — What would happen if I approach my own city, which is just an ordinary mid-size city in the U.S., with the same enthusiasm and energy? With that question in mind, I decided to do an impromptu photo shooting in the city I live in — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on a hot summer day in 2019.

In this story, I will use three questions — Why, What, and How — to guide you through this photo shooting experience and share some of the photos I took along the way.

Photo by author. Shot in Pittsburgh.

(1) — Why?

Photo by author. Shot in Pittsburgh.

As alluded to in the beginning, the reason I shoot this series of photos in my home city is that I wanted to find out whether we need to travel far away from home to take interesting and meaningful photos.

It is not uncommon that people only think about taking serious photos when they travel to other places. When I said taking serious photos, I meant planning ahead what camera to use, thinking carefully about composition and technical settings, and paying attention to every single detail in your surroundings. It is natural that you are willing to put forth such energy when traveling far away because you think it might be the only chance you can visit that particular place. However, when you are at home, you feel like you will always have the next chance to explore this seemingly familiar place. As a result, you would never do it.