Member-only story
Travel Photography: Welcome Your Viewers to a New Place
A sign helps to set the scene
Travel photography can be a challenge, for many reasons.
I’ve written an article or two about some of those reasons. But this time we’ll talk about the importance of setting a scene with your images.
This can come in handy when you show your travel shots to others. (You’re probably boring them anyway. But hey, they asked “How was your trip?”, so they had it coming.)
Nothing sets a scene like a sign, in my opinion. When you put an image of a sign at the beginning of a series of photographs from that location, it makes the viewer feel like they’re following you — as if you’re welcoming them to go on a journey to a new place.
Or something.
In any case, it’s just a nice thing to do.
And there are many different kinds of sign images.
Let’s look at some examples. Follow me…
Famous Signs
Many locations around this world have famous signs that welcome you. These are signs that have appeared in a million photos and postcards, and sometimes even in movies or TV shows.
Photos of signs like these are certainly not original — they won’t win you any travel photography contests. But they’re a must-get shot, and they definitely help set the scene for a viewer.
My wife and I are wine enthusiasts. We’ve been to Napa several times — it’s a world-famous wine growing region (with or without a hyphen). But I had regrets about never getting a shot of one of the famous Napa Valley welcome signs.
But then I did — see above.
My collection of Napa images didn’t feel complete until I got this shot.
So, I checked that off my list, and got a good scene-setting image.
