When I started out traveling, I was more of a tourist than an experiential traveler. I looked up what to see in the guidebooks and that’s what I went to see.

But then I went somewhere with a friend who was more experienced, and knew the city. Paris. Of course.

She was also fluent in French. She says “hey let’s rent bikes and ride around the city.” OK. Let’s go see this little art gallery that I read about on a new thing called a blog. OK. What’s a blog? It’s kind of like an online journal… (it was a long time ago)

Let’s go try these little restaurants that have up-and-coming chefs that I found on this “blog”.

And that is when I started to understand a couple of things. What a “blog” was, AND how to experience a place instead of just seeing it.

And somehow that changed me. It changed how I traveled AND it changed how I made photos of those places that I visited.

How? Well instead of JUST the iconic photos - because let’s face it, we all still want the Eiffel Tower shot - I also wanted to capture my experience with photos. I wanted to capture how it FELT to travel to a place, not just what it looked like.

And how the heck do you do that? Well let’s talk about that.

This is one of the scenic photos I made during our visit to Alcoy, Spain. A beautiful and odd place…

Capturing how something feels vs. just what it looks like involves a couple of things. First it involves your mindset, imagination, and feelings. You are correct, none of those have anything at all to do with aperture or shutter speed.

What it has to do with is how you see, I mean really SEE what you’re looking at. Do you see a cathedral? Or do you see people gathered outside the cathedral laughing, dancing and embracing? Do you see a central plaza in Venice? Or do you see vendors who come day after day selling their wares and then go home to their families where they laugh about the day and have pasta and roasted fish for dinner?

You can see a building, or you can see an ancient work of art worn by time, that has been visited by generations of people.

And how will your photos look different with those different perspectives?

Well...I’m so glad you asked.

This is a plaza in Venice, Italy, with the focus of the image being the vendors.

You can make a photo of a building. I mean really, anybody can. You point your camera at it, focus, and press the button. Sure you can make a better version of the same photo if you have the right exposure, and the composition is done well.

BUT you can make an even more interesting photo if you’re trying to capture how worn and tired the building is from everything it had endured over the years. That involves photographing the doorway where people entered, and maybe even the worn doorknob that hundreds of hands have touched. Capturing the cracks in the walls, the chipping paint, and the windows where people peered out.

If you’re feeling what you’re looking at, really engaging in the experience...your photos will reflect that. Because photography is an art. As much as it’s about technology - of your camera, the image files, the exposure...it’s also about interpretation of what you’re looking at.

One of the many abandoned buildings in Alcoy, Spain.

Let’s take for example our visit to a small town in Spain, Alcoy. The only reason we ended up in this town was because we needed to kill some time before our apartment was ready in Toulouse, and I had Marriott points. OK, I might have lost you there. Let’s back up a bit.

When we found our perfect little apartment in Toulouse, France (where we were going to live for a year), the only not-so-perfect part about it was that it wouldn’t be ready for 2 weeks. Well what do you do when you have 2 weeks to kill? Head to Spain, that’s what.

And since I had just left a consulting gig where I traveled for work every week (yep every freaking week, Monday through Thursday - exhausting to say the least) I had a whole heck of a lot of Marriott hotel points.

So we looked into where in Spain there were Marriotts. Our choices were fairly limited. Barcelona, of course. But the places in Barcelona used so many points that we would burn through my reserve faster than 2 weeks. So we looked for alternatives, and there was Alcoy.

With a little research we figured, why not? And that’s how we ended up in Alcoy.

It was a charming little town, but a little odd. . .There are a few “photogenic” areas such as the central plaza, park and surrounding buildings.

One of the photogenic areas of Alcoy, the central plaza.

One of the many lovely streets in Alcoy, Spain.

But to fully capture the culture, feeling, and experience, I also had to capture the abandoned buildings, and the huge abandoned park that has been overrun with graffiti. The spirit of the town was one of a once thriving place that was now mysteriously quiet and almost forlorn. And yet the inhabitants seemed content, joyful, and engaging.

I wanted to capture both the beauty of the town and the loneliness of the forgotten buildings. The sense of community of the people who gathered in the plaza and the sadness of the disregarded park that longs for visitors.

Another angle of this once beautiful and vibrant space.

Here you can see derelict buildings among the rest of the thriving city.

So if about now you’re thinking “how the heck do I put feeling into a photo?” Well, here’s my suggestion. First of all, slow down. Take a seat and watch what’s going on around you. Take a deep breath, and let it out. Pay attention to what you see, hear, smell...Observe what’s going on around you. Really take it in.

If this just isn’t how you travel and it sounds maddening to you…then this style of creating photos might not be your thing. You might want to stick to the guide book, take some Eiffel Tower photos and move on.

But if you enjoy really experiencing a place, then you’re in for a treat the next time you visit somewhere new with your camera.

So back to the breathing thing. Take a breath, let it out. Observe, take it all in. And then start to imagine what you could capture in photos. Movement, sound, texture, color, emotion, shapes. ALL of that can be captured with your camera. If you think “I don’t know how to do that” well it’s time to give it a try.

A delicious but kind of odd cave restaurant in Alcoy.

So if this DOES sound appealing to you, let’s give it a try before your next trip so you can see how it goes. Maybe take a walk down to a local park, or downtown where there’s some activity. Walk slowly, take a seat. Listen, observe, look for details...and start making some photos.

Try to capture what you’re experiencing. Like facial expressions or people running. Like the movie theater that is closed because of COVID, but you know would rather be showing movies and making popcorn. Or how about the old house down the street with peeling paint and a sagging roof, that looks tired from all the years trying to hold it together.

I think you get the point. You don’t have to be in Spain, or France, or even anywhere other than your own neighborhood to try this out.

You’re reflecting what you feel. You’re capturing the details of what you experience in photos.

You’ll see a depth to your photos that you haven’t seen before. They will have more of a substance than just you trying to take a pretty photo.

Now don’t judge yourself with these. You’re trying something new. Some might be interesting, and some might just be weird. That’s OK. Weird is good. It’s how to try new things and get to amazing. And your weird might just be somebody else's amazing.

Be sure to share the results with us in the PhotoFluent Travelers Community. We like weird over there.