Depth on the Move: Five Strategies for Photographic Trips and Workshops
- Jon Brock
- Sep 10
- 12 min read
Introduction
Ten years ago, I completed a project at Port Mulgrave on the North Yorkshire coast. I recently spent time preparing the project for publication, triggered partly by a conversation with Paul Wakefield the year before. As we were chatting, he asked if I had published that project I showed him all those years ago and went on to tell me how he was working on publishing his India work — a passion project of his own over many years.
Seeing Paul's work published — proof of what's possible when photographing away from home — pushed me to act. Looking back at the Mulgrave Project became a major opportunity for retrospection, and I found myself reflecting not just on the photographs themselves but on everything I had learned about my creative process since then.
This reflection happened as I started going on photography trips and workshops again after years of working alone. During the few years after finishing Mulgrave, I had little time for personal photography. Photography had become an infrequent refuge, an occasional weekend escape to familiar places. But as I began reconnecting with other photographers and mentors, sharing work, and seeking fresh perspectives, the contrast became stark: What made the Mulgrave work so successful for me, and why had my subsequent travel-based and intermittent photography often felt superficial by comparison?
The answer lay in understanding the fundamental differences between sustained local practice and the constraints of working when ‘away from home’.
The Local Advantage: Lessons from Sustained Practice at Mulgrave
The Mulgrave Project illustrates the advantages of local, sustained photographic practice. Having a single location as the anchor for creative exploration provided benefits that extended far beyond mere convenience. Repetition became a creative catalyst. Port Mulgrave's accessibility at the time — unaffected by tides due to the raised land above the harbour — meant I could visit spontaneously.
This simple advantage changed everything. When inspiration struck during a stressful week of work, I could drive to the coast without planning, without checking conditions, without the elaborate logistics that distant locations demand. This removed every barrier between creative impulse and action.
More importantly, repeated visits allowed for genuine experimentation. Early trips yielded competent but conventional images. It was only through return visits—seeing how the same geological formations or human-made objects responded to different light, different tides or different ideas and vision — that the abstract possibilities emerged. I started to look for and create different images. Each visit built upon the last, with previous images informing new compositional experiments. Failures became as valuable as successes because there would always be another opportunity to refine the approach and I could learn from what didn’t work. The familiar location became my testing ground for new ideas. Over time, the project became about the exploration of what abstract photography might mean, and the shape of the project came together.
Working locally lets you develop a deeper connection with your subjects. As I am now able to devote more personal time to photography, I have conceived and started working on a couple of local projects to which I can easily devote time— whether that is scouting ideas, reacting to the weather forecast to put myself in the right place at the right times, or simply grabbing a few hours to get away from things.
Five Strategies For Photographic Trips And Workshops
However, despite the richness of my local project work, I still spend a significant portion of my photography time either travelling to favourite locations quite some distance away from home, exploring entirely new places, and attending workshops. As I reflected on the ten years after Mulgrave, some of the strategies and techniques I evolved in this regard became clearer. I have summarised the best of these ideas into six strategies that I typically apply when I am away.
The key insight: don't abandon what makes local work successful. Instead, find ways to recreate those benefits when travelling.
Strategy one - confront the elephant in the room: the clichés
Every photographic destination carries the burden of previous imagery — the Instagram shots, the famous photographer's calendar image, the workshop leader's signature compositions, the views that define how that place "should" be photographed. Addressing this issue takes deliberate effort, not wishful thinking, and it's harder than it sounds.
The primary option is obvious: acknowledge the clichés and intentionally work around them. Research the standard perspectives beforehand, then specifically seek alternative perspectives of the same subject or, better still, seek different subjects and ideas when out in the field. Many obvious locations have a wealth of alternative options available to the open mind. For example, I was on a trip up in Assynt, Scotland in January 2024. Visiting a well known and photographed location for dawn that has seen many images of the Assynt hills reflected in a lovely lochan, I was determined to look for something different to do. The ice that had been around for days was starting to melt and as the sky started to colour up I noticed how the clouds were reflected in the ice. I switched to a 180mm lens, mounted it onto my Cambo Actus and made a different image. [Image I].
One of the reasons I work with a technical camera is that the movements make it easier to construct images that are unique - for example, getting low and close to foreground material and creating a configuration of foreground, mid-ground, and background objects can make even the most familiar of subjects seem fresh. And the movements open up lots of options for details like this one which are even more likely to mean unique images.
The primary challenge with this approach is the anxiety that missing out can generate. Often that is simply expectations - either one's own or someone else's - especially the feeling there is a risk of coming home without the picture that justifies the expense of the trip or the workshop.
It takes a great deal of self-confidence to override this fear or expectation. Practice makes perfect here - approaching a location with fresh eyes and a determination to do something different becomes self-affirming once visits start yielding original, non-predictable images. Another trick I employ is to always carry an iPhone and simply use it to capture the obvious.
Sometimes you need to break your own rules. If the conditions are unique and amazing, why shouldn't you tackle the obvious subject? For example, Buachaille Etive Mòr in Scotland must be one of the most photogenic and photographed mountains in the world. In the winter of 2024 I was staying on Rannoch Moor when the temperatures had been persistently low for several days. The rivers were iced up and late afternoon saw a snow bearing front came through. I made two images - one that afternoon and another at dawn the following morning of both oft photographed mountains. [Images II and III]. Will I ever use the images as part of a project or series? Maybe. But more importantly when will I get to see a snow storm clearing through or stand in the middle of a deeply iced river in such a wonderful place. Sometimes it is right to do the obvious because the obvious is special or memorable.
Strategy two - understand your goals and objectives for the trip or workshop
Given the challenges of anxiety from expectations and fear mentioned with strategy one, the importance of having clarity of objectives for each trip becomes much more obvious. This is harder than it seems - we all like to talk and think endlessly about gear, photographic techniques, locations and sometimes even our field craft. But often all this happens without asking the obvious question - why? Why are we making the pictures?
Sometimes our goals sound specific but only scratch the surface. For example, 'I want to photograph this composition of that subject in this location.' This approach rarely produces original work unless you know the composition is unique, or you're finishing a project that needs specific shots.
Better is to have broader goals like exploring the relationship between two subjects, getting to know a place or subject better, or even having a higher-level goal of simply learning something new or doing something different on location. Our personal photography does not always have to produce a predetermined output like commercial work. One goal can simply be to enjoy oneself in the field, especially when out with friends.
One trick I learned a few years ago was to have several 'go-to' themes, series, and projects in my head— ideas that are more abstract and not necessarily bound by a specific single location. They can be deployed on location to inspire you to try something different from the obvious. For example, I worked on a series called 'Aspects of Beauty' for several years. I shot it across different locations, often in different countries. One favourite image was made in Scotland at the start of a trip to Torridon with friends. Under the shadow of a huge mountain that just asked to be photographed, the conditions were clear blue sky and hardly favourable for that kind of image. I noticed this intimate scene in the shade as the last of the overnight frost was still in place. [Image IV]
When you think more creatively about themes, you notice more potential subjects. And the more abstract that the theme or idea becomes, the more that expansion accelerates.
This is why I love project-based work - it gives you direction while leaving room for creativity and spontaneity. On another extended trip last year, the weather was unusual in the UK - a Scandinavian high dominated the weather pattern with days and days of high cloud and no wind. I had a project ongoing I had theme titled Transient Symphony and I was able to exploit the conditions in multiuple locations over several weeks to add a number of images to that series as well as several others I had underway. A highly productive trip [V].
Strategy three - Prioritise target rich locations and leverage knowledge and scouting
Locations with only one or two obvious shots rarely work well for extended photography. Greater scope typically comes from locations with plenty of rich, interesting objects to form the basis of organising the elements into a unique configuration or exploring a wide range of subjects. Knowledge becomes key here and the role of scouting is crucial. Sometimes friends or research can reveal locations that are productive but that is typically only the start. Learning to scout locations is one of the most valuable skills for landscape photographers. Factoring in time to explore new places (ideally initially with a lighter kit), pour over maps and learn more about the location is key to increasing the productivity from trips.
This is one of the advantages of workshops. The right leader will know and take groups to locations with a diverse range of potential subject matter. For example, I was on a workshop in Norway and the workshop leader took us to a location where there were a number of traditional Norwegian houses complete with birch bark on the walls. I immediately felt at home and was quickly making images I enjoyed. [Images VI, VII]
The best workshop leaders I know will also factor in time to visit locations new to themselves on workshops - for the aware workshop attendees this should not be a source of complaint about not being at the best places at all times but more an opportunity to understand the skills of scouting. I once attended a private workshop with a leader who had never visited the area before. He was totally open about that up front. The systematic scouting and discovery of multiple fantastic new locations with a group was a unique experience and it is a far more valuable skill to acquire than being told where to place the camera to make a standard image. I love exploring and finding new locations as much as taking photographs.
Knowledge about the subject is a key source of inspiration. For example, learning about how the history or geology of the landscape and subjects being photographed evolved massively increases your appreciation and very often triggers new ideas for expressing your creativity.
Strategy four - Engineer Repetition
Since natural repetition — the ability to return on spec tomorrow — is impossible during travel, you need to create opportunities for repetition during your trip. This might mean spending multiple days in a single base location rather than covering maximum geographical ground. Workshop participants often resist this approach, feeling they're missing opportunities in neighbouring areas. But better photographs come from exploring fewer places more thoroughly. Even structuring the trip to allow two or even three returns to the same location can make a massive difference to the quality and originality of the images.
Consider variations on time-based repetition: photographing the same subject during different lighting conditions, returning to promising compositions with different focal lengths or technical approaches, or working a single location through various weather patterns if the schedule permits. Even within a single session, systematic variation—shooting from multiple angles, experimenting with different aperture settings, trying various filtration approaches—can approximate the iterative process that sustained local work provides naturally. For example I was on a trip to Northumberland last year and we visited a location for sunset. I was not too interested in the options available at the time so I scouted the area and found an idea using a fence in the dunes. The image was nice but when I reviewed it that night it was conventional and lacked the missing quality that would make it memorable. A couple of days later we returned for dawn and I headed straight for the same composition - I could predict what would happen if we had a burst of light. [Image VII]
Workshop environments offer unique opportunities for engineered repetition through peer learning. When multiple photographers work the same locations, comparing approaches and results creates accelerated feedback loops. Others' perspectives can reveal possibilities you might have overlooked, functioning like the extended timeline of solo practice compressed into intensive group experience. Personally I value the diversity of approaches here rather than workshops that conform to reproducing a workshop leader's signature images or style. But everyone's path is different.
The ultimate, of course, is to plan to return to a place, region, or country multiple times and build up an intimate relationship with and knowledge of the subjects and locations. Although distant, the location can become the source of the project. Although simply returning to a location already visited can yield good results, active retrospection is key to successful repetition. Using your own knowledge of what worked well for you and what didn't can be crucial to making better images, as in the Northumberland example above. Paul Wakefield’s India work is a perfect example of this strategy in action.
Another example of this was on Lindisfarne - I had spotted the opportunity for an image several months earlier and on a return trip I could see the sun was going to fall into a small before sunset gap in 20-30 minutes time. I remembered the composition I had scouted and legged it over to be in place and setup with my Phase and Cambo Actus just as the light appeared - for a fleeting 30 seconds it turned out. It was all that was needed. [See image XII].
Strategy five - Engineer Flow State
Perhaps the most crucial strategy involves creating conditions that allow for the kind of intuitive, responsive photography that produces the best work. Flow state — that mental condition of complete immersion where technical concerns disappear and compositional decisions become instinctual — rarely occurs accidentally during travel. This happened naturally during some of my most productive Mulgrave sessions. Several sessions suddenly seemed to produce three, four or even five of the final project images as if from nowhere. [Images XI, X, XI, XII and VII]. Many more visits yielded absolutely nothing of significance. Around 2014/15 I learned about flow state theory for use at work and realised that was exactly what had happened in those crucial, productive sessions.
Flow means removing distractions and simplifying decisions. This means consistent equipment preparation beforehand: cameras configured optimally and consistently placed in the bag. The camera needs to be operated entirely on muscle memory and disappear in the hands. Hence constantly changing your gear in order to get better images rarely works. Typically it also needs some kind of trigger to initiate the process. Learning what triggers your own flow state and letting it happen to ride the wave is a crucial and rewarding skill to acquire.
This preparation pays dividends beyond individual trip success. Each travel session experience that successfully achieves flow state builds confidence and refined instincts that improve all subsequent photography, whether local or distant. The goal is not just to create good images during travel, but to use travel constraints to accelerate overall creative development.
Conclusion: Orchestrating the right conditions and mindset when travelling
Looking back at the Mulgrave Project showed me I didn't have to choose between local depth and travel breadth - I could combine the best of both approaches. Sustained local work provides the frequency of opportunity, access and repetition needed to create depth and should always be in a photographer's portfolio of ongoing projects. But engineering the right conditions and your mental approach to photography when travelling can yield productive results despite the constraints.
The five strategies — confronting clichés, clarifying objectives, prioritising rich locations, engineering repetition, cultivating flow state — transform travel photography from hit-and-miss encounters into deliberate creative practice. They don't eliminate the fundamental differences between local and distant work, but they bridge the gap, allowing the insights gained from sustained practice to inform and elevate our photography wherever we roam.
(c) Jon Brock 2025
