Editor's note: The 2026 class of my Lightroom Classic Secrets course is open for enrollment now. Learn the tips, techniques and secrets used by the Lightroom masters. Click here for the details. Thanks for reading, Andrew.
When I think back to the times I’ve traveled I wish I’d been bolder and set myself specific assignments to follow. It would have given me more discipline, something to aim for and resulted in more interesting photos.
We all have these if I knew then what I know now moments, but I can help put that right by giving you some assignments for the next time you travel, whether it’s a short vacation or a longer journey.
I’ve taken them from my ebook 100 Composition Assignments.
The idea is to avoid the cliches and Instagram honey spots and come up with photos that are more authentic and true to you.
I’ve added some extra tips in italics to help you make the most of these travel assignments.
Travel Photography Assignment 6: A Sense of Place – Travel space
Tip: What’s unique about the place you’re visiting? Is it the architecture, the interplay between natural and man-made spaces, the quality of the light or something else? Try and capture these elements in your photos.
When you’re traveling to somewhere new and interesting there are often so many things to make photos of that you don’t know what to focus your attention on. You can end up with lots of images, but none that work together or capture the spirit of the place.
It’s also tempting (depending on where you are) to make photos of the iconic locations popular on Instagram. But you often get more interesting results when you photograph the places that personally appeal to you.
Your brief for this assignment is to think about the spaces you come across on your journey, and the way that people use them.
Compositionally, think about how much space to leave around your subject. Is it best to get in close, or to include some of the surroundings? It isn’t necessary to include people in your photos. Sometimes empty spaces say enough.
Travel Photography Assignment 14: Simplify – Avoid crowds
Tip: One or two people in a photo can add interest (see Assignment 96). But too many create a cluttered composition. The solution? Simplify…
If you’ve ever visited somewhere popular with tourists you’ll be used to crowds. It’s hard to make good photos with large groups of different people. So for this assignment your task is to find a crowded place and look for a way to photograph it without including people in the composition.
If you’re in a town or city you can do this by pointing your camera up at the buildings. That’s easy, but if you want more of a challenge then use your imagination and some lateral thinking to find ways of photographing scenes without people in them.
For example, the photo on this page shows a church on the coast in north-west Spain. But it’s a tourist hot spot and there always seemed to be somebody in the way of a good shot.
I found a nearby rock, put a wide-angle lens on the camera, and crouched down behind it so it hid all the people in front of the church. Not only did it simplify the composition, but it gave me a more interesting photo.
Travel Photography Assignment 15: Simplify – Architectural details
Tip: Don’t just make one photo – aim to create a set of three or six photos showing architectural details unique to the place you’re visiting. Doorways and windows are a great place to start.
Buildings are a great subject for photography. Architectural styles vary with geography, giving you a wide range of potential subjects.
For this assignment focus on the details. Don’t include the whole building, just part of it. You’re looking for simple, bold, graphic compositions, like the one in the photo on this page.
The great thing about this assignment is that you can do it at any time during the day. It doesn’t matter if it’s sunny and there are hard shadows everywhere. Look for ways to work them into your composition.
Travel Photography Assignment 16: Light and Shadow – A splash of light
Tip: The perfect assignment for the golden hour…
Your brief in this assignment is to make a photo lit by a splash of light. It depends on the scene, but ten to twenty percent of it lit, and the rest in shadow, is what you’re aiming for.
This is the sort of light you get at the end of a sunny day, when the sun’s close to the horizon. It casts long shadows that you can use in your photos.
Or you might notice a scene where the light illuminates something interesting and the rest of it is in shadow.
This assignment tests your observational skills. It encourages you to look at light and shadow carefully, and think about interesting ways you can use them in your compositions.
Travel Photography Assignment 67: Contrast – Man-made vs natural
Tip: How do man-made and natural spaces in your destination work together? Are they harmonious, or has one taken over the other? How can you turn your observations into interesting photos?
In this assignment your brief is to juxtapose a man-made object with the natural world.
A plant climbing up the side of a building is an obvious example, but how far can you take it? As with all the assignments, try and look beyond the obvious.
For example, the idea of man-made vs natural suggests to me a further juxtaposition, that between the geometric shapes and hard surfaces of man-made objects and the organic, non-geometric shapes found in nature. You also have the order of a man-made building contrasted against the wild chaos of nature. There’s a lot of ways you can go with this assignment, so have fun with it.
Travel Photography Assignment 68: Contrast – Old vs new
Tip: This is a great assignment whenever old and new co-exist. How does the modern world rub up against historical buildings?
Make a photo that juxtaposes something new against something old. If you live (or are traveling to) somewhere with lots of old buildings then you’re in luck. Look for the different ways that modernity intersects with older buildings.
Feel free to interpret this brief any way you like. The old part of the composition doesn’t have to be hundreds of years old. It can be something relatively new that simply looks old, because it hasn’t been cared for or because of natural decay.
Another approach could be to make a portrait of an older person with a younger one, like a grandparent with a grandchild.
Travel Photography Assignment 72: The Banal – Ordinary details
Tip: Look for everyday details that show local life. How are ordinary tasks, like drying washing, different?
If you were to travel to Burano, an island near Venice, you might do some research beforehand by looking at other people’s photos on Instagram. You’d see photos of canals, colorful buildings, sunsets, selfies and so on. What you’re unlikely to see is photos that show the ordinary aspects of every day life, such as somebody putting their washing out to dry.
Your task for this assignment is to photograph the ordinary details of daily life. You can do it while traveling, or you can do it close to home. The key is to find something to photograph that other photographers overlook because they are trying to make photos like the ones they saw on Instagram.
Travel Photography Assignment 73: The Banal – Random stuff
Tip: This is the opposite of photographing the same iconic scenes as everybody else. What interesting things catch your eye?
In this assignment your brief is to photograph the random stuff that people leaving laying around. It’s amazing what you find once you start looking. How many of these objects could be interesting subjects, if photographed the right way?
This is one of those assignments that has the potential for producing sets of photos. A set of three or six photos, following the brief of random stuff, is potentially much more interesting to look at than a single photo.
It’s also a brief that comes in useful if you’re putting together a series of photos made in a certain place. Combining photos that show the iconic locations, the interesting streets and buildings, with others that show banal details like random things people leave behind help build up a sense of a place’s character.
Travel Photography Assignment 90: Compositional Concepts – Repeating shapes
Tip: It’s time to test your observational skills. Give it a try in markets and when photographing buildings.
Your brief for this assignment is to photograph a subject made up of a series of repeating shapes.
I used two different photos to show how you could approach this brief. In the first (above) the windows are the repeating shapes. This photo has an interesting composition. The roofline divides the frame in two. The building is built from many geometric shapes, the rectangles of the bricks and tiles and the squares of the windows. These contrast with the organic shapes of the trees in the background.
The second photo (below) shows a row of vintage shoes. It’s a series of six repeating shapes, and I framed the photo so they made a diagonal line, which adds a sense of movement to the composition.
Travel Photography Assignment 96: Advanced Composition Techniques – In the frame
Tip: You’ll need patience to make this brief work. Find a place to sit with your camera and watch life pass you by.
Often in street and travel photography you can frame up an interesting photo, especially when you’re in an interesting or beautiful environment, but it’s missing something. It needs a point of interest, something to add interest to a scene that’s photogenic but needs something extra to give it a lift.
That’s your brief for this assignment – to find an interesting and photogenic place, to frame up a photo, then wait for somebody to step into the frame to complete the composition. For this technique to work, there should only be one person in the photo. It doesn’t work if there’s a crowd, and the photo isn’t as good if there’s nobody in it.
The human element that lifts the composition is called punctuation.
Patience is key for this assignment, as there’s an element of luck involved and you need to wait for the right person to enter the frame.
Travel Photography Assignment 98: Advanced Composition Techniques – Imperfection
Tip: Look for the hidden beauty in decay and decline.
Life isn’t always perfect. Neither are the scenes and objects you encounter in your daily life. Something new, lifted out from its box by the buyer, should be perfect. But, as time passes, and things get weathered, eroded and worn, perfection turns into imperfection. And that imperfection can have a beauty of its own. You can’t make something old, and it’s difficult to make the perfect imperfect. That’s the job of time and the elements.
Your brief for this assignment is to photograph something that isn’t perfect. This is another brief that lends itself to being an interesting long term theme to follow. You can return to it over and again when the right subject presents itself.
The Assignments ebooks
Check out my Assignments ebooks for more ideas and inspiration.
100 Creative Photography Assignments
The Magic of Black & White: 50 Assignments
