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MENTORING

WHY EVERY TRAVEL

PHOTOGRAPHER
HOULD CARRY A
NOTEBOOK
MAY 29, 2015 BY JEN LENNARTON IN WRITING, TRAVELING,
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY, PROFEIONALIM, MINDFULNE

Even before I took up my writing career again - to be

able to both shoot and write for the articles Im doing
- Ive been carrying a black, pocket-sized
notebook. This journal is what I turn to when I sit down
to start writing my articles. It is filled with words,
sentences and letters, most of them written in a barely
decryptable handwriting. I use it to write down the
addresses and names of the restaurants and hotels Im
visiting. And the time schedules for trains or names of
traditional meals, straight forward stuff. But all of
those facts are available online, for you and everyone
else.
The most important words to jot down are the details
you cant Google. How it feels like to visit that
particular restaurant, what the main course smelled
like or how the waiter ended up with that scar on his
upper lip. The goal is to collect something that not
everyone (actually only the people that visited the
exact same spot as you) knows.

YO U A R E A
P H OTO G R A P H E R , W H Y D O
YO U N E E D TO W R I T E
T U F F D OW N ?
Why should you, as a photographer, go through the
effort to take notes? The most obvious reason is that it

could earn you money when you're back home.

How? The thing is, its usually a lot easier to sell your
photos if youre able to package it together with a
text. But don't think for a second that it's just about
writing a few paragraphs and believe that it will sell
your photos. There are as many writers wanting to
become travel journalists as there are photographers
dreaming about making a living from shooting travel
photos. You need to be good at writing too! It doesnt
have to be thousands and thousands of words though,
but good writing. Flip through any travel magazine
and youll realize that the lengths varies.

Woman smoking in restaurant before opening. Havana, Cuba 2012. Jens

Lennar tsson

I T M A K E YO U R
EXPERIENCE FOUR TIME
T R O N G E R

Even if you don't plan on taking up journalism when

you get back home, the act of note -taking will give
you a much greater travel experience! Picking up your
notebook and spending a few minutes now and then,
jotting down what is happening around you, will make
you more aware. Suddenly, you realize what the
surroundings offer vastly more than you first thought.
You start to notice the colors of the walls and the
sounds from the kitchen. You start to smell the food in
front of you before taking the first bite, just to be able
to figure out a way to describe it in words. The details
of the people around you, even the colors of their
eyes, will become targets for your interest.

A FEW THING TO
TAKE NOTE ON
You just cant take too many notes. In the beginning I
remember thinking that Ill remember that or Ill
look through the photos to find out what it looked
like. But two weeks later, after countless of new
meetings (and as many glasses of wine), details will
become blurry and forgotten. And even if you know
beforehand that you will write an article about one
specific topic and are collecting snippets of facts for
that, what if you later get the opportunity to write
another piece about that topic and you lack the

information and notes?

Here's a few things that will help you get started.

1. GO THROUGH ALL THE

ENE
What you see is the most
obvious and usually the
easiest. But dont just
take note of the big
picture, make sure to go
into extreme details: The
pieces of paint falling
from the wall, the tiny
bug hiking over the table
cloth or the police mans
Capri Town, Italy 2013. Jens
Lennar tsson

crows feet. These are the

details that will blow life
in a travel essay and

make the reader feel like she is there with you.

When youve written down everything you see, spend
a short while identifying what kind of smells you find
around you. Dont just note grilled chicken, that is
too vague. Dont write WHAT you smell, write HOW it
smells. Maybe the oily smell from the chicken mixed
with the dense fumes from the cars and the smoke from
the coal - from time to time the fruity cologne of the
chef manage to break through the heavy smells. Be

THAT specific.
Then do the same for what you can taste. What you
can touch. What you can hear. Go through all the
senses, one after another.

How would ou describe a sight

for someone that has never seen?
A taste or smell for someone that
has never tasted that particular
dish before?

2 . N OT E W H AT P E O P L E AY
A crappy travel article is missing the same thing as
crappy travel photos: Intimate meetings with people.
Make sure you jot down loads of quotes from different
people and get background information about the
humans you talk to. This will not only help you
remember what someone said for later, it will also
make you extremely present WHEN talking, something
that is very rare these days.

Dog on the streets. Havana, Cuba 2012. Jens Lennar tsson

3 . N OT E H OW T H E Y AY I T
When you have written down what they have said, it is
important to also write down how they said it. Was he
shaking his head? Was his eye twitching? What kind of
accent did he have? High or low pitch? Was he
speaking quicker when he got excited during certain
parts of the conversation? How did he move his arms
and hands?

Remember - oull be able to find

hard facts about a place online
when ou are back home so focus
on capturing everthing about the

people ou meet instead.

4. WRITE
D OW N
WHERE
YO U A R E
If you are going on
a press-trip, the
company arranging
your trip usually
wants you to see as
much as possible in
as few days as
possible. It could
get pretty hectic.

Waiter. De Pijp, Amsterdam 2014. Jens

Lennar tsson

So, it is extremely
important to take
note of where you are and what route you take.
But even if you are traveling at a slower pace, make it
a reflex to write down where you are and take a photo
of that spread in your notebook whenever you arrive
at a new place. That way you will know exactly where
each photo was taken.

THERE' NO UCH
THING A "TOO MANY
NOTE"
For me, stopping for a while to write keywords and
descriptions is almost meditative. I helps me to resist
the urge to rush off to the next town or museum (thats
a bad example, I get really bored in museums). I will
be able to travel fully at my current destination. To dig
deeper and appreciate even the tiny fragments that
everyone else misses.

Note-taking is not just for

journalists but for anone that
wants to experience a destination
with more than just one sense.
Now, go out and buy a really nice notebook and pen
and start realizing and remembering!

D OW N LOA D T H E F R E E
T R AV E L P O R T R A I T
E-BOOK!
LEARN ABOUT TREET PORTRAITURE AND
HOW TO TAKE APPROACH TRANGER ON

THE TREET. AND GET AWEOME

PHOTOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL TIP TWICE A
MONTH!

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R E L AT E D P O T
If you want to read more about being a mindful
traveler, here's a few posts that I suggest!

JUNK FOOD FOR THOUGHT?

H ello. Im your nutritionist for today. O h. N o, not the kind that w ill
tell you w hat to put in your m outh and stom ach.
Im a nutritionist for ar tists. C reators, photographers, w riters,

illustrators, painters and sculptors. A nd I'd like to talk to you about

w hat you put in your head. To m ake sure it is filled w ith nutrition,
and not em pt y, fat t y and heavy w ith calories.
Feb 8, 2016

H O W T O N O T TA K E A P H O T O
C an you recall the last tim e you saw som ething that m ade you
sm ile or laugh or som ething that m ade you just go w ow !?
It could be a beautiful tem ple in Thailand, som e talented dancers
on a plaza in C uba or the m ost stunning sunset on the beach of
Bali. N ow tr y to rem em ber w hat happened just af ter that w ow .
D id your hand by any chance autom atically go for your phone in
your pocket or cam era in your bag?
Dec 11, 2015

WHY I'M NOT COUNTING COUNTRIE

A f ter w orking as a travel photographer for alm ost ten years, it
com es pret t y natural to have been in quite a few countries. A nd
one of the m ost com m on questions I get is H ow m any countries
have you visited? For those w ho ask, I alw ays give the sam e
answ er; I dont know.
From tim e to tim e, I run into a traveler online w ith X countries and
counting! in the profile description. O r, som e new w orld record
being broken - m ost countries visited during 24 hours. A t first, it
seem s like a succinct w ay to m easure your travel accom plishm ents.
But if you scratch just a lit tle on the sur face - w ha t d oes it really
m ean?
Dec 9, 2015

NOTEBOOK, MOLEKINE, TAKING NOTE, COFFEE, TRAVEL

PHOTOGRAPHY, PHOTOGRAPHY ACCEORIE

N ew er

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mohamed alfaris
2 months ago

such a great article, thanks for sharing

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