Travel Photography Beyond the Postcard

© David Hobby / X-Peditions

Travel photography too often becomes a checklist: I visited, I shot… next.

In our X-Pedition Hanoi workshop, we’ll take a different approach — one focused on photographing experience, not just locations. Instead of freezing a place in time, we’ll explore how to capture its sensory, emotional, and cultural layers so your images reflect what it felt like to be there.

This builds on X-Peditions’ long-standing philosophy of teaching travel photography as visual storytelling — thinking like a reporter on assignment, but with the heart and curiosity of a traveler.

As a photographer, educator, and longtime host of The Candid Frame podcast, I’ve spent years learning from and teaching alongside some of today’s most thoughtful visual storytellers. Across workshops, interviews, and personal work, the lesson is always the same: The strongest photographs come from observation, connection and intention.

What you’ll take away

• Move beyond “where” to explore who, how, why, and what it felt like;

• Expand your visual vocabulary to include atmosphere, context, interaction and narrative;

• Travel lighter and shoot deeper — fewer lenses, less gear, more engagement;

• Create a cohesive mini-story of a place: Its people, routines, rhythms and surprises;

• Experience travel more fully by photographing with curiosity and purpose.