I’ve thought about this a thousand times as i sometimes feel insecure about my photos… once speaking with my dad about wines he told me that the best is not the most expensive nor the oldest but the one you like the most, even if it’s a cheap one. So that made sense in photography to me.

After that though, I’ve found that the ones I like the most are often liked by other people so that’s good enough for me!

For me a good photo is the one that just speaks to me. It could be people doing what they do or a wall mural in a certain light and angle.

I saw a compilation of Paris photographs showing the Eiffel Tower that weren’t your usual run of the mill shots of the Eiffel Tower. Every one had some other element in it or a view between buildings or people. Just avoid taking shots everyone has taken for decades. Try to put a new spin on it. Try different perspectives and not just ‘here’s OP in front of the Louvre or the Tower or at a cafe’. Put the long end of your lens to use!

I suggest, you photograph what makes you feel good and will serve as a nice memory.

I usually take pictures of people and situations with people in them, as those are memories I want to hang on to.

You are recording images that trigger your memories. We call these snapshots. They are great for YOU and the people who shared these memories.

But unless they are well composed and objectively tell an interesting story, they likely hold no interest for anyone else.

When I see a lot of street photographers on YouTube etc, I feel like they take some well framed and pretty…also irrelevant images. Would they ever go back to an image of a busdriver they snapped at an intersection?

If it’s a good photograph, then it’s a good photograph. I’d be intersted in viewing it, maybe multiple times. And it’d be of intereste to people other than the photographer. That’s because the image stands alone and separate from the subjective experience of the person recording the image.

But if you don’t see value in that, that’s OK. Maybe you aren’t a fan of street photography.

I can appreciate the artistry and skill it takes in all genres of music, but I only enjoy less than 1 percent of that.

You take pictures of people also irrelevant images. Would they ever go back to an image of a busdriver they snapped at an intersection?

I wouldn’t use that kind of focal length in Europe unless you’re planning to do a headcount of all the visitors on the Eiffel Tower. There are a lot of tight streets and crowds. I used a 50mm prime for my trip and honestly I found myself wishing for something wider pretty often.

I often come back to those pictures that seem inconsequential to other people, because THEY weren’t there.

I was, and that’s enough.

It’s easy to go on Google and find pictures of the Tour Eiffel in every angle, every season, every lighting.

To me, monuments are not a thing to photograph. This picture, though?

https://preview.redd.it/7u1r8b5vv20c1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a5743742dde44f4f2329bd20309f6bc7ce4b0f54

I remember it was a winter night. I remember the street, I remember the bar. I remember going in just because it was raining, I had my freshly done laundry with me and I seriously needed a coffee.

I remember going in, seeing this guy. I remember I had my Nikon d3400 on me, 35mm lens on. I remember thinking “holy fuck I need to take this”, dropping the laundry bag, pointing, framing and shooting. I remember I had it in manual, set up for dark scenes.

I also remember some guy telling me on social media that he recognized the bar and his grandfather, that he wanted to buy a big ass print.

I also remember that some other guy hired me to take a picture in this precise same bar for the cover of his book, after seeing it.

Memories are like that. Pictures taken in random moments will bring you so much more, precisely because they’re random. “I took this pic of X because i was in Paris” doesn’t hold the same power that “I was walking down this alley and this grabbed my attention”.

Sony fe24-105mm f4 is a bit more versatile.

To me, if I’m travelling, my photography is about capturing memories that I can look back on.

That being said I will always look for a unique angle or perspective. Take pictures at your favourite tourist destinations, but try to be creative with it.

For pictures of people on the street, I agree that it’s a bit irrelevant to photograph something (e.g. a sidewalk with pedestrians) if that thing could just as eaily have been captured at home. If it does not convey a sense of the place you are in and have spent money to travel to and experience, why take it?

However, if in your example of a bus driver, if you could see that the writing is in French, and the next stop display is visible, that could provide context and place the image as part of your travel snaps.

So to me travel photography is about creating interesting photos that are contextualised within the image or series of images, and with that context they will add to your memories to look back on!

Have a great trip!

I feel like they take some well framed and pretty, but also irrelevant images

They feel irrelevant to you. They may feel the same about some of your photos, while you may consider them to be your best work. What makes someone enjoy a photograph will vary wildly from person to person.

What makes a good photo indeed? I look at Henri Cartier-Bresson photos and some of them just don’t do anything for me.
And sometimes, I see a shot with 10 likes from some anonymous guy on Flickr and consider it an absolute masterpiece.

And then there are photos that no one would look at twice, weren’t it for the context they’re inserted in. Some photos stand alone. Some photos owe their meaning and value to a bigger context.

There is no objective criteria to decide what a good photo is, especially from an artistic standpoint. I think this is a very important fact to internalize for any artist, photographer or otherwise.

A good photo is one that evokes an emotional response. That’s all it is. The difficult part is there are a billion ways a photo can do that and most of them are subjective and non-repeatable

Here’s a unique idea lol: Currently visiting Rome and i have been taking pictures of horse butts and nothing else

It’s an art art AND a science. You gotta use the tools at your disposal to compose the shot you are imagining. A 70-200mm seems a little big for street photography, but your example of a bus driver at an intersection is intriguing, especially zoomed in from a distance with lots of heads in the immediate foreground.

Not the most inconspicuous lens to use on the street either. Keep that in mind.

Watch some videos on composition perhaps? Good photos have an interesting subject and good composition, which can be achieved in various ways. If there’s time, practice! Try to squeeze good composition out from anything you see. Literally anything.

Depending on the camera, I’d bring a wide angle too, if at all possible. Or only take the 50mm (or 35 if cropped sensor), and pretend to come from a different era. :)

It needs to have good composition, layers, context, and lighting.