What am I doing here

This intriguing question is the title of a collection of essays by the late British travel writer Bruce Chatwin. I remember once reading the book while sitting on my luggage in a derelict airport in far western China, and wondering if passersby thought the title incongruous or humorous. For any traveler the question is worthwhile. But for travel photographers the question offers a key entree to improving your images.

The first few days at a destination, after all the hassle of planning and traveling, can be a letdown. Thousands of impressions crowd in on you. New sights and scenes and most of all many clichés, images you have seen and half-seen in other places halfway around the world. Making sense of it all, forming a photographic vision of the place, sorting through and deciding what to shoot, and what to ignore, is all part of the process of engagement. Asking "What am doing here?" can focus the mind, sweep away the clichés and help you to see more simply and clearly.