There’s one thing you can do to instantly make your travel photos more engaging. It involves, “Getting on eye-level with the action."

Like many of us, I used to waste sooo much time on post-processing. I’d tweak those sliders and I’d experiment endlessly without a clear goal.

The internet is full of beautiful photos these days. Wth all the technological advances, beautiful images aren’t so hard to create any more. But, are those images going to touch your viewers? Will they be remembered for more than a day?

This travel photographer's diary is the continuation of my journey around North Chile. When the roads opened up, I drove to San Pedro De Atacama.

I’ve recently come back from Chile. An amazing, visually stunning country. My journey there, inspired me to try something different. It wasn’t totally smooth, nor full of only moments of bliss and jolliness and that  was just fine. 

There’s been an onslaught of new cameras lately. Seems like there's a new one out every other week. New features that you supposedly can’t live without. But, no one is asking an important question. Can a new camera make you a better photographer?

You might have seen countless videos about travel photography tips here on Youtube. Most of them touch on more or less the same stuff, which is either fairly obvious or pretty banal.

The Caucasus region was meant to be a stop on my way to Mongolia. But, I stayed. Fell in love with Georgia. Came back, stayed longer. Fell in love with Armenia. Over the past three years I’ve been leaving – coming back, spending months at a time here.

Most photographers paint a very rosy picture of travel and photography of people. Beautiful places, friendly locals. They talk about how they connect with different cultures so effortlessly. The truth, the hard truth, is that things aren’t always so ideal.

I had dreamt about this continent for almost 15 years. So much I heard, so much I read and saw in pictures. I was connected to South America. Through friends. Through my university Spanish teachers. I can’t believe I put off coming here for so long. 

Boyacá. Beautiful, mountainous. The climate is cool, there aren’t mosquitoes and, it’s safe. Or at least there isn’t someone always telling you to watch your back, as happens almost everywhere else in Colombia.

Colombia is a fascinating country. It’s geographically diverse. Spectacular in parts. Better yet, Colombians are some of the most soulful, warm and well-humoured people I’ve been around. I’ve come to love it here.

Dramatic scenery. A sense of history, sometimes mystery. The friendliness of so many strangers I interacted with. These are the  things that first come to mind when I remember my journey through Georgia and Armenia. 

Exploring the unknown is exhilarating. Anybody with even a slight sense of adventure relishes the chance to get off the beaten track. Away from the masses, from the censored, postcard reality. I’m obsessed with getting off the beaten track.

It’s early in the morning. The rays of the rising sun peek through the window of my Landrover’s roof-tent. Far in the distance I can make out the sounds of sheep, cows and their herders screaming at them. Did they go in a different direction to what I expected last evening?