How do you choose worthwhile subjects to photograph while traveling?

Question

I’m a beginner trying to improve my travel photography. On a recent trip, I photographed a mix of architecture, street scenes, portraits, and details, but when I reviewed the images later, many felt dull or ordinary. I’m practicing composition, but I think part of the problem is choosing weak subjects or photographing them in an uninteresting way.

How do you decide what is worth photographing when traveling? What questions should you ask yourself before spending time on a shot? And how do you balance capturing obvious landmarks with looking for more original or meaningful images?

user1917 · Accepted Answer

I like Bendihossan's list, but especially during travel I might add "Is this exactly like all the other shots of seen of < insert event or place here > ?". Photography is art and uniqueness counts. If you're taking the picture the same way its been done a million times before and/or the same way you can walk up and see it - then it's probably not going to stand out.

Shooting a famous landmark? Catch a reflection in a window or pool of water. Shoot it from a rooftop. Shoot it at night against the moon. Show us something we haven't seen.

In reference to the 4 photographs, I'll address each one:

I think this one suffers from exactly what I was talking about before. Its the perspective everybody has. There's nothing particularly that makes the viewer think its anything special.
This one looks like its a story begging to be told - but there's no context. What is the writing, whose doing it, where's the wall? It needs something in the foreground to provide some context to the photo. Maybe a kid writing and looking caught..or a sign saying "warning graffiti will bring death"...or a couple making out under all the love notes...SOMETHING.
Your background, while somewhat out of focus, is too busy. It either needs a shallower DOF or a less busy background.
Well it sounds like you know what happened on the last one. You got distracted by the coach and thought a picture needed to be taken - but you're really not sure why and you really didn't have time to put together a "photograph". Its "just a snapshot" and the viewer suffers the same thing. There's no story and no apparent reason for the somewhat random picture of a horse and carriage. It's memory to you, but to anybody else its just another horse and carriage.

How do you choose worthwhile subjects to photograph while traveling?

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