80+ Great Travel Photography Quotes To Inspire Your Wanderlust
If you’re anything like me, you know there’s something truly special about capturing the essence of our travels through photography.
It’s not just about snapping pictures; it’s about freezing moments, telling stories, and sharing our unique view of the world. That’s why I’ve put together a collection of travel photography quotes that really speak to what we do and why we love it.
These quotes are a mix of wisdom, inspiration, and a little bit of humour – just like a good travel photo.
They’re from people who’ve been there, camera in hand, ready to capture the magic of a new place or the beauty of an everyday scene.
So, whether you’re currently planning your next trip or just dreaming about new destinations from the comfort of your home, let these quotes give you a bit of a nudge.
They remind us why we wake up at stupid o’clock for the perfect light, brave the crowds, or wait patiently for that candid moment.
It’s all about capturing the world as we see it, one photo at a time.
Grab your favourite cuppa, and let’s dive into these quotes.
Who knows, maybe they’ll inspire your next great shot or at least give you a new caption for your Instagram feed!
Short and Snappy Travel Photography Quotes
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ~ Marcel Proust
“Just to travel is rather boring, but to travel with a purpose is educational and exciting.” ~ Sargent Shriver
“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” ~ Anita Desai
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” ~ Frederick Barnard
“No place is boring if you had a good nights’ sleep and a pocket full of unexposed film.” ~ Robert Adams
“The world makes up my pictures, not me.” ~ Lee Friedlander
“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” ~ Jim Richardson
“A great way to learn about your country is to leave it.” ~ Henry Rollins
“You can always take a great photo – no matter what the conditions.” ~ Steve Davey
“Photography is a form of time travel.” ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson
“A traveller without observation is a bird without wings.” ~ Moslih Eddin Saadi
“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” ~ Paulo Coelho
“Travel photography is really a way of life: a way of travelling” ~ Steve Davey
“For always roaming with a hungry heart, much have I seen and known.” ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“Never stop looking. No matter where you are, there are good photographs.” ~ Art Wolfe
“The earth is art; the photographer is only a witness.” ~ Yann Arthus-Bertrand
“My favourite thing is to go where I’ve never been.” ~ Diane Arbus
“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.” ~ Ansel Adams
“There are seven days in a week, and “someday” is not one of them.” ~ Benny Lewis
Inspiring Travel Photography Quotes
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things in words.” ~ Elliott Erwitt
“Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it changes. “ ~ Marc Riboud
“A traveller seeks engagement with the local people and culture, while a sightseer just checks off sights in the guidebook. A sightseeing photographer stands apart from the culture, snapping pictures at a distance. A travel photographer becomes involved with his or her surroundings and the people; the resulting pictures become more intimate.” ~ Jim Richardson
“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.” ~ Matt Hardy
“As a young person, and I know it’s hard to believe that I was shy, but you could take your camera, and it would take you to places: it was like having a friend, like having someone to go out with and look at the world. I would do things with a camera I wouldn’t do normally if I was just by myself.” ~ Annie Leibovitz
“I hope to bring back pictures from the world that open people’s eyes – pictures that suggest the enigmatic nature of the world we live in, as well as its variety, complexity, beauty, and pain.” ~ Alex Webb
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open ~ Jawaharlal Nehru
“Being in the right place at the right time is, of course, the prime essential of all photography.” ~ David Noton
“Sometimes the most interesting visual phenomena occur when you least expect it. Other times, you think you’re getting something amazing and the photographs turn out to be boring and predictable. So I think that’s why, a long time ago, I consciously tried to let go of artists’ angst, and instead just hope for the best and enjoy it. I love the journey as much as the destination. If I wasn’t a photographer, I’d still be a traveller.” ~ Michael Kenna
“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float; to gain all while you give; to roam the roads of lands remote; to travel is to live.” ~ Hans Christian Andersen
“It is easy to make a picture of someone and call it a portrait. The difficulty lies in making a picture that makes the viewer care about a stranger.” ~ Paul Strand
“I’ll wait for colour, I’ll wait for light and I’ll wait for people to walk into a situation. First, find your picture and your background. Set up your camera and wait. If you wait long enough something will eventually enter the frame you can finish your composition.” ~ Sam Abell
“The most valuable things in life are a man’s memories. And they are priceless.” ~ Andre Kertesz
“I believe in photographs that convey a certain level of ambiguity, that ask questions rather than provide answers.” ~ Alex Webb
Photography isn’t about just pushing that button. It’s about the experience of being there. ~ Don McCullin
“The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” ~ Paul Strand
“It may look like I’m just pointing the camera at what’s in front of me. But I’m trying to photograph what people see, but don’t notice – something that’s mysterious and unknown in everyday life.” ~ Daido Moriyama
“My vision of the world is simple. Tomorrow, each new day, I want to see the city, take new photographs, meet people and wander alone.” ~ Marc Riboud
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” ~ Alan Keightley
“A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere. They are often momentary, chance-sent things: a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing a threshold, the shadows cast by a setting sun. Sometimes they are a matter of luck; the photographer could not expect or hope for them. Sometimes they are a matter of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that he has seen and lost or for one that he anticipates.” ~ Bill Brandt
“Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself.” ~ Annie Leibovitz
“The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.” ~ Susan Meiselas
“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.” ~ Steve McCurry
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~ Aaron Siskind
“I hope to bring back pictures from the world that open people’s eyes – pictures that suggest the enigmatic nature of the world we live in, as well as its variety, complexity, beauty, and pain.” ~ Alex Webb
“If I go to a place, it’s not to record what is going on only. It’s to try and have a picture which concretizes a situation in one glance and which has the strong relations of shapes. And when I go to a country, well, I’m hoping always to get that one picture about which people will say, “Ah, this is true. You felt it right.” ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I’ve always thought the best place for my photographs was inside books of my own creation.” ~ Sam Abell
“Travel and photography have always been intertwined. I think we have such a brief amount of time in this world that I can’t think of a better use of it than to travel, to photograph the world, to experience life in different places. To me, there’s nothing more important than that.” ~ Steve McCurry
“The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much.” ~ Annie Leibovitz
Funny Travel Photography Quotes and Captions
“Having a camera around your neck gives you a good excuse to be nosy.” ~ Martin Parr
“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.” ~ Michael Palin
“Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.” ~ Susan Sontag
“Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.” ~ Ansel Adams (I put this in the funny section as we can’t always really believe photos anymore either!)
“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.” ~ Lewis Hine
“Jet lag is for amateurs.” ~ Dick Clark
“Carrying a camera on vacation pretty much guarantees you won’t see anything worth shooting. “ ~ Bob Krist
“Aeroplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo.” ~ Al Gore
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” ~ Dagobert D. Runes
4-hour delay en route home, time to spam y’all with my holiday snaps
Life goal: Create a life that people assume you have anyway based on your Instagram account!
I’m not a tourist; I’m an adventurer with a camera
A tourist is a fellow who drives thousands of miles so he can be photographed standing in front of his car ~ Emile Ganest
Travel Photography Captions for Instagram
Take only pictures, leave only footprints
The frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist
Will travel for food (and a good sunset)
It’s a road trip! It’s about adventure! …It’s not like we have somewhere to go
Always say yes to new adventures
I figured it was time for another vacay photo dump
Only going places that spark joy
Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take
Travelling is the best way to feed the soul and expand the mind
Keep calm and travel on
Travelling is about finding those things you never knew you were looking for
Life is short and the world is wide. I better get started
Life is not meant to be in one place
These views are a constant reminder of how vast and beautiful the world is
To unpathed waters and undreamed shores
Born to roam. Everywhere is home
Will I ever stop posting pictures from this trip? Probably not.
What’s on my bucket list? Everywhere.
My new routine: Journey. Explore. Discover. Repeat.
And that’s it – my list of favourite travel photography quotes and captions that I discovered scouring the internet!
I hope you found these quotes inspiring and some even made you giggle a little.
The next time you’re about to head out on a trip or you hit a creative rut, remember these quotes – and let them guide you in your photography!
Now over to you:
Which of these quotes is your favourite? Do you have any additional travel photography quotes that you love? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
That’s it for now – Keep clicking and sipping 📷 ☕ 🍷
Like this post? PIN it so you can save it for later
Other Helpful Articles:
- Photography Quotes To Spark Your Creativity
- The Best Road Trip Quotes – Funny And Inspiring
- Sunrise Quotes: Capturing the Magic of a Fresh Start
- 100+ Inspirational Landscape Photography Quotes and Captions
- 180 Nature Photography Quotes and Caption To Inspire Photographers
- 100+ Inspirational Waterfall Quotes To Bring Out Your Inner Explorer
- Funny Travel Quotes: 100+ Fun Quotes And Captions About Travel
- 250+ Sunset Quotes and Captions to Inspire You Every Day
Don’t miss a post – sign up Here if you haven’t already
