My tip for your next adventure, is pre-plan, take a good camera and focus on how each place makes you feel.

Travel photography is more often reportage as we snapshot every memory. Never more so than today, with phone-cameras accessible in every moment.

Billions of holiday photographs are taken every day. These share in social media and rarely make pictures you want to hang on the wall.

I'm a stickler for detailed planning before photography trips. It’s a blessing and a curse, leaving little time for spontaneity.

Being in the right place at the right time is more important. I spend 90% of my schedule in research and planning before I pick up a camera.

Pre-pack insights from local people, guide books and google maps. PhotoPills (app) shows the timing for sun/moon elevation and their alignment in any scene. Place many pieces of the puzzle together before going.

For a planned tour of Uttar Pradesh I learned there is full-moon night access to the Taj Mahal. The monument's ivory-white marble renowns romance. What better time to capture it than front-lit only by ambient moonlight.

Such etherial moments stay in our memory for a lifetime. How you felt is more important than the landmark. A special photograph delivers emotion and becomes a reminder to hang on your wall.

As a professional photographer I strive to capture rare and emotive moments. Iconic landscapes and architectures are perfect for big frames in luxury spaces.

The Taj Mahal is a beautiful structural composition. The shot required a cloudless super-moon perpendicular to the architecture. This captured its harmonious proportions and peaceful sensations in soft light, without distracting shadows.

A large print makes an image come to life and gives a physical presence to share with visitors. A copy of ‘Moonlight’ is available from my website in three print sizes. Link

©Martin Urch