Types of Photography: How I Think About Different Genres

How I Use Different Types of Photography

I am primarily an urban landscape photographer. Cities, towns, buildings and the things people leave behind are what get my creative juices going. But I also photograph landscapes, wildlife, people, old cars and small details in nature. Once I am out exploring, I follow what interests me.

That is how I think about the different types of photography. The names are useful for describing the work and learning particular skills, but a photograph can belong to several genres at once. A building in a valley might be architectural photography, landscape photography and part of a travel story. I do not have to choose one before I press the shutter.

The abandoned farmhouse in Iceland is a good example. The building is what first gives the scene a human connection, yet it occupies only a small part of the frame. The hillside, mist and open ground are essential to the photograph. Crop tightly around the house and I would be making a very different picture.

In this article, I want to show how I move between photography genres using my own images. The aim is to help you recognise what each approach can offer, whether you are developing your photography or looking for a photograph you would enjoy having on your wall.

Genres, Styles and Techniques Describe Different Things

Lists of photography types often mix together subjects, working methods and visual styles. That can make them confusing. I find it helpful to separate a few of those ideas:

• Subject: landscape, architecture, wildlife, people or still life.
• Purpose: a personal artwork, a documentary project, an editorial story or a commercial brief.
• Technique or conditions: long exposure, close-up work, night photography or an aerial viewpoint.
• Visual approach: black and white, colour, abstraction, minimalism or a more surreal interpretation.

These descriptions can work together. A black and white photograph of a building at night has a subject, a treatment and a particular set of lighting conditions. If I make it as part of my fine art work, that adds another description. None of those labels cancels out the others.

The useful question is what the photograph needs. A moving person asks for different decisions from an empty street. A small shell asks me to look differently from a mountain. Understanding those differences gives me more ways to respond.

Landscape Photography: Looking at the Whole Place

Landscape photography is concerned with the wider environment and the relationships within it. Mountains, coastlines, forests and open country are obvious subjects, but a landscape can also include roads, buildings and other evidence of people. I am often interested in that connection between the land and what we have put into it.

In the Great Wall of China photograph, the wall follows the contours of the hills. It is an extraordinary structure, but the surrounding mountains give it its scale and explain its path. The picture brings architecture and landscape photography together without needing to favour one label.

When I work on a wider scene, I look for a route through the photograph. That might be a shoreline, a line of trees, a road or a change in light. I also check how the foreground relates to the distance. A spectacular view can still become a confusing photograph if those parts do not work together.

I use sunrise, sunset and blue hour extensively, but I photograph during the rest of the day too. Overcast skies, rain and shifting weather give me other possibilities. The important decision is how to use the light in front of me, rather than assume that one time of day is right for every landscape.

Nature, Close-Up and Macro Photography

Nature photography lets me move from a broad view to something very small. I live in the forest, on a lake in Haliburton, Ontario, so trees, leaves and water are part of my everyday surroundings. There is plenty to photograph without waiting for a distant mountain or an unusual animal.

The orange maple leaf among wet foliage in Algonquin is an intimate nature photograph. The colour draws my eye first, then the overlapping leaves and wet surfaces give me more to look at. A small patch of ground becomes the whole subject.

Close-up photography and macro photography are related, but the terms are not interchangeable in every situation. Life-size reproduction, often written as 1:1, is a commonly used macro benchmark: the subject’s image on the sensor is the same size as the subject itself. Nikon’s introduction to macro photography explains that relationship. A close view of leaves or shells does not need to meet that benchmark to make an interesting photograph.

Discover the smaller details as well as the open views in my Nature Wall Art collection, with photographs that bring the textures, patterns and changing light of the natural world into your home.

For this kind of work, I pay attention to the edges of the frame and exactly where focus falls. A bright fragment at the edge can be surprisingly distracting. Moving slightly can change the background, the overlap between objects and the balance of the whole image.

Urban Landscape and Architectural Photography

This is the part of photography that keeps pulling me back. I love what people have built: old houses, modern towers, modest storefronts, elaborate churches and streets that have changed through years of use. Even when there are no people visible, their decisions are everywhere.

I think of an urban landscape as a view of the built environment and how its parts relate. Architectural photography can concentrate more closely on a building’s design, materials and form. The two approaches overlap constantly in my work.

The houses in Brașov at dawn make sense as a streetscape. The curve of the street, the repeated windows and the adjoining facades give the image its structure. I want enough of the neighbourhood to show how the buildings sit together.

With a single building, I might move towards a more concentrated architectural view. I consider the viewpoint carefully: looking upward changes the apparent relationships between the building’s parts, while a more level view can emphasise its proportions differently. Straight verticals can be useful, but dramatic convergence can also be an intentional part of a photograph.

Explore the buildings, streets and overlooked details that drive much of my work in the Urban Wall Art collection, and find a view of the built world that keeps you looking.

Architecture does not have to be grand to interest me. A doorway can contain layers of colour, lettering, repairs and wear. Those small surfaces often tell me as much about a place as its most recognisable landmark.

Abandoned Places and the Traces of Human Use

My interest in urban photography naturally extends to abandoned buildings and vehicles. People built them for a reason. They worked, lived or travelled there. Their present condition is part of the story, even when I know little about the individuals connected with them.

The abandoned Icelandic farm buildings bring together damaged walls, graffiti, open windows and a stripped vehicle. The surrounding grass matters too. The photograph shows a relationship between structures and land, as well as the smaller marks left on the buildings.

Urban decay is a useful description of that interest, but the location does not have to be in a city. A rural farm or a vehicle left in open country can raise the same questions about use, change and what remains. I look for what is actually visible and avoid inventing a history to make the scene seem more dramatic.

Street Photography: Everyday Life as It Happens

Street photography grows from observing life in public places. People, gestures, signs, reflections and the spaces between them can all contribute. Sometimes I respond quickly. At other times I stay in one place and wait. Walking and waiting both belong in the way I work.

The Dublin pub window contains a small view of the people inside, while the chairs, barrel and lettering describe the street outside. There is no single dramatic action. The interest comes from the relationship between the interior life and the public frontage.

A street photograph can hold a wider scene or concentrate on one person. I watch how the setting changes the meaning of that person’s presence. Glass, a doorway or a patch of light can become as important as the figure itself.

Portrait and Lifestyle Photography: Begin With the Person

I love street photography, but people are a major part of what drives me. I am drawn to faces, eyes, clothing and small gestures. Having travelled to more than 45 countries, I keep recognising concerns and emotions that are familiar at home too: family, work, affection, humour, tiredness and the hope of a better future.

A portrait makes a person central to the photograph. It can be a close view of a face or an environmental portrait that gives the surroundings a significant role. A requested portrait and a candid encounter involve different relationships with the person; neither should be described as the other simply because the result looks natural.

The Indian girl on the windowsill is an environmental portrait. Her expression matters, but so do the checked shirt, the way she is seated, the wall and the light across her face. Cropping to a headshot would remove much of what makes this particular photograph feel complete.

For me, the person comes before the camera settings. With a requested portrait, I want a willing participant and an exchange that feels comfortable. Light and background help me make the picture, but they do not replace an interest in the individual.

My article Portrait Photography Tips From a Working Fine-Art Photographer goes further into available light, eyes, gestures and keeping a person connected to their surroundings.

Lifestyle photography often shows people within everyday activities, sometimes with direction from the photographer. Documentary work has a different responsibility to describe what happened accurately. A natural-looking image alone does not tell you how much direction was involved. That context matters when we describe our work.

Travel Photography Brings Several Genres Together

Travel photography describes much of what I do, but it rarely tells you what a particular image will look like. A trip can produce portraits, landscapes, buildings, wildlife and abstract details. The place connects them; the individual photographs still need their own reasons to exist.

I research destinations and enjoy photographing well-known views. I also walk a great deal, whether I am travelling alone or with my wife. What I find along the way is often what stays with me: a smaller street, an ordinary shopfront or a detail I could not have planned in advance.

The camel riders crossing golden dunes in Mongolia are part of a broad desert landscape. The people and animals give the scene scale, while the shapes of the dunes and the light organise most of the frame. It is both a landscape photograph and a view of people within a place.

When I put photographs from a trip together, I look for this variation in distance and emphasis. A wide view can establish a place. A closer view introduces a person or an object. A small detail offers something else to notice. The sequence can communicate more than several almost identical views.

Documentary Photography, Events and Cultural Gatherings

Documentary photography uses photographs to describe real subjects and situations. A single image can be part of that, while a sustained project can add context through a sequence, repeated visits and accompanying information. I do not think a photograph explains an entire community simply because it was made somewhere unfamiliar.

The Mongolian eagle riders are shown together on horseback, with birds above raised arms and open land behind them. The wider group view lets me show relationships that would disappear in a close portrait. It does not, by itself, tell the viewer everything about the occasion or how the group came together.

That is why accurate captions matter. A formal group arrangement, a demonstration and an unposed moment are different kinds of encounter. The photograph’s value does not depend on calling them all spontaneous. I want the description to support what the image can actually show.

Event photography adds another concern: responding to an occasion as it unfolds. A festival may offer a wide crowd scene, portraits, clothing details and quieter interactions. Those pictures can sit within travel photography as well as a record of the event.

Wedding, concert and corporate event photographers also work with changing situations, often with specific moments they must cover. Those are substantial professional responsibilities. Photographing a detail on the street is a different task from accepting responsibility for a complete event.

Wildlife, Birds and Pet Photography

Wildlife photography is not my main speciality, but animals are part of the world I explore. They require attention to behaviour as well as light and composition. A building will usually stay where it is while I consider the frame; an animal may change direction at any moment.

The African elephant is clearly the subject, yet the grass and scattered trees keep it within its environment. The wider setting helps describe the scene. Wildlife photography does not always have to fill the frame with a face or eliminate every part of the habitat.

I respect distance and watch for signs that my presence is changing an animal’s behaviour. A longer lens can help make a closer-looking photograph from farther away, but it is not a reason to keep pushing towards a subject. Sometimes the better decision is to accept the view I have.

Animals in human settings can lead to other types of pictures. Pet photography may be a planned portrait, but an animal can also become the subject of an encountered street scene.

Still Life and Automotive Details

Still life photography centres on inanimate objects and the relationships between them. Some arrangements are deliberately constructed. Others are found as they are. Either way, light, shape, spacing and the surrounding surface can become the main decisions.

The pale steering wheel and summer hat in the classic car bring together an automotive subject and the feel of a still life. The circle of the wheel, the dashboard and the hat make a particular arrangement. I do not need to show the exterior of the car for that relationship to be interesting.

My stock photography years included plenty of studio work. That experience is part of my background, even though much of the work I am sharing here comes from exploring with a camera. Paying close attention to the way light defines an object remains useful in either setting.

The dark wine bottle and narrow flute concentrate on a much simpler relationship. A curved silhouette, a bright edge and a small area of warm colour carry the image. It can be described as still life photography, but it also moves towards abstraction because so much surrounding information is left out.

Abstract, Minimalist and Surreal Approaches

Abstract photography often begins, for me, with a real object that becomes less obvious as I choose the frame. Shape, colour, repetition and texture take more of the attention. Recognising the subject may still be possible, but it does not have to be the first thing you do.

The Cord hood louvres are automotive detail and abstract photography at the same time. The repeated openings cross the curved bodywork, making a clear arrangement of pale and dark shapes. Knowing the car’s identity adds context, but the lines already give the eye something to follow.

Nature can produce the same shift. A closer view of water, ice or sand can remove the horizon and leave a picture organised around surface and movement.

Minimalist photography is another approach that can cross subjects. It reduces the number of competing elements and gives the remaining ones more importance. I can use it in an urban detail as readily as an open landscape. Minimalism does not require a completely empty background or a particular kind of camera.

Surreal photography can create an unfamiliar or dreamlike experience through reflections, timing, staging or more extensive image construction. Those methods have different implications. In my own work, I am particularly interested in the surprising pictures I can find within real places and ordinary materials.

Night Photography and Long Exposure

Night photography describes a set of conditions that can apply to architecture, streets, landscapes or portraits. Artificial light becomes more prominent, and a familiar place may offer a completely different photograph. I enjoy looking at where that light falls and what remains in darkness.

LeTAO Tower in Otaru brings warm illumination, autumn foliage and a wet street together. The building gives the photograph its subject, while the light and colour make it a night image. It is architectural and travel photography as well.

Long exposure is a technique rather than a separate subject. A slower shutter can record the movement of water or lights while stationary parts remain more defined, provided the camera is held steady. Canon’s shutter-speed guide illustrates how that choice changes the appearance of moving subjects. It can be useful in daylight as well as at night.

At Kostbergan Beach, the long exposure gives the moving water a soft appearance around the dark rocks. The contrast between the solid forms and the water is central to the photograph. The technique supports a landscape; it does not replace the need for a considered composition.

For a moving person, I may want a faster exposure that preserves a gesture. For a coastline, I may want to show movement over time. I choose according to the picture, rather than assume every night photograph needs a long exposure or every moving subject needs to be frozen.

The abandoned trolley cars beneath a deep blue sky bring several interests into one frame: old vehicles, worn surfaces, evening colour and the light visible through their windows. This is why I do not like restricting a photograph to one category. Its appeal comes from the combination.

Black and White Photography Across Genres

Black and white is a treatment I use across much of my work. It can give me a clearer relationship between light, shape and texture, whether I am photographing a person, an elephant, a street or a car. It does not automatically make an image more serious or more artistic.

The Indian portrait, Cord louvres and Icelandic farm buildings ask for different things despite sharing a monochrome treatment. One depends on a person and her surroundings, another on repeated lines, and another on buildings within an open landscape. I consider each photograph separately.

Colour can be just as essential. Remove it from the illuminated Otaru tower, the wet autumn leaves or the golden dunes and you change a large part of what attracted me. I want the treatment to support the image rather than make every photograph in my archive look the same.

Fine Art Photography and the Finished Image

Fine art photography describes an artistic intention that can run through all these subjects. For me, it is about making a photograph that expresses how I see something and gives another person a reason to spend time with it. It can begin with a landscape, a face or a small object.

I want the photographs to work as images, not depend entirely on a story about the effort required to make them. A viewer may never have visited the place. They still need something visible to connect with: a composition, an expression, a colour or an interesting relationship between details.

I discuss those choices in Photography and Art Through the Eyes of a Working Photographer. The decisions about viewpoint, light, framing and editing are what make the work personal, even when the subject is familiar.

A print gives that work a place in everyday life. From across a room you may notice the main shapes. Closer up, you can explore the small details. I think about both when preparing photographs for display. Selling a print does not remove its artistic purpose; I want people to be able to enjoy the work in their homes.

Commercial Photography and Other Specialised Fields

Commercial photography is usually made to serve a business purpose. Product, food, fashion and real estate photography may require particular views, styling, lighting or delivery specifications. A photograph’s intended use helps define the job, while the subject tells you what is in front of the camera.

The same subject can be approached in different ways. A bottle photographed for a catalogue needs to meet the brief. My bottle and flute image is concerned with shape and light. Neither purpose makes careful lighting or composition less important; the goal changes what the finished picture needs to do.

There are many other specialities. Sports photography concentrates on action and timing. Aerial photography changes the viewpoint. Underwater photography introduces a different working environment. Astrophotography deals with the sky and celestial subjects. Infrared, ultraviolet and scientific photography may use equipment and methods designed for particular kinds of information.

I do not need to present myself as a specialist in every one of those fields to appreciate them. Knowing what they involve is useful, but expertise comes from doing the work. My strongest connections remain with urban landscapes, travel, people and the details I find while exploring.

How to Choose a Genre to Explore

Start with something you already want to look at. If people interest you, try portraits or street photography. If you keep noticing buildings, work on architecture and urban scenes. If a small natural detail stops you more often than a broad view, spend some time on close-up work.

Give yourself a manageable project. Photograph one neighbourhood, one shoreline or a set of objects you can return to. Compare wider views with details. Look at what changes when you move your position or return in different light. Those observations are more useful than trying to cover every photography style in a weekend.

Then review the images together. Which ones still hold your attention? What did you enjoy making? Where did you struggle with timing, light or composition? The answers help you decide what to practise next. There is no requirement to stay with your first choice forever.

Across all types of photography, I keep returning to the same habits: explore, notice what interests me, look carefully at the light and decide what belongs in the frame. The genres help me describe the results. Curiosity is what gets me out making them.

Find the subject that speaks to you in my Wall Art collection, and bring home a photograph of the places, people or unexpected details you would love to see every day.