The Masterclasses by National Geographic Traveller (UK) returned in September 2023 with a brand-new series of insightful, hour-long online sessions curated for aspiring travel writers and photographers. These are just some of the pearls of wisdom our expert panellists offered up throughout the six sessions. 

Travel Writing

Know your reader
“I would say the number one mistake freelance writers make when pitching is they don’t understand the audience of the title. The best thing you can do if you’re really interested in writing for a publication is to go out and buy yourself the magazine and familiarise yourself with the content, the tone and the kinds of things that the readership might find of interest.” — Alicia Miller, Pitching and getting published 

 Don’t be afraid of writer’s block 
“As someone who has come to this relatively recently, I would say that even the best writers struggle to write sometimes. Everybody gets writer’s block, even published authors. Just don’t beat yourself up. If it’s not coming, it’s not coming. Just come back to it another day.” — Georgia Stephens, How to structure your storytelling 

Utilise social media
“Dinosaurs like me may absolutely despise it, but the reality is that if you’re a travel writer and you have no presence on social media, you have no presence.” — Tharik Hussain, How to be a savvy travel writer in 2023 

Read more on nationalgeographic.com/travel

Travel Photography

Plan ahead
“Do your research and get familiar with your own equipment before you travel… Get ahead of the game, pre-visualise and make a plan. When I go to a place that I’m not familiar with, I can start recycling and adapting those ideas to suit the environment.” — Renato Granieri,The art of wildlife photography in travel 

Shoot with passion
“I’m really strong on finding your niche and making sure you’re passionate about it. I could say “build a portfolio”, but often, and I think especially with Instagram, you could build a portfolio of work that you don’t even like. If you want your work to last, if you want to be able to sell that work and really make people believe in it, then be passionate about what you photograph.” — Holly-Marie Cato, How to go professional 

Use kit to connect with your subjects 
“I bring a little Fuji Instax camera with me. And that’s for when I’m going into more remote regions so that I can not only ask for a photo but give one back as well. For me, I’ve found that this opens doors to getting people to sit for portraits. Because, if you’re always just showing up and you’re this guy with this big camera coming up in front of them, there’s a little bit of shyness and reticence. But if you can sit with them and open up a little bit of a dialogue, even if you can’t exchange in the same language, that’s a really great way to get them involved.” — Matt Dutile, Picking the perfect kit for your assignment 

Read more on nationalgeographic.com/travel

We’ll be back in 2024 with another series of insightful conversations with leading writers and travel photographers.  

Browse and buy our autumn travel writing and travel photography sessions here: ngtr.uk/recordings0923.  

Individual session recordings cost £10, with all six classes available for £50.