60+ Shots of The World’s Best Roads
For me, the lure of a road trip is often extremely hard to resist. The notion of heading off into the wild, free to explore, has a far greater attraction than my to-do list, although it often never wins. In today’s collection, we’re diving into this very theme.
I’ve put together a collection of photographs of some of the world’s best roads, which may not quite as nice as a real road trip, but hopefully will help you escape just for a few minutes to that place of adventure and excitement: the open road.
Practical Tips
To capture you’re own stunning road shots, the first thing you need to do is find your breathtaking location. This is much easier said than done. Think about places you’ve visited in the past that might be suitable and ask friends, family or neighbors about holiday destinations or journeys that might have involved some amazing scenery visible from the roadside.
Once you’ve found your spot, there are two things to take into consideration. First, think about your vantage point. Think like a landscape photographer.
Consider the depth within your shot. Is there foreground interest as well as the main focal point? Where are the lines within your image? Do they cut across the scene and divide it into thirds or are they leading the eye into the shot?
Secondly, you also need to get your timing right. The light within your image has the potential to transform it from a good shot to a great shot. Think about the time of day that you want to visit. Maybe the golden hours around sunrise and sunset could work well. As in any time of scenic photography, it’s important to be patient, wait for the light to change and keep shooting!
Photo Inspiration
Moyan_Brenn
Moyan_Brenn
Moyan_Brenn
IronRodArt
Horia Varlan
AfghanistanMatters
Tricky
Adam Foster
Gabriele Nastro
Szeke
OneEighteen
FreeBird
Wildhaber
Bala
Leandro
CJ Schmidt
Ethan Crowley
Unhindered By Talent
FreeBird
Jens
Chemophillic
Steve Crane
WSDOT
Fragments of Eternity
hollandisk
Visualist Images
xyzpdqfoo
JesseVarner
Andy Hares
Josh Simerman
Allison Hare
Funky Tee
Bill Gracey
Stuck In Customs
Omarshahine
Ninjawill
Jelle Oostrom
Evgeni Dinev
Tricky
Emiana
Nils Rohwer
Tambako the Jaguar
Eleda
cwwycoff1
palestrina55
Fohlin
Vlastula
Adrimcm
Zanthia
djniks
Horia Varlan
OneEighteen
DCSL
zenobia_joy
cvogle
Davy D
Stuck In Customs
Munira
ccdoh
WanderingtheWorld
Captain Kimo
mm-j
jammaz
derluckylucas
Ostrosky
Victor Simonic
milk_p
Andreas-photography
Further Reading
Here are a few links to useful tutorials and articles that will teach you more about this type of photography:
Share Your Own Images!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the photographs and that they’ve inspired you to go out and capture something amazing for yourself!
We’d love to see your favorite road photos – just post a comment and link below. Also, feel free to link to any resources that you’ve found particularly helpful in this area.
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By Simon Bray
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Wow! You found some amazing examples of road photos!
Here are 2 of mine:
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photographrdotnet/3727596652/in/set-72157618884984717
I really love how you can see the road “cutting” through the forest.
Ostwestfalendamm, Bielefeld, Germany:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photographrdotnet/5178851097/
This pictures shows a local motorway in my hometown at the blue hour with ling light trails.
Here are my best three shots:
End of the Road: http://flic.kr/p/9FKtrd
Lone Tree: http://flic.kr/p/a4TY8w
Ennstal Classic: http://flic.kr/p/a3Z6xA
On The Road (Scotland)
After the rain (Scotland)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredericriou/sets/72157625223066542/
Maybe I’m just weird, but I really don’t like a lot of those pictures. They are beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but there is just too much to look at. Your eyes go darting around everywhere and it’s hard to just focus on the picture in general… It’s hard to put what I am thinking into words. Maybe there is too much texture everywhere for me. I don’t really know.
By beautiful, I mean great colors, and very interesting, but It’s just not good on the eyes… Is that how you would put it?
IDK
Also, w00t first!
Good collection of road pictures !!!
Woah, so awesome! Love em’!
Wow! Very amazing pictures. I most like the ones from the mountains, as mountain roads often are very spectacular. Fortunately there are lot of roads like this http://augenblicke.armin-andres.com/2011/rhonegletscher/ in my area.
http://augenblicke.armin-andres.com/tag/pass/
Armin
mmm there is a lot of manipulated photos and some of them I don’t find beautiful, I think the people must be careful at the moment to edit a photo. When you see a photo completly real without manipulation is really confotable.
one of my exciting road in Santorini, Greece. http://multiply.com/mu/taungza/image/14/photos/5/600×600/91/118.jpg?et=PYFbplAMuNK3T6jmA9CypA&nmid=21398464