Stories Through The Shutter – A Travel & Photography Podcast Reborn

Here we go again. Another restart, another rebirth of the podcast. Here we go again. Another restart, another rebirth of the podcast. This is the beginning of a travel photography podcast called Stories Through The Shutter.

If you’ve followed along before, you might reasonably wonder whether this attempt will be any different from the previous ones. The honest answer is that it might not be, but then again, you never know. This time there is a slight rebrand, a small shift in focus, and at the time of writing I already have five or six episodes planned and ready to record. That alone gives me a little optimism that this version may last longer than the previous attempts, assuming of course that I don’t change my mind halfway through the process.

Before I start overthinking things again, it probably makes sense to explain where this podcast currently sits and what it might become.

Listen to the Episode – Episode 00 (27th April 2026)

This article accompanies Episode 00 of the Stories Through the Shutter podcast. It discusses my thoughts as I wrestled with the reasoning behind the rebirth of the podcast.

Introducing Stories Through the Shutter

For now, at least, the show is called Stories Through the Shutter. A creative travel photography podcast where travel and photography meet somewhere in the real world.

For those who may not know me, my name is Richard. I live in the south of England and I enjoy getting out and exploring places. The trips are usually fairly close to home but hopefully further afield whenever the opportunity appears.

That idea of “getting out and about” is the important part for me. For the past sixteen years I’ve worked primarily as a photographer, mostly in sports photography. Sports photography is fast-paced, structured, and very much about capturing moments as they happen. There isn’t always much time to slow down or reflect.

Over the years, though, I’ve started to feel the need to approach photography differently, to slow things down a little, spend longer in places, and photograph them more thoughtfully rather than simply grabbing images quickly before moving on. That shift in mindset is really where this podcast fits in.

The Problem With Trying to Be Perfect

One of the main reasons this podcast has been restarted several times is not because I didn’t enjoy creating it. In fact, the opposite is true. I enjoy the research, the planning, and the recording process. The real problem has usually been a desire to make everything perfect before sharing it.

There’s a well-known saying that “perfection is the death of creation,” and that idea resonates more than I would like to admit. If I wait until something feels perfect before I publish it, the reality is that it may never appear at all. Too much time can be spent adjusting, tweaking, and second-guessing every decision until the momentum disappears.

That’s a trap I’ve fallen into more than once. So this time the approach is different. The episodes will still be structured, and they will still have some thought behind them, but they won’t need to be perfect. They simply need to exist.

Looking Back: The Original Podcast

To understand where this podcast is heading, it helps to briefly look back at where it started. The original version of the show was called Driving Horizons, which was also the name of my YouTube channel. The podcast largely revolved around travelling in a small campervan around the UK. Episodes focused on the trips we were taking, the campsites we stayed at, the places we visited, and the overall experience of travelling in that way.

Occasionally I would talk about the campervan itself. What worked, what didn’t, and the realities of owning and travelling in a small vehicle. At the time, everything was aligned. The YouTube videos documented the journeys visually, while the podcast allowed me to talk about the experiences in more detail. The idea was always to share something useful, whether that was campsite information, travel experiences, or practical lessons learned along the way.

Over time, however, the format became difficult to sustain. For a campervan travel podcast to work, you really need to be travelling regularly. In reality, that wasn’t always happening. When the trips stopped, the podcast struggled for topics, and after a few enthusiastic restarts, usually triggered by a new trip or burst of inspiration, the show slowly faded away.

The last episode was published around June 2025, and even that was more of a “what happens next” update than a proper episode. Since then the podcast has quietly sat in the background, occasionally picking up the odd listen but largely remaining inactive.

A New Direction

The new version of the podcast will still be rooted in travel and exploration, but photography will now play a much larger role. In the past, photography often came second to documenting the journey itself, particularly when filming videos. I sometimes found myself trying to capture what I thought viewers wanted to see rather than focusing on the photographs that interested me personally.

This new direction aims to change that balance.

Travel will still be central to the podcast, but photography will be woven into those experiences. I want to talk about the images captured during trips, the conditions at the time, and the stories that sit behind those photographs. At the same time, the podcast will not become purely a photography show. Even listeners who aren’t particularly interested in photography should still find something enjoyable in the stories about places, journeys, and experiences.

What the Episodes Will Look Like

The structure of the podcast will probably fall into a few broad categories. Some episodes will look back at places I’ve already visited, reflecting on the trip, the conditions, and the photographs that came out of it. Others will be “photo walk” style episodes recorded while I’m actually out exploring somewhere, sharing thoughts in real time about what catches my attention and why certain scenes are worth photographing.

There will also be more reflective episodes that combine travel experiences with writing and storytelling, turning trips into short narratives rather than simple descriptions. These are the episodes I’m probably most excited about, as they allow space to think more deeply about both the journey and the images that came from it.

Finally, there will be occasional episodes that have nothing to do with travel at all. The reality is that I won’t always be out exploring somewhere new, but that doesn’t mean the podcast needs to stop. These episodes might focus on planning photo walks, researching locations, organising photographs, or thinking about how photography fits alongside travel. Gear may occasionally appear in the conversation, but it certainly won’t be the main focus.

The Podcast Name (For Now)

One area that remains slightly uncertain is the name of the podcast itself. It proved tricky to think up a creative, but worth travel photography podcast name. I had originally planned to call it Shutter Stories, which I liked for its simplicity, but after doing some research I discovered that Canon had previously used that name. Even though they haven’t used it for a few years, it didn’t feel quite right to reuse it.

So for now the show is called Stories Through The Shutter. Whether that remains the final name or not is something I haven’t decided yet. Given my current philosophy about not waiting for perfection, it may simply stay as it is.

When New Episodes Will Appear

At the moment the plan is to release new episodes on Monday mornings. The idea is that they might offer something slower and more reflective at the beginning of the week, perhaps providing a small moment of escape before the pace of Monday properly begins.

Just Getting Started

This marks the restart of the travel photography podcast, Stories Through The Shutter. The rebrand, and the moment where the podcast begins again. More importantly, it represents a decision to stop waiting for everything to feel perfectly organised and simply start creating again.

Because right now, perfection isn’t the goal.

The goal is simply to begin.