Being in Europe, everything feels broken in and settled. Like it has always been there and will be. Think of it like when you were a kid and picked up your parents ball glove they’ve had since they were little. It is that feeling of quality mixed in with history that makes it just feel right. The States have history, but as we still see unfolding before us each day, we still have a lot of growing up to do (insert hate doesn’t make us great speech).

Traveling to a different country, especially for the first time, is an overload of sights and sounds. As a photographer, you may go in with one idea and end up with something completely different. What is fun is discovering these common threads after your trip is done. In this case, well removed from our travels, I realized I documented an abundance of scooters around the city of Munich, Germany.

Just like being in Europe or that old relic of a ball glove, each of these feel like they could tell a story. They feel used, loved and frankly, like they will be running forever. At the time, I did not set out to start tracking down scooters to photograph, so it’s interesting to see, years after our visit, how they caught my eye.

Now, from this common thread, you can keep piecing together a body of work through future travels. What started as a coincidence, could become an ongoing project from different cities or countries. It could give you a starting point in a new city, or just something to look for in your town that you’ve already seen everything 1 million times.

Try it out and see if you happen to have created a common thread yourself you may not have noticed at the time. This is a great excercise as well to reflect on past photo work or travels.

Photos taken in Munich, Germany on a Fujifilm X Pro 2