Whether your next travel plan is to places halfway around the world, a day trip to the nearby mountains or a local nature reserve or park, you will likely want to capture the memories with photos. Perhaps you will post them to social media, email them to family & friends, or have them printed and framed for your walls.
Whatever place you visit or the intended use of the resulting photos, your love for travel and photography will be enhanced with these tips from professional travel photographers:
Pre-trip scouting
Read the available guidebooks and articles to learn all you can about the location, including what time of day is best for different light, what are low tourist traffic times, and of course check the weather reports. You will be pleasantly surprised at the difference a little pre-planning will make.
Pack a lightweight Travel Tri-Pod
Add a quality lightweight Travel Tri-Pod to your Camera Kit and you will experience that it will have a notable impact on the quality of your photo results.
Make time for Photography a Priority
Vacations and day trip getaways can be very busy and filled with adventure. Hours and even days can go bye very quickly, and suddenly you realize you’ve failed to capture the photographic memories of your journey. Avoid this by purposeful planning for each day to include time to be a photographer. This is especially hard for an amateur, as it seems like it’s not the best use of your vacation time, but amazing photography is most often the result of spending the time.
Patience is a virtue, especially when you are trying to Capture an amazing Image
If you ask a professional photographer what makes their images so incredible, their answer will most likely include that you have to be patient. Wait. Wait. Wait. Waiting for the right lighting, or the exact moment the natural elements, animal, or human do exactly what you want to capture.
Shoot in Manual Mode
Every camera is different in features and functions, and most have an auto mode that will do a pretty good job of adjusting for the various elements that affect the photo, but learning and using your cameras manual mode while taking just a little control of the camera will definitely provide for a much better image.
Create Perspective & Composition
Another topic that a professional photographer will discuss when helping you understand what makes them so good at what they do is that they always explore a variety of angles and composition to acquire an uncommon and amazing perspective. And yes, this requires patience, so if you skimmed past the Patience tip above, go read it again!
Say Hello and Make Friends with the Locals
There are many reasons that saying Hello and getting to know the locals is a value to both your travel and your photography adventure. Two of the most important reasons are: they have knowledge of the area that can be invaluable to you as you seek those uncommon, out of the way areas, and also because capturing the smiles of the people who call the area home offers an unforgettable image.
An option that provides an incredible travel adventure combined with destination travel is to join us on one of our Photo Adventure Workshops or enroll in one of our compelling, live online training classes!!
Learn more about our upcoming here: Photo Adventure Workshops