The desire to document everything we experience when we travel is only natural when we visit new places. Having memories to relive and reminisce on is one of our favorite things to do.
Taking photographs is one of the best ways to make memories when we visit new places, regardless of whether we like to collect souvenirs. You can hang them up on your walls, purchase beautiful photo frames, or even have them made into a canvas as soon as you get home.
So every time you come home, you have a wonderful reminder of your past adventures, and also an inspiration to save for future ones!
Take good photographs with your camera or smartphone, regardless of what you have available to you. You can now take great photos at the press of a button! Here are some of the things that you should know if you want to take awesome photographs. Check out these 12 best travel photography tips to help you make the most epic pictures!
12 Useful Travel Photography Tips
1) Avoid The Crowds By Rising Early
In some instances, it can be difficult to avoid crowds when taking photographs of beautiful destinations. Get there super early whenever you are going to a popular place to take photographs without too many people around. Also, you can often get a place completely all to yourself. This allows you to take your time, and you can mentally make a list of all the different photographs that you want to take without having to rush. As a bonus, this allows you to visit places without having to fight with crowds, and you can take in all the sights.
2) Be Sure To Bring A Tripod
Take a tripod with you when traveling, even if you want to take photos of yourselves as a couple! Taking images of yourself while traveling is the best way to do this! It depends on what you use, whether you want to use a tripod for your phone or camera. The tripods are simple to use and can make for some interesting pictures. Taking a picture of yourself using a tripod can be a little annoying at first, and you can expect the odd person to glance at you curiously when you are setting the tripod up. Nonetheless, they might be puzzled as to why they didn’t consider the same thing.
You can still take awesome photographs with a tripod, even if you don’t want to take pictures of yourself. Stabilizing your camera with a tripod is the best way to take sharper images if you have a shaky hand.
They are also incredibly useful for shooting in low light since they allow you to increase your shutter speed, which is also called long exposure. You can also use this technique to capture light trails from cars, for instance, or those beautiful pictures of water that look like they were taken yesterday. With this technique, you can only get good results if you use a tripod since the camera won’t move during shooting.
The right tripod does not necessarily have to be incredibly expensive, but it is best to do some research first, especially if you will be using it for a camera. The maximum weight capacity of tripods varies from one to the next, so you will want to check the weight of your camera and lens before you buy one. You may also want to remember that if you choose a dirt-cheap tripod, you will not be getting quality. If the tripod falls, just remember that your camera will go with it! The tripod is unlikely to be strong or stable, so it is highly likely that it will fall.
3) Invest In A Flexible Zoom Lens
One of the best ways to reduce the weight of your camera gear when you are traveling is to dispense with the multitude of lenses and carry instead a single excellent zoom lens.
What type of zoom is the most effective? As a matter of fact, if you are interested in purchasing a lens, I would recommend buying an 18-200mm or 28-300mm. There is no real need for a lens that shoots at telephoto, standard, and wide focal lengths; what’s important is that you carry a lens that can shoot at wide, standard, and telephoto focal lengths so you can catch amazing landscapes, standard portraits, and distance buildings.
Make sure you pay attention to your lens’ maximum aperture. The wider the aperture, the better the photos, as it will allow you to capture beautiful images, even in low light.
4) Go Out At Golden Hour
Golden hour is one of the best times for photographers if they want to take stunning photographs outside. The famous golden hour occurs two times a day, roughly an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. During this period of time, the sun is in a lower position in the sky, which leads to softer and warmer lighting. Taking pictures during this time of day has the added advantage of giving your photos a beautiful natural glow, as opposed to taking them under the harsh light of midday.
We always go chasing sunsets, so if you aren’t a morning person or you don’t go chasing sunsets like us, then you really should! A photograph taken during golden hour can produce some stunning results, and they are also usually easier to edit afterward. As a result, if you take photographs during the day, the sky can often appear blown out, or the lighting conditions may be too harsh.
5) Research Your Destination Before You Go
Internet access makes it easy for us to access information about nearly every destination on earth. Google is a great tool for finding your destination, Pinterest is great for ideas, and Instagram is great for discovering cool photo spots. Using this method will help you scope out the photographs you want to take, as well as the touristy ones you should avoid (if you’re really creative and don’t want to follow the crowd).
Additionally, research can assist you with other matters you should be aware of before starting your journey. This includes considering whether your camera is allowed to be used in a specific area or whether a license is required (e.g. a commercial license). Certain places, such as some religious buildings, don’t allow photography, so you need to respect this as well. Check the rules before you fly a drone to your destination, which is the same for airplanes.
6) Think About Your Angles
The right angle when it comes to taking pictures can make the difference between an ordinary photograph and an extraordinary one! You may want to consider shooting from an angle that hasn’t been filmed many times before if you’re shooting a place that has been photographed a lot. Taking advantage of this will make your images stand out and make them interesting.
An interesting photograph can look very different from any other, and a different angle can attract the viewer’s attention. If you post images to Instagram, shooting your pictures at different angles can help make your images stand out. In a situation where you take five or six pictures of the same location at different angles, you will have five more images to post than if you only took one.
7) Take A Trip At Different Times Of The Day
Make sure you explore a place and its surroundings at more than one time of day if you want to really understand it. There are many ways to get different results when you visit a place, which is why it’s a good idea to try it at sunrise, midday, and sunset.
You will get different photographs throughout the day depending on the lighting, but even more important than the lighting is the wildlife that lives there. When visiting Tokyo, for example, you could choose to take pictures on the subway during the daily morning commute or at night when the city comes alive. Tokyo is a bustling city that is constantly bustling with activity, so it is a good idea to capture Tokyo at every time of day if you want to get a feel of what life in Tokyo is like.
8) While Taking Photos, Be Patient
Patience is one of the most important things to remember while photographing travels. When taking a perfect photograph, a number of factors can come into play — from people queuing for the same shot to the right weather, to the right lighting.
Rarely will you take your first photograph and it will turn out to be exactly what you hoped it would be. Those sorts of things happen by accident or you’re very talented. A typical photographer will take 10-20 photos of the same environment before he or she finds one that they like.
It’s even more important to be patient when you’re traveling if you want to take pictures of wildlife. When you’ve been on a safari or even just to the zoo, you know how long it can take for the animals to even emerge, let alone come out and be photographed!
9) Do Something Unique And Creative
All photographers have a unique creative style and something that makes their work stand out. When you begin your photography journey, you may simply want to follow in the steps of others, but as you progress, you’ll naturally develop your own signature style. As you develop your own style, you will undoubtedly change it even when you think you’ve found it.
Don’t worry about this too much when you are first starting out, as you have a lot to learn before you can begin to think about it! You’ll discover what you like about your own photography, as well as what you’d like to further improve upon as you attain more experience.
10) Learn From Youtube Videos
You have probably already realized at this point that when it comes to photography there is a lot of learning to do. As well as taking photography courses, watching YouTube videos is a great way to continue to gain skills and improve your photography work. No matter where you are, whether you’re riding the bus to work on the bus, eating your tea, or boarding a plane soon (hopefully), watching these tutorials on this platform will be a great way to pass the time while you wait.
Travel photography has become so popular that there are so many incredible travel photographers who provide tutorials on YouTube like Sawyer Hartman, Peter Mckinnon, and Chris Hau for example. There are amazing tutorials on photography, editing, and how to monetize your photos. The videos above are great starting points, and there are countless other photographers on YouTube to choose from!
Words Of Wisdom
Travel photography may seem like a tedious task, but it’s a lot of fun, and it can be so rewarding.
Use these tips to make your trip enjoyable. So the next time you go on vacation, you’re guaranteed to have stunning photos to remember it by!
Now it’s your turn:
Which of these travel tips do you follow? Are you planning on following any of them? Where are you planning on traveling next? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below!