Photography Tip—How to Take the Travel Photos That Others Miss, Part 1

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Digital photography has certainly made it easier to enjoy many types of photography, such as travels and journeys. The reason people take pictures of the places they visit is the same now as it was when photographers were carrying giant view cameras or tourists of the 1950s had to change film in their box camera and hope they didn’t miss a shot. People want to revisit the places where they will probably never be again and share what they saw and experienced with others. Your challenge is to capture images that are more than the standard tourist snapshots that everyone always takes home.

The 6 tips in this two-part PhotographyTalk.com article will help you bring home travel photos that are a cut above the rest. Unlike a thousand other photographers who took essentially the exact same picture of a scene or point of interest, you can discover and record truly different images. The improvement in your travel photos should be obvious; plus, what you’ve learned can be applied to any other form of digital photography.

  1. Like a Boy Scout, Be Prepared.

What makes travel so exciting is that a new place, new person or new activity can be around the next corner. You can’t take pictures of your encounters unless you bring your camera. Leaving it behind in the hotel or on the cruise ship just makes it dead weight (and maybe more vulnerable to theft). In many travel situations, a compact, or point-and-shoot, camera or a micro 4/3 camera are better options than a large DSLR.

Nikon D600 | Nikon D7100 | Nikon D800 | Canon 5D Mark III | Canon EOS-Rebel T4i

It’s the nature of travel that a great photo can present itself unexpectedly, and only for a moment, so your camera must also be pre-set to capture that photo. If you’ve been using your camera for some time, then you should have a favorite or familiar shooting mode: one that you know will produce good results. Aperture-priority mode and one of the creative modes are good choices, since the only quick adjustment you’ll probably need to make is exposure. Travel photography is also a good reason to shoot RAW files. Your primary task is to capture the images, even if they are a bit underexposed or overexposed; you can modify them later in photo-editing software.

Editor Tip: 5 Travel Gadgets We Never Leave Home Without.   

A few good titles to further prepare you:

  1. Avoid Playing “Follow the Leader.”

A wise person said, “Be a traveler, not a tourist.” A traveler chooses how to experience a place or a culture. Tourists are typically driven in herds from one attraction to another, or follow those herds. This is not a condemnation of tourists or the widely popular places and events throughout the world that attract them. You want photos of many of those attractions; it’s just that you should want entirely different photos than the herds of tourists take from the same angle and position and with the same composition, lighting, etc. This tip, therefore, is very simple: Move from where the tourists congregate to take pictures and find the better angles, views, etc. These PhotographyTalk.com articles have more tips to help you capture the photos others miss.

  1. Go Social.

An important part of your travel or vacation planning is to use social networking to learn about a destination, what to shoot there and examples of other photographers’ work. If you’re traveling to the Grand Canyon, for example, then search Flickr and other photo-sharing sites to see the kinds of scenes and objects others have taken. First, this provides you with a benchmark to which you can compare your results. Second, it will help you avoid duplicating an image that too many photographers may have already taken, or give you motivation to try to outdo them.

Another benefit of “going social” is to communicate with the photographers who have either shot in the same location as your travel plans or actually live and work there. Establish a good relationship through forums or discussion groups and they may be willing to share with you their secrets to capture the local attractions, culture, etc., and bring home much better digital photos. Ask them if they have time to meet you during your travels. Those connections could become some of your best learning experiences.

Photo copyright PhotographyTalk member Tanya Sue Scott

Read Part 2 of this PhotographyTalk.com article for tips 4 through 6, so everyone will ask to see your travel photography collection again and again.

 

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