If I could offer you one piece of advice while traveling, it’s to take as many photos as possible. They help preserve incredible moments in time, allowing you to revisit often, and share your adventures with friends and family. While travel may look a bit different right now, with trips being postponed, it’s a perfect time to brush up or even learn new photography skills. Keep reading below for a few tips on how to take great travel photos wherever you go.
How to Take Great Travel Photos Wherever You Go
Invest in a good camera
You can still level up your Instagram game even if you aren’t a photographer by trade. While many will opt to use their smartphone, if you want some truly spectacular shots you should consider investing in a camera. Today’s digital cameras are made with ease of use in mind and for every type of photographer. The photography gear on Adorama represents how you can get everything from instant film cameras, for retro polaroid prints, to specialty cameras that use traditional film for those who really like a challenge. There are also lots of budget-friendly cameras that won’t break the bank. If you really want to take your photography up a notch, travel-friendly accessories like tripods and lens filters are a worthy addition to your shopping list.
Familiarize yourself with your camera’s settings
Once you’ve invested in the right camera, the next step is to familiarize yourself with its controls. This is why it’s worth brushing up on your photography skills as soon as possible to ensure that you’re ready to shoot during your trip. Your camera’s auto function should do in a pinch, but you’ll quickly realize that the auto function won’t be able to blur the background or capture fast motion. You can start out by playing with the different settings on your camera like portrait, landscape, and sport. From there, you can gradually move onto experimenting with your camera’s aperture to play with depth of field, or shutter speed to practice taking photos of fast-moving subjects.
Plan out where you want to go
There’s actually a lot of planning involved in getting the right shot, including location, time, and lighting. If you want to take truly memorable photos that capture the spirit of wherever you’re visiting, take the time to do your research and plan out where you want to shoot. Proper research will help you figure out the details like golden hour, parking, easy access, etc. Planning will also give you a better idea of what to bring. For instance, Lo and Son’s sophisticated Claremont camera bag is a portable sling with pockets that can compartmentalize your stuff, making moving around much easier. Preparing for shoots beforehand means you’re less likely to bring equipment that you don’t need.
Play around with angles
It’s one thing to play around with your camera settings, but one of the fun aspects of photography is that you can physically move around to get the shot that you want. A Danish newspaper recently published a series of photos from downtown Copenhagen where each scene was photographed from different angles. What became clear was that the angle of the shot mattered greatly: an angled photograph can show people closely clustered together, when the reality is that everyone is actually standing far apart from one another. Your perspective changes the more you move around, and you can end up capturing the same scene in a host of ways.
I hope this post was a great jumpstart in understanding how to take great travel photos wherever you go! I encourage you to practice, play around with lighting, subjects and angles, and most of all, enjoy the adventure!
XoXo
Portia