Practical Travel Photography – How To Make It Happen

Travel photography is part of every trip. Something fun to remember your trip with and make your bring you and you travel companions closer together. Lots of people love doing it and for some of us, like me, it even turns into a side hustle,

When I started out, there were lots of things that I didn’t fully appreciate or understand. Now I want to help pass on my knowledge to other folks.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures I’ve taken. It’s from a Greek independence festival.

Think About What You’ll Be Doing

You’re reading this because you’re traveling somewhere and want to take pictures. Think through where you’re going and what, EXACTLY, you’ll be doing. When you examine it, you’ll find that you want some things and not others.

I see this behavior all the time. You’re someplace that you’ve dreamed of being. Maybe it’s Iceland, maybe it’s Disney Land, maybe it’s Athens. No matter where it is, I’ve watched people lug around camera equipment looking miserable because they didn’t think ahead. I’ve written about this before.

Travel photography can take you to some pretty challenging places with your cameras. I’m comfortable here, but think about if you would be before you throw your gear on your back.

When you’re traveling, you’re often out doing things all day long. That’s kind of what tourists do. Now imagine yourself walking miles of city streets or doing that slow meandering pace through museums. How about climbing up a steep hill, maybe even hiking up a mountain? Now add a camera to all of that. It’ll be dangling around your neck or, if you’re really prepared, you’re carrying a backpack with it. You’ve got to find a space for it when you sit down to eat, and protect it from bumping around. You could be carrying that weight all the way up a volcano and back!

I’m not saying that it’s not worth doing. I’ve done all that and more (see above picture) and I didn’t regret it for a second! The point is for you to contemplate what you’ll be doing and if you can handle carrying the camera around while doing it. Here’s what I do.

When I’m planning out the trip, I look online to see the places I’m going and note where I want to take photos. I factor in how I’ll be getting there, typical weather conditions for that season, and the time of day that I’ll be there. Going through those steps tells me what I will likely need – what lenses, reflectors, filters, etc. You might not have all those things now, but if you stick with it you probably will and you’ll thank yourself that you’re in this habit already.

Don’t Get Arrogant – Use Your Phone

Let’s take a moment talk about our all-consuming info-bricks.

I’ve encountered a bit of an attitude about cell phone cameras from a certain strand of photography enthusiasts. Professional photographers don’t think less of a picture because it was taken with phone. Our phones are just another tool in the utility belt. Don’t get caught up in that sort of attitude or let someone else ruin your good time. There’s lots of times when I recommend people use their phone when traveling and here’s why.

Travel photography can present you with challenges so make things easier on yourself and your cell phone can help. When you’re outside, even the most crowded areas, you’ll typically have space to back up and snap photos and set up for group shots. Inside is a different story.

If you’re in a restaraunt, it’s doubtful that there’s a lot of space for you to move around without running into other diners, since that would be antithetical to how a restaurant makes money – that makes using a full body camera a bit harder. It’s better to hand your phone to your server or host and let them take the group picture for you. Further, by using your phone, it’s more likely that the person taking the picture will understand how to use it because it’s a nearly universal device.

Another typical destination are museums and they’re another place to just let your big camera rest. First off, all museums ban flash photography and some ban photography altogether. Full body cameras will often put staff on edge at these places, so just leave it packed away.

Going from inside to outside quickly can make for a real challenge in travel photography.

One last consideration about using your phone vs. using your dedicated camera are the settings. Going in and out of places means that you’re shifting lighting levels, spaces, and depth of field. To get a good shot on, you’d likely want to change up exposure and apeture, which, yes, can be done quickly with saved user settings, but the you’re also likely going to want to change lenses and that’s a bit more of a hassle. My advice is set your camera up for the outdoors and let your cell phone handle inside.

Cell phones will do that adjusting much faster and you don’t have to think about it. They fit in your pocket and can take a nice picture much closer to your subject than a full body camera usually can. Again, I’m not saying leave your camera at home, but if you want to take some quick, unexpected pics, use your cell phone and leave your larger camera set up correctly for where you intended to use it.

Take Lots of Pictures. Then Curate!

When I was first starting out, I was teaching myself and learning from some blog posts, but one of the things that just never came up was just how many pictures photographers took. I knew that not every picture came out looking perfect, but you’re going to want a lot more than you’re used to and I didn’t have any idea what that meant.

After a trip, I usually have between 3-5 thousand photos and from that I’ll get 100-200 photos I love. That doesn’t mean that all the others were crap, it just means that out of all of them, there were 100 or so that I feel were really worth showing to others. On one trip to Norway, I had over three thousand pictures of just the Northern Lights, but there were around 25 that really blew me away with their beauty.

This is all normal and part of the process, not just in travel photography, but in all photography. Some photographers will take fewer photos than I do, others will take even more. What I want you to understand is that taking an absurd number of photos is just how it’s done.

To help with this I recommend that you get yourself a large external storage device, I use this one right now, and get a backup service that works for you. That way you never have to worry about your pictures.