I think we’ve established by now that I love to travel! I know “travel” and “vacation” are uncertain topics because of where you live or the restrictions, but I have definitely noticed in the Okanagan that people are travelling again - including myself! A couple weeks ago I went to Osoyoos, next week I’m going to go camping by Salmon Arm and next month I’ll be visiting Victoria, BC! Thus, in todays episode I wanted to share some photography tips pertaining to travel and vacation photography!
Consider Why You’re Taking the Photos
Posting the photos to Instagram? Documenting your journey? Writing a book or article?
I find having an idea of why I am taking the photos helps me understand and gives me ideas of what photos I need to take.
The photos I took for my Osoyoos trip were drastically different than the photos I took for Greece, Denver, Vancouver and that’s because the reasons behind why I was taking the photos were different.
For Greece, Denver, Vancouver I was photographing for the purpose of posting to social media. For Osoyoos I was trying to create a story about my trip so I had more context shots that made the story make sense.
Slow Your Pace
I’m notorious for cramming my days with activities, especially when I have a short time frame at a location because I want to squeeze everything in.
Thus, I have to remember not to cram. I find the best is to do one major activity in the morning and one in the afternoon (anything else covered that day is a bonus).
By slowing down I get to enjoy the moment more and if I am photographing the day I have more time to marinate over the experience and capture what I want.
Sometimes You Have to Think Outside the Box
I knew when I was travelling to Osoyoos that I might have some difficulty because I was travelling with other people. I can’t just pull over when I want, or take my time at a location.
So I had to come up with a way to photograph the outdoors, where I was going, our journey from where I was and with the parameters I had. So, I started photographing from inside the vehicle using the windows and windshield to frame my subject. This ended up being one of my favourite ways to show what we were doing and where we were going.
Don’t Forget Those Candid Moments
It’s great to capture the portrait-style, front-facing photos of your family and yourselves but I love the candid moments. The slices of time that display a genuine smile, laugh, and other beautiful moments.
To make sure I can do this whenever we arrive at our new location I set my camera up for the environment we are in and I leave my camera on. Then when a moment happens I can quickly capture it!
Go Simple
This is more personable preference but I want you to consider going simple with your camera gear. If you know why you’re taking the photos, what you’re roughly going to take photos of then you know what kind of gear you need to bring.
For Osoyoos I only photographed with the Olympus 25mm (partly because I was still doing the one lens challenge) but going simple meant I was able to bring my camera everywhere!
I love the Olympus for how small and lightweight it is!
Have Multiple SD Cards and Batteries
When I went to Vancouver I made the mistake of having too small of a memory card in my camera. As I was photographing at the Capilano Suspension Bridge I ran out of memory and had to delete photos on the go.
Do yourself a favor and make sure you have enough memory and battery to keep you going!
Backup Your Photos
At the end of every day backup your photos. Because I had a small memory card with Vancouver I had to move the photos off the SD card to my hard drive at the end of every day (leaving me with one copy of the photos).
Several months later I have invested in getting more and bigger memory cards so now I can backup the photos onto my hard drive (leaving me with two copies of the photos). Then when I get home I create a third copy.
The point of the story…backup your photos!
Practice Locally Before the Trip
David Duchemin did a podcast episode once about “becoming”. You are becoming the person to take that photo, write that book, become that person…
So when you practice locally, and experiment with different compositions and techniques you are adding to your photography toolbox so when you are travelling you have more freedom to pull from that toolbox to create the photo that you envision.
Happy Photographing!
Beautifully Wander | Robynne Ikesaka