5 Tips for Photographing Your Families Vacation | Story Behind my Most Hated Photo + Lessons From My Past Trips

I love to travel, I love travel photography and documenting our travel adventures! With Spring upon us I have been doing a lot of reminiscing over past trips and strategizing for the future because Spring and Summer is when I tend to travel the most.

With all this reminiscing and strategizing I’ve been discovering a lot of things and in todays article I wanted to boil down five lessons that I’ve learned from documenting past trips so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

Lesson #1 : Learning to be Flexible

When I’m on vacation I don’t have 2+ hours to be at a location. I’m also not always there at the right time for lighting or without crowds. Thus, learning to be flexible is vital.

I like to have a few tips and tricks in my back pocket to help me work with the current conditions and make the best of the situation.

For example, if I’m at a landmark that has tons of crowds around. Learning to be flexible means maybe using some foreground interest to block out the crowds, slowing down the shutter speed to showcase the movement of people, or leaving the crowds as documenting what the scene truly looks like.

Lesson #2 : Understanding What is Important, Why You’re Photographing the Trip and Your Mindset Before the Trip

I have definitely found that understanding what is important, why I’m photographing the trip, and my mindset before the trip influences how I photograph the trip.

Back when I visited Greece in 2019 and Denver in 2020 I wasn’t super into photography. I of course loved photographing my travels but I didn’t pay close attention to things like composition and settings. So, why I photographed those trips were to have memories, keepsakes for afterwards.

Greece 2019

Denver 2020

As I got more into photography my “why” for photographing trips did change so my “how” changed too.

My Vancouver Island trip last summer for my honeymoon was a trip that I found where my “why” and “how” had changed. I loved my trip to the Island, and I love how many of the photos turned out. However, I don’t fully love how the story feels because I don’t think it accurately paints our experience and joy on that trip.

Lesson #3 : Photograph in a Story Format

This could come down to personal preference but I love photographing in a story format (having a mix of environmental photos, context photos, details and portraits of us) because I think it tells a more powerful story of our trip - where we were, what we did and our experience there.

Photographing in this way allows me to have front-facing photos that I can post to Instagram and Facebook. But also comes in handy when I try to create a photo book afterwards of our adventure.

Lesson #4 : Get in Front of the Camera

It’s important to get in front of the camera because you were there, this is your story this is your experience.

I know it can be awkward, I don’t always love my photo being taken because I’m self-conscious too of what I look like and what others think. However, I have found that I regret after a trip not getting in front of the camera because I’ll come back with zero photos of us or me there.

It can feel like we weren’t even on the trip because the story is missing the characters.

Lesson #5 : Put the Camera Down

This is the most important lesson that I’ve learned from past trips and might sound counterintuitive to what we’ve been talking about. However, it’s important to put the camera down.

The photo you see below is a photo that I visually love but emotionally hate. It was taken on my trip to Vancouver Island with my husband and I was so consumed with getting the perfect sunset photo that I missed the gorgeous sunset with my husband.

It’s a painful reminder to me on the mistakes I made on that trip, but also a driver for me to be better at putting down the camera, being in the moment, spending time with the one’s I love and finding that balance between documenting moments that matter without taking away from them.

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Let me know over on the channel if you found something helpful or meaningful in todays article!

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Beautifully Wander | Robynne MacLeod

How I'm Organizing my Photos for 2022 & My Post-Processing Workflow

In todays video I want to show you how I'm organizing my photos for 2022 and the post-processing workflow I've been using for the last three years!

I hope you find this video helpful if you're looking to revamp your photo organization this year or try something new!

Happy Organizing!

Beautifully Wander | Robynne MacLeod

Photography Ideas for Your Next Trip or Weekend Around Town | Working with Crowds, Creatively Document Moments, Context Photos

I was lucky enough to do some travelling in the past few months and in reflection of my summer I wanted to give you some photography composition and technique ideas to give a try on your next trip or casual weekend outing!

Hiding the Crowds

It’s very difficult to photograph a popular location without a lot of crowds or people. You could wake up early and get to location before sunrise, however, for those of you that can’t wake up early or it’s very difficult to, you just have to find a way to hide the crowds.

To give you an example, below is a photograph I took of the BC Parliament Building in Victoria around mid-morning.

What you can’t see is that there is quite a bit of crowds around the building and there was a family just on the other side of the foliage taking a photo in front of the building. To creatively hide the crowds I used the surrounding elements, in this case the planter/flower boxes in front of the building.

Frame within a Frame

One of my favourite ways to photograph travelling from place to place is to frame within a frame. You literally frame your composition around an existing frame. I tend to use windows of the transportation vessel - ferry, vehicle, boat, etc.,

For example, in the photo to the left is a capture of travelling on the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, in the middle is a photo of travelling around Osoyoos for wine tastings, and in the last photo to the right is a photo from a casual weekend outing to Penticton, BC.

I like taking these kinds of photos to show context of our trip.

Self-Reflection to Show Place

As I mentioned in my previous idea I like to capture images that show context of our trip. These are photos that aren’t the ‘final view’ but really bring the story together. As a way to document where we eat on a trip I love using self-reflections - I stand in front of the restaurant window, incorporate the sign into the composition and it’s a creative way to document those moments.

In the photo to the left we were eating at a little restaurant in Chinatown called Little Yunnan and in the photo to the right we were hunting for a place to eat Nanaimo Bars in Nanaimo!

Phone Reflection

Using my phone to create a reflection is a technique that I picked up from Lisa at The Wandering Lens. I’ve used it create a unique photo of Canada Place, used it locally, and on this recent trip to Victoria I used it to photograph the BC Parliament Building at night all lit up.

To do this you hold your phone up to your lens and carefully fiddle with your position and phone angle to create the reflection.

This process can be tedious, in the night time reflection of the BC Parliament building it took me 30-minutes or more to get the right reflection. I had to fiddle with my position and angle for a long time before I got it right.

In my experience I have found that horizontal and simple structures work best and are easier to photograph.

Timelapse

Timelapses are a great way to show movement and time passing. I wish I had created time on my Victoria trip to create a timelapse of the Inner Harbour at golden hour or the sunset at the Ogden Breakwater.

If you don’t know what a timelapse is or how to create one I have a blog post created already that I’ll link here.

Stop Motion

My last idea is to create a stop motion. I’ve played around with stop motion before but never in a travel or outdoor capacity. It’s a fun technique to play with but it will require time and a tripod. I also have a blog post on creating a stop motion that I’ll link here or you can read the article I wrote for Olympus here.

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I hope you found some inspiration or ideas for your next trip or weekend outing, happy photographing!

Beautifully Wander | Robynne MacLeod

My Experience Photographing Whales | Whale Photography for the First Time, Gear, Where to Stand

While we were on Vancouver Island for a week one of the highlights was going on a whale watching tour! In todays episode I wanted to chat with you about my experience photographing whales for the first time - covering the gear I used, how I liked using the Olympus MC-20 Converter, where to stand on the boat and other tips.

GEAR

Use Water-Resistant/Waterproof Gear

While we were on our whale watching tour it rained. Thus, I suggest either have a waterproof/water-resistant camera bag to keep your contents dry or have a cover for your bag. I was using the Peak Design Everyday Sling 6L, it has a nice durable shell and ultra-zips that keeps the inside dry.

The second weatherproof item I suggest having is your camera gear in general. The great thing about Olympus camera’s and lenses is that they are splash proof, dust proof, and freeze proof so when it was raining while on the boat I wasn’t worried about my gear while using it because I knew it could handle the weather! If your camera doesn’t have great weather sealing then I suggest bringing a cover for your camera system.

The last item is your clothes. I suggest if you’re visiting a west-coast city that rains a lot to dress in layers and bring a rain jacket. Alternatively, if you don’t mind getting wet and you don’t have a camera cover then you can use your rain jacket.

Keep In Mind the Boat You Are On

When we booked our tour we booked a Catamaran so I wasn’t worried about ocean water because we were sitting higher on the water. However, many whale watching tours take you out on a zodiac which of course is a little sketchier with the salt water. So you might find the type of boat you are on will change the camera gear and the accessories you bring.

Pack Light

This of course is based on personal preference but I suggest you pack light. If you’re on a catamaran you’re sharing the boat with 50 to 100 people sometimes and if you’re on a Zodiac it’s even smaller and tighter in space. You also want the freedom to maneuver on the boat without being in the way of other people and their experience so I suggest packing light because I feel lugging around a huge camera backpack will just get in the way.

On this tour all I brought with me was my Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F2.8 PRO lens, the MC-20 Converter, the M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO, an extra battery and SD card. Realistically, all I ended up using was the M.Zuiko 40-150mm F2.8 PRO and MC-20 Converter. There was one point on the tour that I could have switched to using the M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO for some landscape photos but I opted not to.

Have Lots of Memory (and then more)

I was really worried the night before our tour that I didn’t have enough memory. Before the trip I cleared two memory cards so I had room to take approx. 6000 photos. Before the tour I had room for 4000 on one memory card and then I had a secondary memory card with room for around 1500 just in case.

I didn’t want to run out of room like I did in Vancouver and I had to delete on the go.

Our whale watching tour was about 4 hours in length, I was photographing majority of the time and I took approx. 2000 photos.

Bring an Extra Battery

I knew from my time photographing Eagles in the Thompson Okanagan that my battery tends to run out faster when I’m using Sequential High a lot. Thus, I made sure that I had two fully charged batteries when I got on the boat. The whole trip took one battery and if we did a sunset tour the same day I would have required the second.

Bring a Pair of Binoculars

If you are going with friends or family then I suggest bringing them a pair of binoculars! I wish I had brought a pair of binoculars for my husband because the whales are pretty far away.

I don’t think you need to buy something very expensive (I know binoculars can get pretty expensive) but something would be nice to have for the people joining you.

Using the MC-20 Converter

This whale watching tour was the first opportunity I had a good chance to use the converter. I had taken it out before briefly to photograph the Eagles back at home but not to this extent.

I was a little nervous about auto-focus, my settings, the range of the M.Zuiko 40-150 and the MC-20 Converter and if it was going to be enough.

It was perfect for me. Auto-focus was great, after some adjusting I settled on the approximate settings of F5.6, ISO 500-600 and a shutter speed around 1/1000.

As for range, I like having a lot of the environment, the landscape in my wildlife photos. Capturing more of a “is it a wildlife photo or a landscape photo”. However, if you want a lens that can photograph every scratch on an Orca’s body or every barnacle on the Humpback Whale then you might want to consider a different lens that will provide that reach.

For reference below are some photos that I took on the tour, keep in mind they are post-processed.

POSITIONING

Where to Stand on the Boat

I found the tricky part while photographing the whales was where to stand on the boat. After experimenting and moving around a while I finally found a spot that worked for me - the stairs/top of the stairs.

I’m a short person so standing on the front deck doesn’t work the greatest for me, even when I got a spot at the railing I still struggled because other people were leaning over trying to take a photo themselves. The shoulders of the front deck could work but if the whales go to the other side then you’re stuck.

The top of the stairs/on the stairs is perfect because you’re not in the way of other people (mostly), you have a clear vantage point of the whales at the front and both sides of the boat, and you have places for extra stabilization.

Stabilization

Stabilization is important because while you’re on the boat I don’t recommend using a tripod because it could get in the way or someone could trip over a leg but if you’re going handheld then you might need to find some extra stabilization on the boat. I found the best for me was bracing my back against a part of the boat, or bracing my legs on a seat or part of the boat (railing). This just adds a little extra stabilization than what you would experience with your two feet planted on a moving boat.

OTHER TIPS

When to Go Whale Watching

Before we booked our whale watching tour I googled when a good time to go whale watching was on Vancouver Island and the response I got was between May and October so since we were going in August I thought it was a fairly good chance of seeing some whales.

I also thought about the time that we were going. Most cases when I’m photographing wildlife I like to go out early but the tour operator only offered an afternoon or sunset tour. We opted to go for the afternoon tour for two reasons:

1. If we didn’t see any whales on our trip than we had a second opportunity to go the same day by going on the sunset tour

2. I was worried about the evening light and that it would get dark really fast so I opted for afternoon light instead (it ended up being perfect, because of the overcast, cloudy weather the lightening was really even and softer)

Learning About the Whales

Before the trip I took some time to learn about the whales. I watched a number of nature documentaries on Netflix and Disney+. I also read several articles about whales and photographing them.

The best thing we did that I wish we had done before our tour was visit the Victoria BC Museum that had a special Orca Exhibit. The Exhibit was so interesting and informative we learned so much about the Orca Pod in the area, facts about the Orca’s, impacts, etc.,

Finding the Right Company

I wanted to find the right company to go whale watching with, one that cared about the whales and promoted responsible whale watching. After some digging I found Prince of Whales that I really loved. Prince of Whales Catamaran Tour has 2-3 naturalists on board that give you facts about the whales that you are seeing, they adhere and go above and beyond whale watching guidelines, and they have a custom-built Catamaran specifically for whale watching that reduces their impact on the ocean (jet propulsion engine so sea life doesn’t get caught in it, catamaran style so less of the boat is in the water, etc.,)

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I really enjoyed our whale watching tour. I hope I get other opportunities to photograph them. Being on the boat, listening to the naturalists talk about them, seeing them with my own two eyes, you feel close to them and I think that feeling trickles into other aspects of your life that we’ll get into in another episode.

Beautifully Wander | Robynne MacLeod

Photography Lessons from Past Trips | Tips for Your Next Trip

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.

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Happy Photographing!

Beautifully Wander | Robynne Ikesaka

Best Places to Photograph the Arrowleaf Balsamroot in the Okanagan

I was excited when Spring started to bloom here in the Okanagan because that meant the Arrowleaf Balsamroot in Kelowna will start to dust the south-facing slopes with their golden blossoms. During a particularly hot and sunny week in the valley I travelled around the area trying to find the best places to photograph the Arrowleaf Balsamroot.

Captured here is what I found in Kelowna and West Kelowna.

To see the full series of Arrowleaf photos visit my collection page!

Kalamoir Regional Park

My favourite place to see, photograph and has the densest Arrowleaf Balsamroot’s have got to be Kalamoir Regional Park which is located on the shores of the Okanagan Lake in West Kelowna. I had visited Kalamoir earlier in the Spring and noticed the bushes that would one day form to create the Arrowleaves. When I came back when it was warmer the Arrowleaves were in fuller bloom… it was magical.

If you’re going to visit this park there is a small parking lot at the entrance, I visited the park for sunrise, however, if you visit at sunset you will get beautiful golden backlight.

Bear Creek Provincial Park

Bear Creek is another wonderful location to hike with the Arrowleaves and photograph them! You can do a nice and easy 45-minute hike to a beautiful viewpoint of the Lake or do the long 1+ hour Canyon Rim Trail.

If you want to do the easier trail take a left at the map of the park, at the fork follow right and continue on the trail. An even shorter hike would be to follow left at the fork.

I found the Arrowleaves here weren’t as dense as Kalamoir Regional Park but denser than Knox Mountain Park.

Knox Mountain Park

Knox Mountain is another excellent location to photograph the Arrowleaf and witness a sunset. At sunset the whole mountains bathes in golden hour glow which makes for backighting the Arrowleaves beautiful.

I found when I hiked from the bottom of Knox Mountain to the top via the Apex Trail that majority of the Arrowleaf were at the bottom or in the middle of the mountain. I saw almost none when I made my way to the top.

The downside with Knox Mountain Park is that it’s extremely busy. Parking can be hard to come by. If you’re looking for less crowds avoid the weekend.

Dilworth Mountain Park

Dilworth Mountain Park is a great location to photograph and visit the Arrowleaf if you’re not looking to do a serious hike. You can drive to the small parking lot they have on the mountain, and you don’t have to walk far to start seeing the Arrowleaf. No intense hiking is required at this location.

Dilworth Mountain Park faces Kelowna and the Okanagan Lake which means it’s a great location if you want to photograph the sunset. However, if you visit in the morning the sun does rise behind the park but if you stick around until it breaks past the houses it will shower parts of the mountain with a golden glow.

When the weather gets sunnier and warmer the Arrowleaf Balsamroot starts to come out and fill the south-facing slopes with their golden beauty. In early Spring you’ll start to see a few early Arrowleaves but this year mid to late April is when the Arrowleaves started to fully bloom.

I thoroughly enjoyed chasing these sunflower looking beauties and I look forward to seeing them again next year!

Timelapse Photography and Editing Workflow using the Olympus EM1 Mark II | Create with Me

I started the ‘Create with Me’ series over on my YouTube channel because I wanted to experiment with other kinds of photography. Instead of just posting the result to Instagram I decided to document the journey, the process, and share it on my YouTube.

Today, I get back to the reason I started this series and bring you along with me as I create another cloud timelapse.

What is a Timelapse?

You can create a photo or video timelapse but essentially your footage/photos are taken over a long period of time but are shown quite quickly. Thus, something that takes a long time like the clouds moving in the sky, the sun setting, etc., are shown as a short clip.

Setting Up for My Timelapse

To setup for my timelapse I have my Olympus EM1 Mark II with the M.Zuiko 12-40mm F2.8 PRO lens setup on my tripod. I set my in-camera settings to an ISO 200, 1/50 and an aperture of F22

To enable the timelapse setting on my camera:

• Select MENU

• Go to CAMERA 1

• Go all the way down to the bottom

• Turn the timelapse setting ON

To change my timelapse setting I went further into the timelapse menu and adjusted my frame count and interval length. I ended up with a frame count of 540 frames, a start waiting time of 2 seconds and an interval length of 5 seconds.

I forgot to mention that I heard if you turn your TIMELAPSE MOVIE to ON instead of OFF your camera will capture both still photos and .AVI. However, I haven’t fully experimented with this or creating a timelapse in camera.

You’ll know your timelapse is ON because on your camera screen a number with your frame count will appear in white at the top of the screen. Once it is going the frame count will go green and start counting down.

Of course, this entire process might differ if you are using a different camera.

What’s Interesting About Timelapses

Up until a few weeks ago I wasn’t interested in doing timelapses, however, I’ve enjoyed the pursuit of creating and experimenting with timelapses. I love the essence of capturing something slow and seeing the magic when it comes together. I think it offers something different to the eye and the mind.

Editing Workflow

To edit my timelapses I have been manually editing them. I pull the photos into Lightroom and do some light post-processing. To make this process easier I edit the first photo to how I like and sync the edits to the rest by selecting them all and hitting sync. The pastings of the edit takes a while but after it is done I go in and check to make sure the edits are how I like.

After the photos are all edited and exported I pull the images into iMovie to do some manual control of stringing the photos together. Similar to how I edit my stop motions in iMovie I shorten each clip to its shortest length - .10 seconds. .This clip length is still too slow for my liking of a cloud timelapse so to get around this limitation I further export the whole thing and re-import it into the timeline. Once it’s re-imported I can adjust the speed of the timelapse. Depending on the timelapse I have played around with a custom speed of 250-400%.

For this timelapse I settled with a custom speed of 400%.

The last step was to add music! I find all my music for my YouTube videos, stop motion and timelapse clips on Epidemic Sound. For this timelapse I selected the song Sun Comes Out.

After the music is added it’s finished!

Manual vs. In-Camera Timelapses

I personally haven’t experimented with in-camera timelapses yet. I’ve manually created the timelapses so far by capturing still photos, editing in Lightroom and stringing together in iMovie. I love the manual control to change the speed of my subject.

Final Thoughts

I love the result of a timelapse! Cloud timelapses have been my favourite with sunset timelapses being a close second. However, sitting around for 45-minutes and waiting for the timelapse to finish is kind of boring. The post-processing of the timelapse manually does take a long time but I have yet to try creating a timelapse in camera.

I hope you enjoyed todays Create with Me! If you have any tips on creating timelapses leave a comment on the video!