5 Tips for Travel Photography

“We make these memories for ourselves”

Travelling around the world is one of the most rewarding things. Travel photographs freeze time and forever capture our previous memories, one single photo can convey a thousand words, thoughts and feelings from our journey. But capturing good travel photographs require practices and skills, here are some techniques and tips for taking better travel photographs on your next trip.

Timing

Timing is extremely important when it comes to photography, the best timing is when there is the best lighting, and the best way to flatter your subject is with good lighting. For example, if you know it is going to rain in the evening, you should schedule sceneries in the morning so to capture the beautiful scenes with necessary lighting. The best timing to take photos are hours after sunrise and hours before sunset, we even call it the “golden hour”. You can find relevant information on the local observatory of your destination, be sure to check where the run rises and sets in the place you visit too, it will help you determine where to be at the best time.

Research

Some may like to be carefree and wander around without plans when they travel. Well yes, sometimes you do take the best travel photographs when you least expect it. But it does not hurt to do some research on the places you will go beforehand. Location scouting, reading travel guidebooks and finding inspirations are all things you can do before you travel. The internet nowadays are filled with articles and blog posts to help you with photo ideas, and where to stand in order to capture the essence of a place. Personally, I like to do my research on Instagram and Pinterest.

Ask for Help

Whether you are travelling on your own or in a group, there will always come a time when you need help with pressing the button. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Your mom may have told you not to talk to strangers, but it is okay to approach the right people for help. Better yet, find young people holding cameras. Make sure you ask politely and thank them afterwards. You could also take 15 minutes learning how to say “can you take a photo for me” in the local language before you arrive.

Tripod

Sometimes you may not find yourself in a busy tourism attractions, and are unable to ask for help from others. This is why I would suggest you to carry around a lightweight travel tripod. You can take your time to adjust the focus, exposure settings when the camera position is fixed. In other words, you will have greater creative control. However, you may not be able to set the tripod too far as you usually only have 10s to run to the spot.

Rule Of Thirds

In photography, this is one of the most basic and classic rule that help you with creating a balanced composition. In the rule of thirds, you simply divide the imagine into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. Usually, you can just turn on the “grid” feature on your phone or camera, and the lines will appear. The subject of the image should be placed at the intersection of these dividing lines, it will naturally draw attention from viewers’ eyes as we usually focus on these points immediately.

So we have come through 5 tips for a better travel photography. Do you think these tips are conducive to you? Share with us if you have any other tips!