Vacation Photography

As promised here is my post on Vacation Photography. This is not a post about how to shoot travel photography professionally. This article is about how to shoot great pictures while on your vacation. With Fall Break coming up some of you may be traveling. Enjoy.

1. Shooting Famous Landmarks:
Famous land marks are hard to shoot in original ways. For instance everyone has seen thousands of images of the Statue of liberty. To make your images stand apart you've got to find a new perspective. If you hear, " Wow that looks like a Post Card" you know your image is good but not terribly original. Which isn't always bad. I've got some postcardish images below. But if you want unique images of iconic places try these tips. Look at the pictures I've shot of the statue of Liberty and the St.Louis Arch. They don't look like Post Cards I hope . What sets them apart is they are taken from different perspectives. How did I achieve this. First , resolve to shoot the landmark differently than what you've seen in the past. Picture in your mind how you've seen the subject photographed before and dare to be different. One good way to do this is to walk. Walking around the subject allows you to see it from different angles and perspectives. See where most tourists are shooting then walk away to look for a unique perspective. Walk up close and far away, squat, lay on the ground climb on something. Anything you can do to get a fresh look.
To sum it up your shot should be unique. People seeing the image should still be able to recognize the iconic subject but then say "Wow, I've never seen it shot like that before". Now that's a compliment.

2. Composing Your Image: A few tips on how to compose a good image.

First: Lead in lines. Notice the dock in the image of the lighthouse below. It leads your eye in to the main subject, the lighthouse. This is called a lead in line. Here I've used the dock as a lead in line but your lead in line can be whatever is available. A sidewalk, hand rail, RR tracks, road ect..

Second: Use the Rule of Thirds. Notice the Lighthouse is slightly off center in the right upper third of the photo. This leads your eye in allowing you to see all the details of the photo but emphasizing the subject. Putting your subject directly in the middle can cuse your eye to ignore important details in the photo.

Third: Putting something in the foreground gives the image depth. Look at the photo of Shay Stadium below. Notice in the foreground the fans doing the wave. This does a couple of things. First it gives perspective to the size and scope of the stadium. Also it adds some life to the photo. It allows you to feel the sense of revelry going on at the game. It gives it emotion.






















3. Night and Sunset:
love to shoot at night. Nothing projects more intrigue or romance than a night image. And when it comes to romance nothing is more romantic the France's Eiffel Tower (see pic below). On our honeymoon my wife and I stayed just steps from the Eiffel Tower. On our way out one night we stopped and took this shot right after a light rain. Observe the small puddles on the path serving as a lead in line. Puddle hopping your eye right to the Eiffel tower in the upper 1/3 of the image.
This would have been a good shot in daylight, but at night its fantastic I think.
Next to night my next favorite time to shoot is sunset. Sunset gives God a chance to show off the beautiful array of colors he created. The sunset image below was shot from a boat on the Sea of Galilee. It was taken with a point and shoot Ricoh that cost maybe $100 bucks. This is my all time favorite image, that I've shot anyway. It hangs in my studio as a 20x30. Only sunset could produce such stunning color. In addition to the stunning color the most prominent mountain is slightly off center in the left upper part of the photo. Room for your eye to move.

A couple of notes of shooting at night and sunset. Obviously this is a low light situation, so it may be helpful to bring a tripod. But remember you're on vacation. Bring the smallest tripod you can. I have a tripod with telescoping legs that extended is 5 feet tall and collapsed is less than 1 foot. It easily fits in a camera bag or even a deep cargo pants pocket. I shot the pic of the Eiffel tower with it and the Pics of Big Ben below. Or buy a Nikon D700. The low light King. I recently took a night shot at ISO 6400 with no tripod and it looks stellar. Plug for Nikon.

























3. Have fun and include your friends:
Remember you're on vacation. The shot of Big Ben (below) was taken 20 feet outside a pub my wife and I were patronizing. The night we shot this we planned to have dinner and drinks nearby. We scouted before dinner and waited in a pub until the sun went down. After dinner and a pint of Ale I was fresh relaxed and ready to take this shot. So have fun.

Include your friends and family. You don't corner the market on ideas. Chances are your friends have some pretty good ideas for shots. The shot of the Arch below was a suggested by my friend Aaron while we were crossing the street. It took two seconds to capture the image standing in the middle of the street. I wouldn't have noticed it but for his suggestion. Notice the lead in line and foreground provided by the flower beds. He's no photographer but his eye noticed that unconsciously. Thanks Aaron.

Another word on travel companions. Don't insist or hound your travel partners to spend the whole vacation chasing down shots. Chances are you're already planning to go alot of places where great shots are available. If you're already at these places they probably won't mind you walking around a few minutes finding perspective and a great shot.

Finally, don't pack tons of gear. Only take what you can carry comfortably to museums, ballgames or wherever you plan to go. I carry one DSLR with a 18-300 lens and a small tripod. The 18-300 provides you every focal length you could ever possibly need. And companies like Tamron and Sigma make them for about $300.

So I hope these suggestions help. This is far from a comprehensive article. I'm sure you can think of more suggestions. But if you follow these simple steps you can bring home the best souvenir ever. Great pics.