11 Excellent New Essential Travel Photography Tips For Beginners. Hi and welcome to Episode 79 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Here is the answery bit
I love travel photography, and in this episode I am going to give you 11 tips, 11 things for you to think about if you are considering getting into travel photography. These are not your usual tips, but the 11 things that came into my head that I think will help you. These are very wide ranging tips based on my experiences as a travel photographer over many years.
This is the first in a series of episodes about travel photography.
Enjoy.
1 Exactly what is travel photography
Let’s start at the beginning. There are lots of definitions of what travel photography is. But for me travel photography is taking photos that make someone else want to be there. It is that simple.
Wherever you are when you take a photo of a place, many other people are not fortunate enough to be there and it is your job to show a place to its best and for the viewer to want to go there.
Let’s not overthink this.
2 You don’t have to travel somewhere exotic
Now this is a recent realisation to me. I thought that travel photography was all about going to exotic places and taking photos of stunning beaches with palm trees and all that good stuff.
But it is not. As I just said, it is about taking photos that make the viewer want to be there, wherever that may be.
3 Not everyone is where you are
Think about this. And to be fair it took me a while to get my nut around this one. Not everyone is where I am. So if I take a photo locally to me to someone else that is travel photography – they have to travel to be in that place!
And it is a good job that everyone is not where you are, or where I am, as this would be rather crowded!
4 Explore where you are – home or away
There are nice places hidden everywhere. Nice places that you can find to create great travel photos. We just need to broaden our thinking and open our minds to what is around us.
I once went randomly to some local woods I have driven past hundreds of times. I got loads of really great photos less than 2 miles from where I live. I mean some seriously good stuff.
So get out and explore wherever you are – it is when I do this that I get really good stuff. Different good stuff.
5 Tell the story of a place
What does this mean? Tell the story of a place. Well if you can capture the essence of a place in one, two three, whatever many photos then you have done your job.
6 Know where the sun is going to be
I am talking sunrise, sunset, and all the bits in the middle. Now I know not all photos are taken on bright sunny days, and not all travel photos include a stunning sunset and sunrise.
But let me tell you this – knowing where the sun is will help you get better, more appealing photos. You know all those expensive lights that you can get? Well the sun is the biggest light source going, and it is completely free!
So it makes sense to know where it is going to be.
Check out a previous episode on apps for photographers where I tell you what I use.
7 Get up for sunrise
I do this at home and when on holiday. I love the start of a new day, and most of the time it is just me there. I prefer sunrise to sunset to be honest, and many of my favourite photos were taken with that big old natural light popping up over the horizon.
8 Travel light
I use a Canon 6D for my architectural and real estate photography. I use an Olympus EM5-MK 2 for my travel photography. OK it has a lump of a lens on the front, the 12-40 2.8, but the overall l size, weight and volume is reduced which makes a difference.
And I don’t carry a lot of other stuff in my travel bag – normally it is half full, and I use the other half for my hand luggage paraphernalia. And it is not a big bag, it is the small Peak Design Everyday Backpack, half full.
9 Get a tripod
I use a tripod for most of my photos. Check out my photography blog at rickmcevoyphotography.com and you will find a blog post where I recently wrote about my tripod and why it is one of my best photography accessories.
10 Learn how to shoot into the sun
Straight into the sun I mean. And to do this you need to be careful, the sun is a big bright old thing, and you need to be careful not to damage your eyes, so please be careful if you are going to do this.
I love taking photos with the sun in, and here is a top tip.
Try your maximum aperture on your camera lens of choice and you might just find that you have a very nice, natural starburst effect. I get these with my Canon and Olympus cameras, and they are different to each other.
But both lovely. Which is nice.
11 Photograph the obvious - differently
Now we all love taking photos of iconic landmarks, and that is just fine. I am not knocking anyone for doing that, never will. Some people do, as though there is no point photographing something that everyone else has photographed. Why should you or I be deprived of the opportunity?
So get the photos that every else is getting, and don’t worry about it. I do this. But I also try to get different perspectives, different viewpoints.
And when I am at an iconic location I look around the place to see what else is there.
12 What do I do?
I travel light. On holiday I get up a couple of times in a week for sunset. I explore places. I just love getting out and about capturing places. But I explore places and find good stuff.
The talky bit
There is a lot of talk about what travel photography is and is not. But I go back to the beginning, travel photography is all about taking photos that make the viewer want to be there.
And if they are not fortunate to be able to go to a place then travel photography can help people appreciate a place just by looking at great travel photos.
It is about sharing our wonderful planet with others. And that could be around the corner from where you live, or a golden beach 10,00 miles away.
Where you live is a travel location to someone else. Let’s not forget that, or over complicate this.
You live somewhere other people do not, and you live somewhere people will never get to visit. These are just facts.
So take photos that make them want to go wherever that may be. Take photos that inspire, that W show a place to its most appealing best.
One line summary
Travel photography is about creating photos that make someone want to be there.
Next episode
Photography Explained Podcast Episode 80 – How Do You Take Great Travel Photos Explained In Less Than 10 Minutes. Yes more travel photography time – well why not.
Shout out
This episode the shout out is to me and travel photography website, photosofsantorini.com. Well it is relevant to this episode, and I am surely allowed a bit of self-promotion?
I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Brought to you by
This episode was brought to you by water. Just water. Cheers.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick