4 Top Travel Photography Tips For Beginners

Before heading out on that adventure, prepare your camera with these travel photography tips for beginners.

For some, collecting souvenirs is the best way to remember a trip. For others, it’s taking stunning photographs of the entire trip. Travel photography is a great way to capture memories you can look back on and enjoy years from now. Every destination can lead you somewhere new, with its unique culture, history, people, stories, and landscapes. And as more people start traveling this holiday season again and beyond, it’s important to learn how to adequately capture memories, especially since so much of our time was spent indoors the past couple of years.

4 Top Travel Photography Tips For Beginners

Here are some travel photography tips for beginners that you can use on your upcoming trips.

1. Plan Ahead For The Best Travel Photography Tips

Taking good travel photos entails planning. While you can get some fantastic images as you go along, it never hurts to read up about your destination to get stellar shots at great locations. Read travel guidebooks, scour the internet for information, and talk to friends who have already been there. A great place to start would be on Instagram and Pinterest, especially the profiles of famous travel bloggers who know a thing or two about taking good travel photos!

Once you know which locations to go to, go more in-depth. What time of day is best to go? How can you avoid long lines? Will you need a car to rent there? By preparing well, you’re bound to take better photos than if you just wandered around.

2. Secure Your Camera Gear

Security is essential whether you’re using a DSLR or a smaller digital camera, especially since these are valuable and expensive products. It helps to have a lanyard or a loop on your digital camera at all times, and make sure never to leave it unattended; all it takes is one moment for a thief to snatch your valuables. Camera insurance will also help protect against losses if your camera gets stolen. Even at your hotel, you should keep your cameras in a safe. While you’re out and about, it’s also best to be discrete with how you take photos, especially in areas with high crime rates. Apart from getting good shots, make safety your number one priority.

3. Make Things More Portable

It can be challenging to capture important moments during a trip because they happen so quickly, so it’s essential to have a quick and reliable camera. However, it should not compromise the quality of your travel photos. Digital point and shoot cameras are excellent for traveling because they have optical zoom, ISO sensitivity and deliver results similar to a DSLR. They are also compact and easy to use. Smartphones, while convenient, have limitations such as the lack of optical zoom, inability to capture images well in low-light conditions, and limited battery life since it is used for functions other than photography. You can also invest in a portable tripod to get better shots, especially for sharp landscapes and darker scenes. Having this portable equipment will make all the difference when you’re traveling.

4. Learn Basic Composition Techniques

When traveling solo, you may not have the opportunity to get feedback on your photographs. Learning the basics of good composition will teach you the value of experimentation in photography. Along with different angles, try shooting from different distances. Maybe a wide-angle shot will look good until you see how better a close-up photograph looks. Never take just one image! It is also important to have powerful foreground, mid-ground, and background elements. For instance, if your subject is a busy street, try to find one element in the foreground to focus on. This gives your photograph a more three-dimensional and dynamic feel. And lastly, don’t forget the rule of thirds when you’re composing your shots!

Taking photos while traveling is one of the great joys of life. I hope this article has inspired you to pick up your camera and get snapping.