Taking Better Vacation Photos
Since becoming a photographer, every vacation of mine is now delightfully plagued with a lot of photo & video gear. It’s taken me a few trips to nail a good workflow - but here’s some of my advice on taking better vacation photos.
Tip #1. Pack What You Need
It may take you a few trips to figure out your balance, but I find less is more. I try to pack my camera gear into fairly accessible parts of my luggage, and I try not to bring all my gear for every trip. I’ve learned my A7RIV makes for a good trip camera, and recently just got a single lens that has a bigger focal length range so I can try to keep just one lens for a whole trip.
My short list for any photographer who’s going on vacation for 1-2 weeks:
Single Camera Body
An “all-in-one” camera lens, like a 24-240 f/5.6 or similar.
Two batteries
Optional, depending on location - a very small tripod that can support the weight of your camera rig
Supportive Luggage/bags with lots of compartments so you can easily access and pad your gear in transit (If you’re looking for luggage brands, try Travaloo.com
Tip #2. Plan for Extra Time
This is huge if you’re traveling with other people - if you think something will take you 2 hours without a camera, plan for 3 with it. You want to be able to take your time. Not only do you want extra time to be able to photograph the right subjects, you need to be able to have time to deal with airport security, changing or charging gear, and so forth.
It will teach you to slow down.
My biggest time-eaters are when I find cool birds that I want to frame a certain way, or if I find a nice, long stretch of road and want to have the right car come down it. It’s important to plan for extra time to get the right shot.
Tip #3. Less is More
You’ve heard it a thousand times, and if you’ve been doing a lot of photography yourself, you already know how it is - coming back from a trip with thousands of photos to paw through sucks. In the old days, when people had film in their cameras and had to be careful of using too much (or spending a fortune buying more), the photos they took were much more carefully thought out compared to today, when digital technology means you can take as many photos as you want.
Doing film work got me to be more cautious with what I photograph. Lightroom’s cloud storage limits also help. When I’m on a trip, I often bring my computer, so I import as I go, and I try to weed out the duds early on. Save yourself the trouble and take some time before taking the shot.