Travel photography

If you plan to take photographs during your vacation you need of course the right equipment and accessories, but there are also a few other things to keep in mind. When you are preparing for your trip check whether your camera still works properly (and when it is a new camera, practice with it beforehand), so you will not be faced with (technical) problems that could have been avoided. You will travel much more at ease knowing that your camera is without any technical failures and when you know how to operate your camera.

Furthermore, check whether you have all the necessary equipment and accessories you might need on the road. Consider buying additional batteries and memory cards. Do you need a separate battery charger and does it come with the right plug for the countries your are visiting or do you need an adapter? It might also be handy to take some blank cd's or dvd's, in case you have access to a computer to burn the pictures you made onto a disk. You can also take along other storage media, such a USB drive a mobile hard diks or a laptop. It is also possible to store your photos on the web using an online service or to send them to a web address (such as Google's Gmail, which offers ample storage or the relatively new free photo storage solution Picture Town managed by Nikon).

To protect your camera while out and about you definitely need a solid bag (possibly water resistant). Bags come in many shapes and sizes and you can buy them at most specialist photo shops or outdoor shops. When you travel by plane you have to make sure your hand luggage is not too big and too heavy. Check the website of the airliner you are traveling with for their regulations.

A few other things to check before you leave are your passport and insurance (including insurance for your equipment!). You may need an additional insurance, especially if you are taking part in outdoor activities. Consider whether you need to take any other precautions concerning your health or other matters. And whether you carry the right means of payment: cash, traveler cheques, credit card etcetera.

And when you have finally reached your holiday destination and are ready to take your first pictures, there are some more 'rules' you need to follow. A few aspects to bear in mind are the following:

- Are you familiar with the culture of the country you are visiting? Are you allowed and is it appropriate to take pictures anywhere you want? Military objects are out of bounds most of the times and in some cultures it is inappropriate to take pictures of people (without asking them). And if you are allowed to take pictures at a certain location but only without a flash a tripod might be handy and sometimes the church bench will do just fine. Get yourself acquainted with the cultural aspects and be polite, always.

- It helps if you speak the language, if only just a little bit. It is much easier to get in touch with people if you can communicate with them and sometimes this will be the difference between a great photo or none at all.

- Read about the country you are visiting, so you will know which places you want to visit and where you can likely take your best pictures. If you are going to hike, make sure you have a good map of the area. Even if you are going by car don't rely on your navigation system only, take a good road map as well.

When you travel you are very likely going to take a lot of nature and landscape photos. Here are some tips:

• Make sure your photo has depth of field. Place an object in the foreground like a tree, a building or other objects or a person. This is especially important when using a wide angle lens.
• Be aware of details and do not always wish to capture everything you see around you in your picture. You will be surprised how exciting your photos will become if you focus more on details.
• Apply the rule of thirds and do not place the horizon and the objects in your photo exactly in the center of the frame. Two thirds are the magic words here. Also consider diagonal lines (also referred to as the golden triangles) which draw the attention of the viewer into your picture so to speak.
• Don't be afraid to play with the light and take photos with different apertures. Don't always confide in the automatic settings your camera suggests.
• Vary, vary your standpoint, vary your composition. Bend down on your knees en see the world from a different perspective.
• Size matters. Use people or objects to emphasize the size of a mountain or waterfall. Without a comparison the viewer may not be able to understand the enormity of a huge mountain.
• The best times of day to take pictures outdoors are early in the morning or late afternoon, because of the low position of the sun. The leaves of a tree can act as a filter against the sun.
• The sea is best captured with a wide angle lens. If you take your pictures at dusk against the sun the effect will be quite surprising.
• If you are in the mountains beware of overexposure and add colorful objects (like skiers in bright clothes).
• When you are capturing buildings, mind the lines in the structure of the buildings. The perspective can get easily distorted which leaves the impression the buildings are tumbling over. Move away from the subject to avoid distortion and use a wide angle. And look around when visiting a city, surprises can be found around the corner, or look up for a change.

More tips on travel photograpphy can be found at Photosecrets, photo.net, and travelphoto.net and the many books on travel photography available from Amazon.

Travel and digital video

A few extra tips that especially apply to digital video are the following:

• Prepare cutaway shots you can use throughout your movie. A cutaway shot is a shot that moves away from the direct action you're filming to another shot with additional 'information' about the scene. When editing your movie it can serve as a break or as a transition to another scene. By professionals they are also referred to as the B-roll. It is not easy to always remember shooting these little shots but as you will become more experienced it will be like second nature.
• More so than with stills photography you will be in need of a tripod. Make sure you buy one with a fluid head. This makes it easy to pan from left to right and tilt the camera up and down. Your tripod should provide sturdy support, but it should also be as light as possible otherwise you will not be inclined to take it along on your travels. A tripod with a built-in level is handy when panning landscapes.
• An external microphone can be useful, but that will depend on the type of movie you are making. Some cameras come with built-in microphones that offer acceptable sound quality, but you will have to decide for yourself whether an external microphone will serve you better.

• Even though you are working with moving images, make sure you avoid too much movement. Usually the subjects in your movie will take care of the movement. When you have trouble keeping your camera still, you can consider the purchase of a monopod, rather than a tripod. You can easily take it along and it will considerably improve the quality of your images.
• Something else to avoid, or at least use sparsely, is the zoom button. It makes your movie wobbly and usually the zoom button picks up too much speed. So be gentle and make use of the optical zoom only.
• A neutral density (ND) filter will be of service when filming outdoors. It is a way to influence the aperture in an easy and natural way, more so than with a stills camera.
• Many cameras offer built-in effects you can apply while filming. But why the trouble when you can easily apply effects afterwards when editing your movie? Once an effect has been applied while filming it will not be easy to remove it again if you are not happy with it.
• And last but not least, decide in which aspect ratio you want to record your movie, 4:3 or 16:9 which most cameras nowadays support. And what image quality will you choose? Even a high definition camera allows you to choose different settings for image quality. You will find details about this in your camera's manual.

More tips on digital video can be found on these websites: about.com, videoguys and videomaker. 

If you would like to know more about digital photography and stock photography in particular, have a look at our links page or perform a search with Google using the search box below:

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