Summer is almost here! After a very long year and a half, some of you might be traveling this summer, spending well deserved time away with your family. If you have some great pictures of your vacation, that will make your memories even better.
Here are some tips to improve your vacation photos:
- Before you leave on vacation be sure your batteries are charged, you have extra batteries and your charger, and pack plenty of media cards. Also make sure you have a safe place to hold your media cards so they don’t get lost traveling home.
- Tell a story with your photos. Start with a wide shot to establish the scene, then come in close, get the action, the details. Maybe you get a beautiful shot of the beach, then a shot of the sand crab that caught your eye Don’t forget the photos of the kids digging in the sand.
- Especially if you’re photographing people, turn on your flash, even in the daytime. That will put some light into their eyes. It the people are backlit by the sun, having some light on their faces will make a beautiful image.
- Be creative. Don’t always look for the postcard shot. Try different angles and details that interest you. Get up high, down low; move around to all different sides of your subject.
- Shoot through foliage or doorways to frame your subject and make a more interesting picture.
- Include street signs in your images to set the scene for the location.
- Be sure to capture expressions so everyone can remember how they felt on vacation.
- Don’t always center your subject. Divide your frame into thirds in each direction. Where those lines intersect are great spots to have your subject.
- Try not to have the horizon line doing through the center of the image.
- Take your camera out even if the weather isn’t sunny. You can get some dramatic images of changing weather.
Have fun! Let your family create goofy poses. Let the kids shoot from their point of view. And when you get home, print your favorite images so you don’t lose these precious memories.