Professional photographer Drew Gardner shares his ten top holiday photography tips.
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Here are 10 photography tips to help you create memorable photographs while on your holidays.
Photo by David Clapp - www.davidclapp.co.uk
1. New Camera
If you plan to take family photos with that camera bought especially for the holiday, make sure you get plenty of experience with it before you go. An unfamiliar camera can take time to master.2. Packing Your Gear
When packing for your holiday, remember that less camera gear can be more. A great lightweight travel tripod like Manfrotto’s COMPACT photo kit is the most important piece of kit in my luggage. A quality travel tripod will give you great stability for action, night or landscape shots while only adding 1.5kg to your baggage weight. A quality tripod also gives you the chance to get in shots yourself.3. Theft Prevention
Consider adding some artificial damage to your camera to make it less appealing to thieves. You can do so by just adding a strip of gaffer tape to the exterior of the camera and scratching the surface of the tape with a key.4. Child Action Shots
Our favourite shots are often the most spontaneous. To capture great photographs of your kids in action during your time away, carry a camera around before your holiday to get them accustomed to it. Learn to anticipate your kids’ actions, and make it fun.5. Photographing Friends And Family
People often position friends and family very distant in shots with a beautiful landscape. If you want a great group photo, make sure to put everyone in the foreground, shooting from the waist up or higher. Don’t have them a long way off in the scene; they’ll get lost!6. Bright Sunlight
Make sure the bright sunlight at the beach doesn’t confuse your camera’s auto-exposure setting. If it does, you might end up with your photographs underexposed.7. Photographing The Ocean
If you’re keen to get some great shots of the ocean on your getaway, consider investing in a polarizing filter. That can help cut through the glare on the water and let the rich blues and greens show through.Photo by David Clapp - www.davidclapp.co.uk
8. Night Cityscapes
If you’re going on a city break, you can capture spectacular night time photographs by using the twilight mode on your digital camera. Keep in mind, the twilight mode isn’t a replacement for the stability provided by a good tripod.9. Photographing Locals
If you would like to get a shot of the locals at your holiday destination, do approach them and strike up a conversation. Ask if you can photograph them. Chances are they’ll say yes if you meet them as a human first and a photographer second.10. Remember To Have Fun
As much fun as photography is, try not to miss out on the fun yourself, it’s easy to become a slave to the camera.| See what competitions and other exciting content Manfrotto have on their website: |
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28 May 2012 3:36PM1. A monopod can be just as useful as a tripod: a monopod can fit into your pocket and be less obtrusive, and can be used on a wall as a support for your hand-holding.
2. If like me you want your photo free of distractions, make sure there are no people wandering between your camera and the subject when you click the shutter. Also if it's a special event, where others with cameras are likely to step in front of you just at the wrong moment for you, I find the way to avoid that is to stand somewhere higher up. (Also the more professional-looking your camera, the more likely people are to step out of the way, but if you don't have the image then ask your parent/child/friend to give the impression they're your assistant by for example maybe pacing in front of you from your camera to the subject and generally clearing your path. Remember to thank all persons that have just treated you like royalty.
3. If your camera has a movie option then how about recording a few seconds/minutes of sounds of the waves on rocks or water lapping on the shore/beach, or sounds of people talking, or whatever, to add to the atmosphere of a slideshow.
4. If you're using an iphone - I don't know whether it's the same with other mobile phones - remember that the picture is taken as soon as you remove your finger from the shutter-button. So no need to compose the picture with your finger resting on the button. Just compose the picture, then when you're ready to take the photo, put your finger on the button then remove it.
5. Never be afraid to ask help and advice from other photographers standing around: most are happy to share knowledge. By doing that I learned what aperture to use to get a good shot of a bride and groom - I only have a wide-angle lens and rarely take pictures of people or anything that moves - just by asking a man with a camera nearby that looked as if he knew what he was about; it transpired he was a retired physicist so I got the technicalities as well. One evening whilst I was away Mount Etna erupted (our hotel pressed a button!), the volcano was about 25 miles away as the crow flies; when I overheard some children taking photos complaining to their parents they couldn't hold their cameras steady for long enough to get a decent shot, they were delighted to discover that could be got round simply by increasing the ISO to around 800.
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