Making a Great Vacation: Part 2 – Picture This

You go on vacation to experience someplace new and exciting, hoping it will be filled with an equal amount of thrills and relaxation. Once your vacation is over, you’ll likely want to share parts of your adventure with the most important people in your life. When all of that comes to fruition and you realize the dream vacation, the last thing you want is to only have the memories in your mind to keep them. And with the advances in digital cameras and phones today, there is no reason that should be the case anymore. Make your vacation great with photos and these tips.

Volume

A quick disclaimer: don’t spend so much time behind a shutter that you forget to be in the moment and enjoy what’s happening around you. It’s not a job!

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can talk numbers. It’s not a perfect science to get great pictures of your vacation, but the best way to increase your number of quality images is volume. Take lots and lots of shots. The more you take, the higher the chance of capturing something amazing. It’s simple, but effective.

Example: Snow Canyon Panorama
Lots of shots were taken on this trip up Snow Canyon, making it a possibility to stick three shots together to make this panorama.

Light

Golden hours are so important for your location-specific shots. Whether you are trying to capture Angels Landing in Zion National Park or the Parthenon in Greece, you need to think through where the light is coming from and capitalize on the right time of day.

Early morning and late afternoon give you the soft, golden light that makes that extra bit of difference in a photo, so make sure you plan your day so you won’t miss it.

Example: Subway Hike in Zion
Soft, evening light and low light with a long exposure were used to get the flowing water and rich colors.

Personality

The ancient or modern structures are great and the beautiful, natural scenery is amazing to document, but it’s the people you travel with that really matter. Remembering to incorporate their personality into your photography will make a huge difference in the pictures you take.

Vacation pictures are meant for your friends and family, not an art exhibit. Get those candid moments when people are being themselves. Good photography should elicit an emotional response, so keep that in mind while you’re capturing the Eiffel Tower or Zion’s Weeping Rock.

Example: Weeping Rock

Sharing

Don’t forget to share your pics — whether that’s with your travel companions or with those who weren’t with you on this trip — sharing is caring. After all, don’t you want others to know about Greater Zion too? Social media is calling. And tag it with #GreaterZion.