Travel Photography

Let’s start with planning your trip. Dwight G. Eisenhower penned the famous quote, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” There are a lot of things to consider when you are actually going to get a passport to travel to other exotic places to do travel photography.

Research the sunset, sunrise, and the “blue” hour and sun position. How do you do this. There are many great apps out there that will tell you this but the main ones that I like and use is the Photographers Ephemeris ($4.99) and Photo-pills ($9.99). Both work great and are easy to use and learn so that you can be in the best position to capture the sunrise or sunset with an iconic feature or landscape to really make your picture “pop.”

What should you wear? Being in different places will all have different climates. You can get acclimated within days but when you get out in the field and it looks like a beautiful morning and once you get outside it’s an actual brisk 50 degrees. So make sure you always bring (not an over-abundance) heavy clothes and clothes that are light for when you are in the desert and it’s a scorching heat of 110 degrees. The best way to pack for these kind of trips, roll your clothes into tight rolls and secure them with rubber bands. That way you can have room for not just your clothes but for some of your camera gear as well.

Always have at least two portable hard drives. There’s a saying in the tech world, “if it isn’t in three places then it doesn’t exist.” Always have an over-abundance of memory cards there cheap and affordable. If your camera has two memory card readers store all your photos on one and shoot with the other 'til you can get back to your hotel room and back them up on your laptop and on an external thumb drive.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”— Mark Twain

It’s a good thing that most lenses have AF. But did you know that when you switch off auto-focus to manual-focus you will get sharper, clearer pictures. You have steady hands? You could. But even with today’s technology and the stabilization axis’s in cameras there is still the slight tremor or shake that can throw off the image quality ever so slightly and you won’t have the best picture quality. Always (even if you have the most steady of hands) have a good tripod. Tripods are a must in keeping your camera focused in on a wide angle when there is multiple animals in your shot and it is trying to focus on the AI eye recognition of the one animal that your shooting.

Apertures of f/8 to f/16 are the best to keep your apertures set on to have the best sharpness and picture quality and your pictures will have less digital noise. When using a tripod turn off your lens stabilization, it can cause micro-tremors in the lens, especially when there is nothing to stabilize. Use your camera’s two second timer when shooting. It will give your camera a chance to stop vibrating from picture to picture.

The early bird gets the photo. You want to get there early so that way when you want to shoot a popular iconic place it isn’t flooded with people crowding the shot that you're looking for. Be aware of local laws and customs and that you have permission to take photos. Knowing your rights is helpful if you get stopped by the police. If you can foresee that you may get stopped for where you want to go, it would be a good thing to always ask permission a couple days in advance.

*Practice, always keep learning always keep shooting. When all else fails use Youtube. Youtube has a plethora of videos to learn from.

*Patience, not every shot is going to be amazing. With every failure comes a success. Only show people your best.

*Persistence, don’t give up. You can’t take award winning pictures sitting on your couch and hoping that you're going to be the best photographer.

*Photoshop, shooting a great picture is just the beginning. Knowing how to bring it to life in post production is another story. Today’s technology is always changing the way we can bring things to life. Always stay on top of all the latest news and updates to software and how to master this craft.

Lastly, breathe.

Learn how to be just in the moment, without your camera. Learn to take in the beauty of everything through your eyes and not through your lens. Not every picture needs to be shared.