Vacation Photography

Vacation Photography

by William Lulow

I have written about this topic before. Here is an update:

When you are a photographer you will probably take pictures no matter where you are or what you are doing. When you are a shoemaker, or an electrical worker or almost any other craftsman, you obviously do not take your tools with you when you go on holiday. Photographers, on the other hand, can always have their tools with them, even when they are on vacation. The question is that making effective images often takes time. And that kind of time is not always available when you are on a vacation. The time and effort required to make top notch images needs to be allocated even when you are on holidays though. You can set aside time apart from other activities, just for taking pictures. You can investigate places and things off the beaten tourist path. You can look for inspiration in smaller details of everyday tourist attractions. When you photograph your own family in front of an attraction, don’t just have them stand there, hands at their sides. Have them interact with each other and also the place they are visiting.

Find different angles of attractions, different vantage points from which to shoot. And different times of day. 

One thing I have done lately is to put my gear in a backpack rather than in one of my larger camera bags. This lets me carry my extra lenses, filters and my portable flash so that it is handy if I need it.

Here is what I can fit in this pack, and it’s not even fully loaded:

So it is pretty well-packed, enough so that I am ready for anything I might want to shoot. I carry one or two bodies, three or four lenses, one portable flash, filters and a cable release for long exposures (which, of course I would need my tripod for). I also carry a special cord that allows me to download images from the camera to a laptop, iPad or my iPhone for editing and posting on the spot.

So, I’m pretty much prepared for any scene that I can imagine as well as some that I can think about and set up for if I should get some extra time. 

Here is a scene from a friend’s balcony:

There are many images like this that you can make if you pay attention to time of day and your location, and have your tools at your disposal.