take better vacation pictures!

summer is here & that means family roadtrips and vacations are upon us.

here are some simple tips i have found to take better vacation pictures

1.  keep your iso low and your shutter speed high. this is most applicable when shooting outside and action. 

this photo was taken at 200 iso, with a 70-200mm lens, f 4.0, and the shutter speed was 1/1600 of a second

 

2. look before you shoot, check your background

nothing is worse than taking a great photo only to notice later that a pole in the distance is coming out of the person’s head. moving your subjects a little to the left or a little to the right can keep the focus on them and avoid distracting objects in the background.

first attempt – not so great photo because of the car…better second attempt – no more car

3.  gain a different perspective.

don’t shoot down on children, get at their level and see things the way they see them.

i like to challenge myself while taking pictures on vacation to look at things in a different way. notice patterns, shoot details, shoot the big picture.

4.  keep a vacation journal.

i take a lot of photos on vacation. thousands. then when i come back, its all a blur. i did what on which day? where was this taken? when i have down time, riding int he car, waiting on something, etc. i try to keep a little notebook full of what we did each day, something funny that was said, that could be later added to the photos when i scrapbook them.

(please note that i dont claim to know everything about photography or taking vacation photos, these are just some things i thought i could share)