We may earn a commission when you purchase through affiliate links. Learn more.
1. Don’t load yourself down with gear
Unless you’re a professional travel photographer on assignment, you probably don’t need to bring every bit of camera gear you own on vacation. If you’re using a mirrorless camera like the Sony A7 II or Fuji X-T10, or a DSLR camera like the Canon T6i or Nikon D3400, pick one or two of your most used lenses to bring on your trip.
It might seem like bringing lots of equipment would be useful to help prepare for any possibility, but it often has the opposite effect, making your bag bigger and heavier which makes it more difficult to explore on your trip. For the casual traveler on vacation, and even for many pros, smaller cameras like the Ricoh GR II, Sony RX100 V, and Panasonic LUMIX ZS100 make travel photography on-the-go much easier. These smaller advanced compacts are lightweight, don’t attract as much attention as a bigger camera, and provide outstanding image quality.
2. Don’t wait to learn how your camera works
A lot of people buy a new camera right before going on vacation, hoping they’ll figure everything out before they find themselves exploring their destination. Unfortunately, this all too often leads to vacation photos that are out of focus, blurry, and overexposed.
Take a little time to get to understand how your camera works and also how the basics of photography in general work. You can read about the essentials in our photography course section and you’ll find a lot of useful photography information in books like Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.
3. Take the tourist shots, but then explore…
Everyone has to get those iconic vacation photography tourist shots like that famous view of Paris, watched over by the stoic gargoyles of Notre-Dame Cathedral. It’s just something every traveler has to do, but once you get these gotta-have vacation shots, pick up a good guidebook and venture off into some of the less touristy areas in search of unique photography opportunities that aren’t as heavily trafficked.
4. Variety is one of the keys to great travel photos
If you’ve traveled anywhere, chances are that you’ve seen plenty of tourists going through the vacation photo routine — they see something interesting across the street, they raise the camera to their eye, and they take a shot. If you want to come back from your trip with interesting photos, you’ll want to mix some variety in there. Instead of always shooting horizontal shots from eye-level, try other vantage points and don’t be afraid to rotate your camera and try shooting some portrait oriented vertical shots too — sometimes they just work better for some scenes and subjects!
5. Always be on the lookout for less obvious photography subjects
When you get back from vacation, it’s pretty common to think about all those photos you wish you had taken. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in the excitement of experiencing a new place and pulling out a camera may not always be your first instinct, but try to be mindful of photo opportunities both big and small. That cute corner cafe you had lunch? That little open air market? The crowds of people walking along? These kind of experiences might not always stick out as photography opportunities at the time, but if you pull out your camera you’ll find that they make for really interesting shots and help show a bit of the local flavor that makes every vacation destination special.