How to Take Travel Photos – Part 2

The trouble with travel photography isn’t usually a shortage of photographs. If anything, we return from holidays with far too many. Our phones contain dozens of nearly identical sunsets, hundreds of scenic views and enough pictures of famous landmarks to reconstruct the itinerary without consulting a diary.

Yet years later, it isn’t necessarily the most impressive photograph which brings a holiday back to life. It might be a picture of the colourful currency you used, a slightly blurry photograph taken from a train window or the café you went to for breakfast every morning. The photographs we treasure most often have less to do with technical perfection and more to do with the memories they bring back.

Photograph the ordinary

When we’re somewhere new, we naturally photograph the things which make the destination special. Alongside the famous sights, make a point of photographing the ordinary details you might otherwise forget. A street sign, an unusual bus, a colourful market stall or the view from your hotel window can tell you something about a place long after its more obvious attractions have faded in your memory. Even something as simple as a handful of unfamiliar coins or notes can become a useful reminder of a trip years later.

Photograph the moment before the landmark

The famous attraction is rarely the whole story. Photograph the walk towards it, the street surrounding it, the café where you stopped beforehand or the people gathering to see it. If you’re travelling with someone, photograph their reaction when they first see the view rather than concentrating exclusively on the view itself.

These photographs provide context. A picture of a spectacular cathedral tells you what you saw; a picture of your companion looking up at it, surrounded by the busy street and buildings around it, tells you something about being there. When you look through the photographs later, the second image may bring back considerably more of the experience.

Don’t wait for everyone to look at the camera

We have become accustomed to the traditional group photograph: everyone together, everyone smiling, nobody blinking. Keep a few of those, of course, but don’t make every photograph a formal portrait. Some of the most evocative pictures of family and friends happen when nobody is posing.

Photograph someone reading a menu, navigating a map, watching a sunset, laughing over dinner or walking ahead of you. When people aren’t concentrating on the camera, their expressions and gestures tend to be more natural. Years later, these photographs can feel like glimpses into the holiday rather than official records of who was present.

Take a few photographs which explain where you are

A collection of beautiful photographs can still become surprisingly confusing after a few years. Was this the village in Spain or the one in Portugal? Was the photograph taken before or after the road trip? A few simple establishing shots can solve the problem.

Photograph the town sign, a distinctive building, a street name or a recognisable feature of the landscape. You don’t need to make these photographs particularly artistic. Their job is to provide context, much like a chapter heading in a book. They become especially useful when you’re looking through hundreds of holiday photographs later and your memory isn’t quite as precise as it once was.

Build a story rather than a collection of postcards

Think about your photographs as a visual record of the journey. Alongside landscapes, include people, food, accommodation, architecture, journeys and small details. Photograph the view from the hotel room, the road ahead, the ferry crossing, the meal you particularly enjoyed and the odd little things which made the destination distinctive.

A collection made entirely of beautiful scenery may look impressive, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you much about the holiday itself. A mixture of photographs gives the trip a beginning, middle and end, with enough everyday detail to remind you what it was actually like to be there.

Take fewer photographs, but look for better moments

Digital photography removed the cost of taking a photograph, which is both wonderful and slightly dangerous. When every photograph is free, it is easy to take twenty versions of the same thing and assume we’ll sort them out later. Usually, we don’t.

Instead, pause before taking the photograph. Ask yourself what attracted you to the scene and whether you can capture it in a more meaningful way. Wait for someone to walk through the frame, move closer, change your angle, wait for a car to move, or simply allow a moment to unfold. You don’t need fewer memories; you need fewer duplicates.

Don’t spend the holiday behind the camera

Perhaps the most useful travel photography tip is also the simplest: remember to put the camera away. There’s a temptation to document every view, meal and moment when a phone is always within reach, but a holiday experienced entirely through a screen isn’t much of a holiday.

Take the photograph you want, then look at the view without a camera between you and it. Notice the sound of the place, the weather, the people around you and the details which don’t fit neatly into a photograph. You can take plenty of pictures without trying to photograph everything.

The photographs you’ll want to keep aren’t necessarily the ones which look most impressive on the day. They are the ones which contain something you might otherwise forget: a particular person, a funny moment, a strange sign, a favourite meal, an unfamiliar banknote or the view from a window on a long journey. Take the postcard photographs too, by all means. Just leave room in your camera roll for the little pieces of the holiday which make it yours.