Electronic Travel Diary

It used to be, that when you came home from a holiday, friends and relatives had to brace themselves for an onslaught of photos, slides, movies and anecdotes. Depending on who was doing the story telling and behind the lens, the post-trip ‘slideshow’ could either be a rollicking good time or exquisite torture.

The advent of social media means that you can keep family and friends in contact during your trip and let them know where you are in real time.

Smartphones, tablets and digital cameras do a lot of the work for you in terms of making your photos look good. Make sure you frame them up well, and remember it is always more interesting to look at photos with people in them.

When you are taking photos; try and look for a new perspective. Seek out interesting lighting and usual backgrounds. The beauty of digital photography is that you can take lots of shots and select the best afterwards. Even if you are delighted with your pedicure, or your latte art, try and limit the cliched shots of your feet in the sand or cups of coffee – Facebook and Instagram are choked with them!

Use your social media pages to keep a digital diary of your travels – it will stay in cyberspace rather than getting lost in a bookshelf. Make your posts regular and informative – if you are in unusual spots, try and add a fact to two – it will make it far more interesting for your readers.

Really great social media posts are often shared widely – you never know – you may find yourself a wee bit famous! It is good manners to check with anyone you ‘tag’ in photos to make sure they are happy to be included and if you are taking photos of people you come across in your travels (particularly children) seek consent.

Remember who you are posting to – again, your posts can be shared widely. Potential employers often check social media for additional information about a person – so if you have a big night that ends in odd costumes (or a lack of them!), you may like to share those only with specific trusted friends.

Cameras, smartphones and tablets can be targets for burglars and don’t usually combine well with water or strong impact. Back up your photographs and information to a ‘cloud’ or external hard drive regularly in case the worst comes to the worst. Make sure you are covered before you go on holiday, so that you are able to replace any equipment that is damaged or stolen.