Top 10 Lessons – Travel Photography

My photography would be a lot farther along if I didn’t have to repeat mistakes over and over. The benefit of the Internet is that you have a huge built-in audience of critics (think Instagram, 500px, the Northrup’s Facebook page, or DPReview contests). You get the opportunity for almost instantaneous feedback. That having been said, I still make what I think are rookie mistakes. This blog post is a summary of travel photo mistakes I’ve made (many of which in the not-too-distant past).

  1. You won’t want to bring it all: for a recent 10-day trip, I bought a new backpack (my older LowePro 200 AW didn’t have a large enough compartment for a full-frame DSLR, multiple lenses, and other kit). The new bag ended up large enough that I was able to bring an enormous Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 zoom with me (which regrettably I’ve since sold – and am now looking to buy back), a 28-85 zoom, and of all things, a fish eye lens (which I used exactly once, at the Eiffel Tower). If you take all this kit, your bag will weigh 20 pounds. If your bag weighs 20 pounds and you walk 75 miles in 10 days, your back will be sore. Every day. Don’t.
  2. Travel light: my experience in Europe convinced me to move to a smaller format camera for my next travel trip. After a lot of consideration (including whether to buy additional lenses for my Nikon J5), I chose the micro four thirds format. I recently purchased a used Olympus OM-D EM10 Mark II, which is a 16 mp camera that spills over in your hand. To this, I intend to add the M.Zuiko 12-40 f/2.8 Pro zoom (not necessarily the Mark II, either), and possibly a few primes. One a recent business trip to Tampa, I took my Olympus out for an evening and was very pleased with the output.
  3. Not only is light better, but small is good. Even the smaller LowePro Flipside Trek 250 AW (only the second largest in their lineup) is still a big bag. Expect to be jostled a lot in heavily-trafficked areas. Also expect that, if your pack has room, you will be unable to resist the urge to fill it.
  4. Wide angle lenses are not (necessarily) your friend: the main reason I bought the Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 was to be able to “pull in” large buildings, close up, in low light. That’s not good planning, that’s just laziness. I was sorely disappointed looking at the photos I made of Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and St. Peter’s Basilica. Using a wide angle lens close up distorts perspective. Buildings which rise several stories end up looking diagonal instead of square, when shot from 20 feet back at 16mm. My 24-85mm zoom would have been more than enough—it would have forced me to take a step back when I could, to set up panoramas, or to focus on details. I doubt I’ll ever return to London to shoot the Tower of London again, yet I’ve got a pile of photos which will never sell as travel stock, because of the distortion. A 16mm lens is fantastic at capturing landscapes, and even cityscapes where you can control the elevation of the camera vs the subject, but it has no business being on a camera if you’re not paying attention to its photographic effect.
  5. Two batteries is a minimum: only once did I drain a battery mid-day, but every day we went out, I was at ease knowing I wouldn’t run out of power. For a full-frame DSLR, a two-battery combination should be quite enough to keep you going all day long. Note that mirrorless cameras use notoriously more power, due to the dependence on digital screens, so three or more might be better.
  6. Don’t leave the polarizing filter at home. Polarizing filters have a world of benefits, from the obvious (polarizing sunlight to reduce reflection and accentuate blue sky) to the less obvious. With a polarizing filter, I might have had a chance at blurring motion on fountains in the Palace of Versailles during our mid-afternoon tour. Sure a six-stop ND filter would have been a guaranteed success, but the polarizer with a high f-stop would also get me there. Leave the herd of lenses at home, but pack a polarizing filter. If you have lenses of different sizes, save a little weight by bringing reducing rings so you can use the “largest common denominator” on all your lenses (the filter which matches the diameter of your largest lens).
  7. Get up early, shoot early. Most trip-worthy tourist destinations are, well, overrun by tourists. We saw well over 1000 people in line for the Vatican tour. In the pouring rain. Undeterred. No photo made during the day didn’t have multiple people in it, unless I specifically framed it to be that way. Framing a photo to be sans-human often meant sacrificing a ground-level object, too. My best shots came the morning I left my hotel at 4 am—not coincidentally, it was also my quietest and most enjoyable photography experience.
  8. Rain can make for interesting shots, but rain sucks. You had better be prepared, and never forget to wipe your lens before making a shot (let alone an entire sequences of sunset shots of the Eiffel Tower from under the Bir-Hakeem bridge).
  9. Don’t bring too much gear, for logistical reasons. Cameras and camera gear on a trip are like puppies at home. They need constant attention. You’ll often take them off for security screening, clutch them close when in a crowd, and switch your hold on them based on your surroundings. You will have to take your back or pack off to open it up in security. You’ll worry about your kit while sitting on a bus or sitting down for a quick bite at a café. Navigating thick crowds with your camera is embarrassingly difficult, and you’ll need to learn the phrase for “I’m sorry” in every language spoken along your path.
  10. Put the camera down, especially if you’re with a loved one. You planned this trip together, and it better not end up a travel photography scavenger hunt. The last thing you want is to get home and think “Wait, did I really do the entire trip? Why don’t I remember it?” At one point, I got sick and lost an entire night’s sleep. During the day, my wife mentioned that she knew I was sick because I didn’t have my camera out and wasn’t being annoying. That was toward the end of my trip, which means I missed several days with her! Make a place and a time to shoot – I recommend going out at sunrise (see above) and getting your shot list taken care of. Return later with your travel buddy, and take photos with them, instead of photos of attractions that are filled with tourists. You likely paid a lot for your trip, so get the most out of it. Unless you’re a dedicated, full-time photographer, and no matter which stock photos you make or photo contests you place in, you are highly unlikely to cover the cost of the trip.
  11. And a bonus tip – don’t just make a bunch of photos, do something with them! We have a nook in our home with a series of photo shelves, and we print a few photos now and again and display them here. Make a travel blog. Share them with someone who otherwise wouldn’t be able to go there. Even if they aren’t award-winning artwork, photographs evoke emotion and memory. Dig them out every now and again and actually look at them, reflect back on your tip, and let yourself feel grateful for the experience.