Photography
I get a lot of questions about my photography style, cameras and workflow, and I get a lot of emails asking for advice for beginners. I wrote about my camera setup here, and about photography expeditions here and here, but I’ve never done a post before with advice for travel photographers.
First though, a caveat: photography is not my priority when I travel. I like to take photos and capture scenes, but I’m a father first, a traveler second and a photographer third. There are a lot of amazing photographers who cross mountain ranges before sunrise and then spend all day camped out to get bizarrely cool landscape photos. That’s not me. If I’m traveling with my kids I document it, but my first priority is to have a great vacation. And even if I’m not with my kids, I would rather be moving around and seeing a broader area than spending all day waiting for a perfect shot. I hate tripods. I use flash maybe once a year. I travel light.
But I still get really good photos from every trip, I’ve won some pretty cool awards including Conde Nast Traveler’s Photo of the Year, and I’ve built up a healthy following on Instagram, so I feel like like I’ve found a good balance between enjoying travel and capturing it. How do I do it?
I Travel a Lot
I visited 24 countries last year, including some really photogenic places like Sri Lanka, China, Oman, Iceland and Kenya. India is by far my favorite place to photograph – people are happy to have their photos taken, the colors are incredible, and there are cool/unique sites everywhere. Of course there are scenes to be captured no matter where you are in the world, but your odds of capturing amazing travel photos improve if you go somewhere that’s amazing to photograph.
I Shoot in the Best Light
Photography is all about light, and specifically early morning and late afternoon light. Very rarely are you going to get a great photo at 1:00pm in bright sunlight. I always try to walk around before sunrise and capture a city waking up. Italy is my favorite place to do that – it’s so much easier to appreciate the art, history and architecture of the cities when there aren’t other tourists around.
I Include People
If photography is all about light, travel is all about people. I’ve mentioned this before on my Instagram posts, but I appreciate photography far more when it includes people. If my kids are with me I let them walk ahead and I capture that scene. They hate to pose anyway. If there is an amazing site, I figure out a way to include a person in there, whether it’s me, a family member or a random local. I have some early-morning photos of the Taj Mahal without anyone else in them – a rarity – but my favorite photo includes a lone caretaker. At the Great Wall of China last year with my cousin and his wife, there was no one around so we purchased a traditional outfit and umbrella for his wife at the gift store and used her as our model. The Great Wall is incredibly cool, but it’s boring photographically without someone there.
And I’m always willing to ask people to be in my photos. In Oman I asked our guide Malik to pose often. In India I frequently ask people if I can take their photos.
I Look for Color and Patterns
Unless a photo is capturing an amazing moment in time, it needs something else to make it stand out. Is there a pop of color somewhere, or can I add one? Is there a repeating pattern that adds an interesting element? Always be on the lookout for a colorful and/or patterned scene, and then wait for something to happen in front of it.
I Stop at Every Puddle and Look for Reflections
Look for unique ways to capture scenes. If there’s a puddle, I assume that there’s a reflection and I’ll go down low to see if there’s a possible photo there. If there’s a window, I look at what’s reflected in it. If there’s a tunnel or an archway, I use it as a frame.
I Let the Kids Be Kids
I rarely pose my kids – although I may ask them to linger at a particularly perfect overlook while I take a few extra photos. I typically just let them play, or run, or read, or take breaks, and try to capture them naturally.
I Shoot in RAW
Most cameras have options to shoot in JPG or RAW. Always choose RAW. That way your camera is capturing a lot more data about the scene, and it makes it easier to improve your photos on the computer.
I Process Everything in Adobe Lightroom
The camera is never going to be as good as the human eye – it simply can’t see all of the stops of light that you can, and it usually has to make compromises when capturing a scene. In Lightroom I quickly adjust every photo so that it looks more like the scene actually appeared in real life. My average processing time is 20 seconds. I usually take down the highlights, take up the shadows, reduce exposure a little, increase contrast, slide vibrance up a little and adjust for the camera lens I used. There are absolute masters in Lightroom who spend 10 or 20 minutes on each photo. That’s awesome, but it’s not me – I would rather be out shooting than sitting in front of my computer.
I’ve purposely crafted this post to be about what I do, since it’s not my place to tell you how or what to shoot. Craft your own style, or copy mine – I’m not proprietary! And I haven’t discussed camera settings because I don’t pay much attention to the settings. The scene and the light are far more important than what you shoot with or what your settings are. I shoot in P (Program) mode the vast majority of the time and choose an ISO that lets me capture photos without blur – anything that gives me a speed over 1/125 or so. Of course you want to understand what the dials and buttons on your camera are for, since you may want an extended exposure to capture stars or an aperture that brings everything into focus – or conversely one that blurs the background. But I usually trust the camera to make good decisions and I put all of my focus (no pun intended) on framing the scene or waiting for the perfect moment…as long as it doesn’t take too long to happen. Otherwise I’ll move on after a couple minutes and look for the next scene with potential.
Am I missing anything? Feel free to post questions, or add your best travel photography tips below.
Pin This!
Thank you for the insights!
Love these tips Eric, especially about adding the human element! I always shoot in Aperture Priority when I travel…or am trying to capture the kids. I’m not quick enough to work out the shutter and miss shots but love being able to get the focal point just as I want it.
Thanks Kirsty! Aperture priority is a great/easy default too. I think I started shooting in Program for the exact reason you mention – not missing shots. With kids, especially young kids, if you stop to check a camera setting you may miss a really fun moment. I keep my DSLR set to Program and an ISO of maybe 800. That’s good enough to be able to grab the camera and capture most things very quickly, unless it’s low light in which case it’s just a quick increase of the ISO. So early on I chose capturing moments over creative control, and just kind of kept going with it.
Great tips! It’s nice to find someone who approaches travel photography and editing in a similar manner.
Thank you so much for sharing! Especially since you could have kept all your best secrets to yourself! I am saving this to refer to as I continue to take photos while we travel. I have a lot to learn! Your pictures are inspiring and I love that your travel priorities are father first, traveler second, photographer third.
Grateful
Thanks Tanya! Secrets are overrated! Much more fun to pass along what I’ve learned over the years…
This is such a useful and amazing post Eric, I really adore your photos and especially your “people in them” mantra. Your shots tell a story, one that keeps me listening with rapture. Thank you for being so generous with your advice!
Thank you so much for this very helpful and useful information. I’m always looking for ways to improve my photos. I only have an iPhone so can’t fiddle with settings anyway, and I’m also not into overly processed photos, but a lot of these tips work for camera phone users too. Wonderful photos – have started following you on IG. 🙂
Thanks Linda! Yes, this is applicable for iPhone photos too. And depending on what iPhone you have, several of the newer models can shoot in RAW too. I agree on over-processed photos – there’s a line of what looks real and what looks fake, and a lot of people cross right over that line.
Great tips! I just moved my camera settings to RAW. Going to play around with it today when I’m up in Boulder.
I regret not switching to RAW sooner. Originally I chose JPG because memory cards were expensive. Now that they’re so cheap, there’s no reason not to capture the additional data.
Thank you for sharing your tips! I think you have a great photographic eye so that makes many of your photos incredible. I do love the light at the end of the day. I’m not a morning person but think I need to get up to shoot then too.
Really helpful post!! Your photos are incredible and I especially like the tip about waiting for people to come into shot, it really adds something extra to the picture 🙂
Thank you for sharing these tips, Eric. Every photograph is unique, especially that Rajasthan man with the turban. As a beginner, I am learning about line pattern and rule of thirds in photography. Really helpful for the beginners like me. 🙂
Very helpful tips, thank you! I will test drive shooting in RAW at a local Hot Air Balloon festival next week before an upcoming trip to Scotland.
Interesting article and pictures!
It’s really interesting to read different opinions about travelling and how to photograph during your trips.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Best regards
Lukas
The second and third hyperlinked “here” out of this paragraph aren’t working… or is it because I’m using my phone?
“I wrote about my camera setup here, and about photography expeditions here and here, but I’ve never done a post before with advice for travel photographers.”
Thanks! No idea what was going on or if others were having issues, but I just redid the links.
Hi, Eric, Thank you for sharing so much information. I hope I am not asking a redundant question but I wonder how you manage your time. We have two 2 1/2 year olds. I try to strictly limit my time on the phone or computer when I am with them. I wanted to start a blog originally to give resources to people who were considering fertility help in other countries (based on our experiences) since the US can be too expensive for the average American (I then wanted to transition to a family travel blog—non-luxury). I’m finding that Instagram alone takes a great deal of time. Is this something that is just easier as your children get older and are more independent or do you frame it for your children as “daddy is going to work,” and set several hours a day as work time?
My kids are in a normal school, so every week is basically a normal work week. If we’re somewhere for a 1-5 week trip I’ll photograph during the trip of course – at least enough so that I know I’ve documented every element – but I’ll usually edit/process photos on plane flights and then write blog posts when I get back home. I’d far rather be enjoying a destination, and my family, than sitting at a laptop. And if we’re somewhere like Greece and it’s hot and we have two hours of downtime every day after lunch, I’ll use that time to keep up with email and maybe do enough photo processing so that I can post something to Instagram. With 2 1/2 year olds, your life is more complicated since they’re not at school all day every day yet. I wasn’t travel writing when my kids were that young so I don’t have amazing advice for you! Just do what feels right.
Thank you for the great tips! I love all your photos. Knowing that you don’t take hours setting up or editing gives me hope. I wish I had come across your blog before we went on our 3 week trip to Europe 😌 I’ll have to practice on our trip to Montana tomorrow.
I love that you were really clear about the importance of asking locals if you can take their photo. So many folks seem to think it’s their right to photograph local people everywhere without asking (when you can see their face and it’s identifiable) and it’s not cool.
Really good comments and advice. Some are slightly less applicable to me since I focus on nature without people but the general advice and honesty about processing images and importance of light and the multitude of different cameras is important for readers to know. You’re not shooting casual snapshots! But you’re right about relative importance of time on a vacation – do you want to enjoy your trip or dedicate solely to photography. Enjoyment needs to come first, but all photographers also want to capture the moment. Needless to say, I assume you don’t have a “day job”!