Sean Bagshaw's Top Twelve Totally
Tricky Travel Photography Tips

Photograph during the magic hours for magical photographs. Great photos can come at any time of the day or night, but the key element in any photo is the quality of the light. Lighting is more consistently photogenic during the periods of the day right before and after sunrise and sunset. It takes some special dedication to get up before dawn or head out when everyone else is winding down for the night, but the photographic potential is worth it. Soft, low angle light of the sun right after sunrise and before sunset is much more subtle and luminescent than the harsh light of mid-day. Additionally, the twilight hours before sunrise and after sunset are equally magical, with diffused light seeming to glow from all directions, the sky deepening to a mysterious blue and lights from buildings, street lamps and cars starting to show. Even when the sky is overcast it will show up a deep blue in your pictures when photographed during twilight. Beyond light considerations, mornings are also when cities are quiet with cleaner air and fewer cars and crowds, and often it's the evenings when scenes such as street performances, pubs, parks, celebrations and sporting events come to life. Vibration is not your friend. A tripod and a cable release are essential pieces of equipment for sharp photos. There are times when a tripod isn't helpful, but when shooting with wide depth of field, in low light, with filters or using a long telephoto, a tripod is critical. Anytime the camera moves while the shutter is open you are opening yourself up for a blurry image. Wide depth of field requires small apertures (see #7 below) which reduces the light entering the camera, filters such as polarizers block light, low light scenes have less light to begin with and telephoto lenses exaggerate camera movement. All of these things either force a slower shutter speed or increase the effect of camera movement and can lead to blurry photos. To ensure sharp photos in any light, with any aperture or filter or with any telephoto lens, put the camera on a tripod. To further increase sharpness, use a cable release to trip the camera shutter without even touching the camera. Smaller point and shoot cameras are not compatible with cable releases, but almost all of them have a timer mode that allows for hands-off shutter releasing. Don't have a tripod with you? Set the camera on a table, car hood, wall, fence post, rock or other non-moving object of your choice. Get the lay of the land. One of the joys of travel is that everything is new and different. Sometimes not being familiar with a location can be a big benefit to photography and I allow myself to “go with the flow” and take pictures as I see them. However, you might be surprised at how many seemingly “lucky” photos are actually the result of careful planning. I take many of my best images in places that I am very familiar with because I know where the best angles and vantage points are, what time of day the light is best and when something photo worthy is most likely to happen. To make up for a lack of familiarity with a place I will often spend the first few hours or days scouting and making mental notes of possible photo ops and the best time to come back. I look for interesting view points, framing, leading lines, geometry, juxtapositions, relationships, back drops, intriguing subjects and so forth. Then, instead of just photographing them as I find them, I determine when each location will offer its best face. For cityscapes I plan to come back at twilight. For a colorful wall backdrop I try to determine when the light will hit it at a low angle and people will be walking in front of it. I try to photograph natural landscape scenes at sunrise or sunset. In a market or plaza I schedule a visit during the peak hours of activity. Some dedicated travel photographers even go so far as to arrange a photo. If you have seen pictures of the Taj Mahal with a gorgeous sunset and a camel herder leading his heard right in front of a reflecting pool or a Native American sitting on his horse on the rim of the Grand Canyon below a stormy sky, it is very unlikely that the photographer just happened to get lucky. Rather, he or she knew the elements and conditions that would make a good photograph and then made it happen.

Control depth of field for different artistic effects. Depth of field relates to how much of the image falls within the focal plane. Images that have a sharp focus from the foreground all the way to distant background objects have a wide depth of field, while images in which only a single object, say a person's face or a flower, are in focus while objects in the foreground and/or background are out of focus have a narrow depth of field. Depth of field is controlled by the camera's aperture, the size of the opening at the back of the lens. All but the most basic point and shoot cameras allow the photographer to adjust the size of the aperture opening (refer to your camera's manual) and thereby control the depth of field in the image. Small apertures (openings) have greater depth of field and vice versa. In general, landscapes, architecture and cityscapes benefit from lots of sharp detail that comes with a wide depth of field, while portraits, closeups and single subject images benefit from a narrow depth of field with an artistically blurred background. Make sure to do some experimentation because sometimes it's hard to know what will look best. Even on cameras that don't allow for manual aperture adjustment there are usually shooting modes for portrait and landscape. In these modes the camera automatically adjusts the aperture to create either a greater or lesser depth of field to suit the selected subject matter. Add drama with high and low perspective or a unique point of view. Search out interesting angles and perspectives to give your photos depth, power, interest and a sense of place. For sweeping vistas that give a grand overview look for hill tops, hotel windows, observation platforms or bridges. Scenes that can look chaotic from lower down, like a forest or a street market, often have a coherent pattern or organization when viewed from above. Low angle views can create compositions that enhance a foreground object, create lines that lead the viewer into the image or exaggerate the relative sizes and distances between two objects. Low angle scenes can give gravitas to flowers in a field, small rocks on a lake shore or texture on a tree trunk or cobbled street. Getting low also allows the sky to become more of the background, which can help to simplify your composition. In addition to high and low camera angles, it is fun to experiment with other extreme camera positions. Zoom in on a person's hands, shoot looking out of a street vendor's display, frame your subject in a window, arch or under a bridge, place your friend's face in the extreme foreground with a panoramic vista stretching out behind, but most of all experiment and have fun. You will be surprised what turns out.