August 16, 2018
First of all, I am not a photographer. I am only a traveler that loves documenting her journey to inspire you to see this beautiful world. Okay, not really if I am honest. I want to look back at my travel pictures with admiration. Not the way I look at my 2012 travel pictures. I cringe every time I look at these pictures. Everything was off from the lighting, the eyebrows (why do we shave our eyebrows again) and the fashion. Oh the fashion was so terrible that fashion cop bashed me on the newspaper (a story for another day). I’m still salty about that although I’m sure I had never heard of the word fashion back then. Also, tell fashion cop I was on BBC Africa recently. Yeah, they saw something in me behind my terrible fashion sense. HA!
Secondly, I sometimes travel with my better half, who also happens to be a photographer (not bearded). He’s the one that taught me the little I know about photography, and he transmitted the photography skills to me (get your mind off the gutter).
If you follow me on Instagram, you know a few months back, one of the things I was worried about when traveling solo was who would take my photos, but since then, I use the said skills to take pictures that I won’t look at the way I look at my pictures from 2012.
Currently, the attractive and easy ways to take photos nowadays is plaster your rack and heavy bottoms over the internets. Only applies if your body parts THICCCCC and you have an ant waist. Come through tummy teatox! Anyway jokes aside, this is how I try to take stunning travel photos.
P.S, you don’t have to have a DSLR camera to take amazing pictures, a phone, good necessary photography skills and the right editing software will work just fine. I mean, look at the beautifully flawed one on Instagram. This melanin queen takes all her photos with her i-phone and a tripod. Android phones work just fine. It’s all in the technique.
This app is a holy grail for anyone that wants to take stunning photos. Before your trip, use Pinterest's search engine to look for any ideas and then instead of duplicating the exact images that pop up, get creative and take a super stunning photo. Pinterest will have anything you’re looking for like beach poses, night photography, street photography, bikini photography, cute dog photos and so on. Anything you search, Pinterest has it.
I talked about how travelers scout for places here. Let’s face it; some areas are better than others. Use geotags on Instagram to find out the location of a specific image and if it’s near where you are visiting, check it out. It will do you no harm if you inquire from the traveler the exact location the photo was taken.
Borrowed from Pintrest
Natural light the essential element that you cannot forget. If there’s something that boosts stunning photos, it’s natural light. The sun is your best friend as a traveler be it sunrise, sunset, or during midday. Sunlight makes or breaks the image. It is imperative that when shooting an individual, you should position the camera between the subject and the source of light. Otherwise, any other position would result in the shadowy picture. I prefer shooting at sunrise or sunset due to the golden glow of the sun at the time. I avoid midday light because I find the light too harsh!
Shot at sunrise with the natural light facing me.
I find it best to get something interesting near me to serve as the foreground in the picture with the view getting into the background without making the picture look too busy.
It is essential to have a mental frame of how you want your image to look. There is a concept that photographers apply known as the rule of thirds the subject takes n one-third of the picture. When taking pictures of a beautiful view you’ve come across, you will want to capture everything in focus to make the picture interesting.
Editing the pictures you take on a trip is probably one of the more natural things to do after your travels. Thanks to the numerous apps and software such as vsco, snapseed, for, and the Instagram in-app filters. These apps will help you carve out an aesthetic unique to you so that you can make your IG more appealing to the eye. Personally, Adobe Lightroom works for me because of the possibilities it holds and if need be, photoshop.
Of course, there’s more to photography than what I’ve just described. Something you ought to do however is practice every time you’re out on a trip to improve your skills so one day you can take stunning photos like this one.
What do you do when you travel alone? Watch out for another post where I talk about how I documented my travels when solo travelling.
Lastly, do not get too engrossed in the photos you forget to enjoy your vacation. It’s never that serious. Unless you end up on fashion cop. Remember when I said I was salty?
If you would like to get into photography when you travel and have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email, and I will be sure to help.
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