Essential Tips for Starting Out Your Travel Photography

Travel blogging and travel photography go hand in hand together. Your blog post would definitely appear as if bland pasta noodles without the pasta sauce if you are doing not include some awesome photos that you simply took yourself.

All photos in my blog post were all taken by yours truly. My photography skill may be a add progress but I’m on my way!

If you haven’t started thinking about travel photography, here are some tips to get you started.

Invest in a Decent Camera

Buying yourself a good camera is one of the wise investments you need to make to push your budding travel blogging career to the next level.  You will need a decent camera to take awesome photos from your travel. Your smartphone maybe good for selfies and snapshots of your dinner but for instagram and blog-worthy photos, you need to include some awesome landscape shots, complete with sunset or sunrise.

Research which camera is best for your travel style. If you mostly go snorkeling or on adventure travel then a sports camera like a GoPro will be best for you. If you enjoy scenic spots and street scenes then a nice camera with a telephoto lens will be great for you.

Do your research well and weigh your options before buying one. It could be an expensive investment for you but definitely sets your travel photography and your blogging on its way to the next level!

Get a Tripod

A tripod is a great tool for taking landscape photos, night-time photos, or when you need stability. It’s a great companion to take your awesome photos when traveling solo. It can be an additional weight when packing your stuff so plan well what kind of photography you want to do when you reach your destination. If you are wondering what kind of tripod to get, consider the weight and the material of the tripod. Late models of tripods today are made from carbon-fiber material which is lightweight and great for backpacking.

I recently purchased a new tripod which weighs only about 700 grams and made of carbon fiber material and packs compact!

Here’s my post on when you need to set up a tripod and when not to.

Actually Know Your Camera

Whatever camera you plan to use for your travel blogging, either a new camera or taking out your old camera, make sure to get to know its features. Hold it in your hand and feel it. Get comfortable with it. Play with it. Take photos around the house. Know where to put in the battery pack and the memory card. Know how pack it in your camera bag so you’re not struggling with taking your camera out of the bag when you come across an awesome landscape. Know how to put it on your tripod if you have one. Know how to set up your tripod. Know how it works at low light or too much light.

In short get to know your new travel buddy. After all you and your camera will have a long way to go around the world.

Get out of Auto

After playing with the automatic settings on your camera, try to play with manual settings for taking photos. For me, this is a trial and error stage. Good thing you can always delete those ugly photos on your memory card. Shifting to manual settings may be a bit too much for you if you are still struggling with the automatic settings. But manual settings put you in charge of how great your photo should be. If the manual setting is giving you a hard time in taking great photos, you can always go back to automatic settings.

My photo below was taken with a manual setting. This was after practicing for months on combining automatic and manual settings.

Look at How Others are Doing it

Take a look at other travel photography blogs and websites. Follow professional travel photographers on social media. Observe their photos and their composition style. Subscribe to Flickr and Youtube channels on travel photography guides and podcasts. Join forums and ask questions. Ask a lot of questions about photography terms and photography style and why they adopt a certain style in taking their travel photos. You would be surprised at how accommodating these professional photographers are at answering newbie questions. They’re really nice and it’s great to learn from them!

Lastly, practice and more practice

Practice and practice more. I can not stress enough, how practice makes everything perfect or near perfect. In the long run, you will adopt a photography style on your own. The end result? You publish a more awesome post with your own awesome photos!

Ok, gotta go! The golden hour, that moment when sunrise and sunset make everything gold, is upon us here in Singapore, and its a great time to practice!