Take better photos during your trip

Take better photos during your trip

Start with the shooting list

As photographers, we are interested in one or two different types of photography, such as people, landscapes or food. It's good, it's worth encouraging, and focusing on the same area helps you become an expert in that area. However, as a travel photographer, you need to take pictures that fully reflect a place's characteristics and culture. To be able to tell the audience a full story, it means taking different types of photos, so we have to be versatile.

We've all seen photos taken by other photographers during their travels, though some of them are beautiful or rare. But after a dozen consecutive pictures, it's enough, right? To keep the audience interested, you need a picture that shows all the features of the destination, especially something special.

I once taught a class called "capture the essence of a place." I talked about the importance of following the basic rules of photography, which starts with making a list of shots. A checklist can provide a basic framework for a shoot, helping the photographer to take pictures that truly reflect the inner workings of a place. At the same time, this list of shots will contain many types of shots. I came up with 50 broad categories, including people, landmarks, details, cultural customs, panorama, daily life, fashion and style, history and many other aspects.

Tired of carrying around paper and pens, I use my iPhone's notepad to create lists on my travels. Later I decided to create my own travel photo inventory app for the iPhone and iPod touch (it works on the iPad, too, but it's not currently optimized for the iPad). The app costs only 99 cents, but it's a great tool for organizing and tracking shooting lists, and it can make lists of any destination or subject, as required. In addition, each photographic classification in the application has its own sample sheet and complete description.

Users can use the iPhone or iPod camera and the "my data" feature to take photos directly within the app, as well as add notes for each photo, such as location, best shooting time, equipment recommendations and other content. There is also a 'Challenge Me' feature, activated by shaking the device or pressing the 'Challenge Me' button. This feature adds a new shot type at the top of the current shot list. The goal is to force users out of their habits and remind them to try out new content. This can be used as a test or task for yourself in order to force you to take different types of photos in a day or a week.

As a travel photography lecturer, my main goal is to help anyone with a camera bring back many different kinds of interesting photos on their trip, whether you're travelling around the world or taking a short trip locally. Photographs taken during your travels are the best material you can use to create slides, books, photo albums, and online presentations. We are storytellers, so be sure to use the photos taken to portray a complete story.