5 Tips for Taking Great Photos When You Travel

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Taking great photos when you travel is a must. Here are 5 ways to improve your photography skills.

One of my favorite people in the world to travel with is my husband.

He is a great partner in crime for the trips we take – whether we are on location for a brand or we are taking a spontaneous trip to the beach.

One of the reasons that I love traveling with him so much is because he has opened my eyes to taking great photos in a way that I never dreamed about before.

Over the course of the last two years when we started traveling more together, he has taught me a thing or two about taking great photos, so today, I thought I would share with you 5 of those tips that have taken my photography from good to great.

5 Tips for Taking Great Photos When You Travel

#1 See the Beauty in Everything

Before I started letting him take photos for me (because let's face it – he is so much better at it than I am), I would wait and wait and wait for a great shot.

He started showing me that there is beauty in everything – the way the sun sets on the side of a house, the way the moss grows on a rock, the way a shadow splays itself across the grass as you are walking away. This is the wall at the Shaker Village where we stayed.

He has helped me to see that waiting sometimes for the perfect shot causes you to miss out on some great shots before the perfect moment, so learn to see the beauty in everything.

#2 Don't Be Afraid to Get Down on the Ground

Now, this tip is from my daughter. She is 18 and an artist. Her eye for beauty is amazing. Sheis forever taking my camera from me and getting down on the ground, laying on her stomach to get the perfect shot.

She has taught me that what I see from up above has a whole new meaning and angle when I choose to get down low and look at from the ground up.

#3 Take Lots of Photos

I am known to take maybe one or two shots of something, but not my husband or my daughter. They will take a gazillion photos of ONE thing before they are satisfied.

I never understood that until my husband showed me that sometimes you can catch one tiny thing in one photo that wasn't there before – making it one of the best shots you have ever taken.

Learning to just keep shooting regardless of how many shots has really helped me to move forward and up my professional photo game.

#4 Never Leave Home Without the Camera

There have been SO many times that as we are driving to a travel destination that I find myself hating that I left my camera at home.

I tell myself, oh I will just use my camera phone (which takes amazing photos by the way) – but it is just not MY camera.

I have learned that no matter where I am going that day – to a new location, out to the park to meet a friend, or even just to the grocery store – I always take my camera with me because I never know when the perfect sunrise or sunset will hit the sky.

#5 Point and Shoots are Okay but Everyone Needs a Great Camera

My first camera was a point and shoot. I thought it was the best camera ever – until I took photos with a better camera and from that moment, I knew if I ever wanted to take amazing photos – like magazine worthy – I needed to invest in a camera worthy of the photography i was wanting to take.

Since that day, I have never looked back and have bought extra lenses, a new camera bag, and lots of accessories that have not only helped me take better pictures, but have also helped me land some amazing sponsored trips to places like the beach and to places like Austin, TX.

Austin is definitely a city I would love to visit again. There are so many different photo opportunities that await! From food tours, beautiful Texan landscape – and my favorite – the tall buildings. Everything about this city calls for me to visit again and take photo after photo after photo.

The possibilities are endless– so if you are in the market to buy a new camera– this is the time to do it! 

Bonus Tip

Sometimes, even if you follow all the tips, your photos still turn out mediocre.

And often it’s not really your fault: a passer-by ruins your composition, perfect lighting vanishes because of the clouds, your camera accidentally blurs a crispy shot… In all these cases, you will have to fix the flaws while processing photos in image editing software.

Apart from well-known Photoshop and Lightroom, there are new gamers in town, that provide all the essential tools at a lesser cost.

For example, PhotoWorks. It’s an easy-to-use photo editor with an AI-powered toolkit. Smart brains analyze your pictures and enhance them automatically.

You can adjust color balance, improve composition, get rid of unwanted objects, fix distortions, and replace backgrounds in just a few clicks. The software offers a free trial version you can check out on the official website.