Taking Vacation Photos: 7 Tips for Great Photos on Family Getaways

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Taking Vacation Photos

 In 2019, 100 million Americans took at least one family vacation. Although last summer put a damper on travel, we’re expecting this summer to be filled with fun! If you’re planning a vacation with your family this year, it’s time to think about the importance of taking vacation photos. Taking tons of great photos on your vacation is a great way to preserve your happy memories for years to come!

We’ve got plenty of tips and tricks to make sure that you’re photo-ready and capture gorgeous shots that are worthy of framing.

Read on for seven tips that will help you take great family photos to capture the joy of your next excursion.

1. Make Room for Plenty of Vacation Photos

First thing’s first: prepare your devices before you hit the road. The last thing you want is to miss a perfect photo opportunity because your storage is full and you have to manually delete photos to make space.

When traveling, you should always give yourself a few photography options. Even if you have a great digital or film camera, you should make room on your devices for more photos. There may be moments when you don’t have your camera on hand, but you’ll almost always have your phone!

2. Stay Charged Up Before Heading Out for the Day

You can’t snap perfect shots if your devices aren’t charged! Make sure that you check the battery life on your camera, phone, and other photo-capturing devices before you head out for the day.

If you’re relying primarily on your phone to take pictures, you may want to invest in a portable charger. Plug your portable charger in at home to make sure it has full battery life. Then, pack it with the rest of your gear each day so you can plug your phone in on the go.

3. Make Sure Your Lens Is Nice and Clean 

Your photos are only as good as the device that captures them. Most phones and iPads are now equipped with practically professional-grade cameras. However, their ability to get a great focus on the shot comes down to how clean the lens is.

To keep your lens clean, you can carry around something as small and light as a microfiber cloth. Buy a pack of glasses lens cleaning cloths and stick one or two in your pocket each day. Then, make sure that your lens is clear of any particles before setting up for the shot.

4. Invest in a Tripod to Get More Than Selfies

When you’re on vacation, you’re going to want to get plenty of shots of the whole family. You don’t want to get home and realize that because you were the vacation photographer, there aren’t any pictures of you!

We live in the age of selfies, but these close-up pictures aren’t always the most frameable. Plus, it can be hard to capture everyone and any surrounding scenery when you’re relying on selfies. Before you leave for your vacation, look online for tripods designed to hold the cellphone model you own–there are tons of options nowadays!

5. Aim for Front Lighting

You may not be a professional photographer, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t master a few tricks that will lead to perfect family photos. One of the most important things to keep in mind when taking vacation photos is lighting.

As often as possible, try to make sure that your camera is facing away from the sun (or other source of lighting) and that you and your family are in that light. When you take back-lit photos, you tend to lose people’s faces to dark shadows.

6. Don’t Forget to Capture Candid Moments

Of course, packing a tripod will allow you to capture tons of full-family, posed pictures. However, you should always try to remember to capture those candid moments, too.

Maybe you notice your kids staring in wonder at the vast ocean. Maybe you look over and discover your siblings laughing heartily at a good joke. These are the moments you will want to remember most, and you should try to snag a shot whenever you can.

And remember: if you’re going for a candid shot, it’s best not to let your subjects know that you’re about to take the picture. When people know that they’re in front of a camera, they tend to want to pose or react to it. If you’re going for a candid photo, you want to capture people as they react naturally to their surroundings, rather than reacting to the camera.

7. Back Up Your Photos–But Print Them, Too

There’s nothing worse than taking tons of great vacation photos only to discover that they’ve gone missing from your device. As soon as you get home from your vacation, you should back up your photos. You can do this by syncing them up with cloud storage, backing them up to an external drive, or uploading them to social media or Google Photos.

Having your photos stored digitally is great, but don’t forget to pick out some of your favorite shots and print them! Whether you want to frame them or put them in a photo album, having printed photos is a great way to look back on happy memories.

Taking Vacation Photos Is the Best Way to Preserve Happy Memories

If you’re getting ready for your next family vacation, it’s time to start thinking about taking vacation photos! With our seven tips, you’re guaranteed to come home with some beautiful pictures that will preserve your happy memories for a lifetime.

Looking for more travel tips to help you prepare for your next destination? Take a look at our travel section to get inspired!