Travel Photography - How to Shoot Like a Pro

Written by: Larry M. Lynch • Edited by: Rhonda Callow
Updated Jan 23, 2009 • Related Guides: Digital Photography Tips

Travel photography is a sought-after, lucrative field that you can enter more easily when you know how, where and what to photograph. Here are five essential kinds of travel photos you must master to be successful.

Digital Travel Photography Assignments

To ensure success with your travel photography assignments, no self-respecting digital shutterbug should leave out digital images and graphics that would enhance a multi-media package. Not only does a range of professional-quality images boost the saleability of your work, but the images themselves can also be re-sold over and over again individually or in packages. If you travel or are living and working abroad, these tips and techniques will most certainly work for you. Here are five required digital image types you must shoot when on a travel photography assignment no matter where you might have to go.

1. Take Panoramas, Overlooks and Vista Views

click to enlarge

Where are you? A panoramic or overall scene is indispensable. Is it a seaport? Is it in the mountains? Is it a valley at the base of a volcano? Find a scenic view of your location and shoot it at a variety of angles. Want a hint of what and where? Check out postcard scenes of the local area for starting ideas. You’ll need to be as creative and original as possible though, so try for a fresh insight or angle of popular views.

2. Capture the Human Interest Element and People

Whether you're in lower Hoboken or Antarctica, don’t fail to get shots of locals working, at play or going about their normal daily life. Find out what's different, unique or unusual, then document it with a broad range of images. Keep a travel photographer’s eye out on their clothes, lifestyle, environment, and local customs which are all good aspects for photo ops while on assignment like this lady buying Chirimoya (a regional fruit) from a street vendor. Be professional and polite: ask for permission to photograph people. So, won't the people I ask say "No"? The vast majority won't, and those few who may turn you down won't be crass about it. Nobody has ever whipped out a revolver and shot at me - although I did have one crabby old French woman at a news stand in Paris hit me over the head with a rolled up newspaper once. For your information, I wasn’t taking her picture then either, but that’s another story.

3. Welcome Signs, Travel and Location Markers

click to enlarge

You’d be surprised at just how often street, road, highway, city and location name signs are overlooked even though they are typically useful and saleable images. You know, like the signs that say, “You’re now in …” or "Welcome to ..." In almost any city or location there may be a number of these kinds of signs - some of them quite interesting, colorful or unique in some way. These kinds of images are also useful for presentations and photo displays. So wherever you might be headed to, or coming from, be sure to look around for signs. You’ll find them as you enter or leave a city, country or territory, on transport terminals, on the sides of buildings, along roads and highways and on commemorative plaques.

On page 2 of this article, we'll look at travel photography tips that will encourage you to get in on the action and up close and personal.

Showing page 1 of 2

12next »