Hi and welcome to Episode 84 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start
Here is the answery bit
My 10 not-so-obvious bonus travel photography tips are these
- Plan what you want to photograph
- Know where the sun is all day
- Get up early – and stay out after sunrise
- Walk around a lot
- Record video walkthroughs on your phone
- Get a mini tripod
- Ditch a load of gear and travel light
- Photograph stuff you don’t normally photograph
- Experiment with your camera
- Just get out and have fun
OK – this list is based on my returning from a wonderful 2 weeks on the Greek Island of Paxos with Mrs M.
Let me talk about each of them quickly.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
1 Plan what you want to photograph
I am the world’s worst when it comes to doing this, so I am telling myself here and not you. To be fair I have had some great success with my specialist technique that I will get onto, but wonder if I might have fared better with some planning.
And on our last trip no need to plan as I know Paxos very, very well.
2 Know where the sun is all day
This is really important. With travel photography, you might only get one shot at that sunrise or sunset, or you might be going somewhere that you might never get back to so knowing where your free, natural light source is is important.
Check out episode 70 where I talk about the apps that I use.
3 Get up early – and stay out after sunrise
Getting up for sunrise is one thing, but after you have got that sensational sunrise shot don’t leave, stay a while. After the sun has risen there is some wonderful bright, warm, early morning directional light that you can use to great effect.
4 Walk around a lot
This is my specialism. I walk around. A lot. This can be anywhere, an iconic location or just parking up and going exploring. I have found all sorts of wonderful sites doing this.
But take care when you are doing this – dress appropriately, hide valuables and be aware of what is going on around you.
5 Record video walkthroughs on your phone
This is something that I have started doing. I get to a location and do a video walkthrough. I even give a commentary whilst I am doing this. To do the commentary you need to know what you are filming pretty well though.
I have just done this for the three main towns in Paxos and will be uploading these onto the website later.
6 Get a mini tripod
I did not take an actual tripod on my last trip. I don’t know where we are going wrong but we just do not have the luggage capacity for all my stuff, and my tripod was ditched at the last minute and replaced with, wait for it, my Joby Gorillapod.
And do you know what – it was fine with my micro four thirds Olympus camera?
7 Ditch a load of gear and travel light
Necessity made me do this. I have no idea why as we are quite careful packing, and do not bring back that much stuff that we did not use. Well, all I had was two pairs of socks and a pair of shorts that I did not use.
Is it just us or do you have the same problem? 23kgs is just not enough for 2 weeks.
Let me know – I am intrigued.
8 Photograph stuff you don’t normally photograph
I photograph buildings. This is what I do. And when I travel I photograph locations and nice stuff. But I do want to broaden out a bit more, I keep telling myself that I should give street photography a go but never do. And if you don’t know what street photography is check out episode 39 cunningly titled, erm, What Is Street Photography?
9 Experiment with your camera
I am talking here about different modes, settings, techniques, and focal lengths. Think about what you do all the time and do something else. Play around with exposure, focus points, and angles.
Just try stuff.
Did I do that?
No, I did not….
10 Just get out and have fun
I did this. I actually love getting out and about with my camera, it forces me to explore and find new places which I would never have found had I not been out and about wandering with my camera.
What do I do?
Well, this is what I did, and did not do – let’s move on….
The talky bit
Yes, this list was inspired by our most recent visit to wonderful Paxos, the island I love so much that I created a website all about it.
And yes wandering about really is a top tip. It has got me some great photos of iconic locations such as Santorini that I have not seen before, which to me is job done.
For me, travel photography is all about exploring and enjoying the place that I am in.
And I am talking here about actual travel photography, where you travel somewhere and take photos. I know, I know, I said that travel photography can be done at home but you know what I mean.
And as for ditching some gear, this is how the process goes. I pack what I want to take and put it in my camera bag. Then I pack the stuff that I am going to put in my suitcase. And then Mrs M and I combine our packing and I take the heaviest bit of stuff first until we are within our allowance.
And bless her she did say the other week that she would take out clothes and toiletries so I could take my tripod but I did say no and went with the Gorillapod.
And I enjoyed using it. You just have to adapt what you do and how you work.
And that is another thing about travel photography – I had to adapt as I did not have all that stuff in a spare bag in the car parked around the corner.
What I had was what I had.
And did I miss any of the gear I did not have with me?
To be honest I did not give it a second thought – I had what I had and got on with it and had a great time and got some great photos and videos. And I enjoyed having less gear to carry around.
One line summary
These are 10 things are things that I did, and did not do but thought about doing!
What’s next?
Shout out
This episode shout-out is to my Paxos Travel Guide website. Well, why not, it was my last trip to Paxos that inspired the content of this episode. Check out my website at Paxostravelguide.com.
I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Brought to you by
This episode was brought to you a very refreshed and revitalised me having not been long back from 2 weeks in Paxos with Mrs M.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
