I love heading for the coast and every year I attempt to head there at least once for a little rest and relaxation (which generally involves at least a few hours of photography each day).
Coastlines present the photographer with a wonderful array of photographic possibilities ranging from people shots on a crowded summer beach to more landscape oriented shots with waves crashing, ragged cliff faces and moody skies.
Here are a few random tips for coastline landscape shots:
Find a Point of Interest
If there’s a tip I write on virtually every type of photography it is to find an interesting focal point for your shot. This is particularly important for coast line shots which can (if you’re not careful) be made up largely of sky and water. Of course there’s nothing wrong with sky or water - but unless you’ve got something in your frame to draw the eye of the person viewing your shots you’re unlikely to create something that holds their interest for long at all. Your focal point might be a physical aspect of the landscape (like a rock in the sea), it could be movement (like waves) or it could be some sort of texture or pattern (ripples in the water). Train your eye to see this way and you’ll create some great shots.
Look for Reflections
Whenever you’re around large bodies of water you introduce the element of reflections into your shots. These can make or break your shot, depending how you treat them so be very aware of their impact. If you want to eliminate reflections consider moving the position that you’re shooting from or using a polarising filter - however be aware that the reflections of a colorful sky or interesting rock formation can add depth and interest to your shots.
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If you’re anything like me, you love your digital photography and look forward to any opportunity to get out and about with your digital camera.
Vacations present you with wonderful opportunities for photography with lots of new sights, plenty of time to craft your shots and a more relaxed vibe which often unlocks creativity.
The only problem is those you’re vacationing with, your family and/or friends, might not share your passion for photography and will probably quickly tire of having to wait for you to line up the perfect shot of that perfect sunset or having to pose for 10 minutes while you set your aperture…. and set the tripod up….. and adjust your focal length….. and get the flash just right….. and…..
Of course holidays are times not only for hobbies like photography but are times for family and friends also - striking the balance between the two can be a challenge for some of us - but here are a 7 tips on how NOT to tip your family over with your photography on you next vacation:
- Get them involved - perhaps one of the best things I’ve seen done by a serious amateur photography with his family holiday was for him to buy a new point and shoot camera for each of his children. He presented them with their new cameras on day 1 of the holiday and instead of having to drag his kids out while he took photos they were begging him to do it more. Instilling a passion for photography in kids is not only a great way to get them to let you do it more, but more importantly it gives them skills that they’ll use for the rest of their lives. You might also find your own photography improves as you go back over the basics with them.
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A reader sent me an email this week telling me that they were having a few issues with exposure levels in their shots. Their LCD screen was small which didn’t help with analysing shots and they were consistently getting back to their PC to find that they’d overexposed shots.
While it’s difficult to give advice without seeing pictures or know settings - my reflections were that if I had the choice between consistently over or underexposing images I’d probably prefer to underexpose them.
If you’re in a tricky situation and you suspect your exposure might be out I’d advise you bracket your shots (most cameras have a function that will do this for you, taking shots quickly in succession at slightly different exposures).
However if bracketing wasn’t an option I’d go for a slightly underexposed shot rather than an overexposed one.
The reason for this is that it is easier to adjust an under exposed shot in photo editing software than to adjust an over exposed one. Under exposed shots still record most (if not all) of the detail of your shot (even though you can’t always see them) and with a little tweaking in photoshop you can bring them out.
On the other hand overexposed shots tend to record less of the detail and you end up with less to work with in your post processing of images.
Of course - ultimately you’d rather get your exposure just right when you actually take the picture - but if you’ve got access to some photo editing software to do some tweaking later on the underexposure will in most cases be easier to fix.
Here’s a quick tip to add a new dimension to your travel photography.
Look for and Photograph Signs
Last time we took an overseas trip (we travelled mainly through Turkey) I set myself the task of photographing the ‘little things’ that we saw along the way.
My hope was that in photographing ordinary, everyday aspects of the countries that we were travelling through that I’d capture the essence of the country.
One thing that I was drawn to photograph as we travelled was signs.
Of course I didn’t exclusively photograph signs - I took all the normal shots of people and sites along the way - but signs were a definite theme and ended up being a feature of the album of photos I showed friends and family on my return.
I photographed Street Signs, Shop Signs, Advertising Billboards, Town Signs and more.
Why do I like signs as a subject? A number of reasons come to mind. Here’s a few:
- Signs give your photos context - I used my sign photos like headings in my photo album. Each new phase of our trip was marked in the album with a sign so those viewing my photos knew where we were.
- Signs can be interesting subjects - I found that as I travelled that the signs themselves were often interesting subjects and said a lot about the place that they were in - ie whether the place was a modern or traditional one, whether it was a touristy place (often featuring lots of English) or whether it was a little more authentic (in the local language) etc
- Signs are universal yet individual - I loved comparing and contrasting the signs from different countries. On one hand they can be incredibly unique to a location but on the other hand they can often be quite familiar and surprisingly similar to what you see at home.
- Signs can be humorous - some of the funniest things that I’ve seen on trips have been on signs - whether it be a language difference humor, something that someone’s added to a sign, humorous billboards or a misspelt sign - the funny ones can add character to your collection of photos.
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When travelling we tend to put our names and addresses on our suitcases and bags, but how do you do it for your camera?
You can obviously put them on your camera bag but what happens if you lose your camera or a memory card filled with precious images when your camera is not in the bag?
One suggestion that I read recently was that the first shot that you take on each memory card should be a shot of your luggage tag or business card complete with your contact details so that it has your name and contact details on it.
Similarly - I know of one photographer who has locked an image in his camera’s internal memory with his contact details. This image is never deleted as it’s locked and will be the first image anyone turning on his camera sees.
While many people would snaffle up your lost memory card (and the camera it was in if you happened to lose the whole camera) there are honest people in the world that have the technical ability and would get in touch with you.
Of course another (simpler) way might be to label your memory cards (and camera) with a sticker with your details on them. Many memory cards have a space to label them these days which could do the trick for you.
PS: of course you’ll want to put an image that people can read on your memory card/camera - unlike mine above :-)
