1st Travel Photos

[Angelclaud]

I’ve had 600D for around 2 months now. I’ve played and experimented with it at home. I did start to learn more about photography and how to use it. I took some decent photos (not work of art or anything like that) but just decent for home photos. I looked forward to implementing all that I’ve learned during this a family trip to Macau and Hong Kong a few days ago and discovered that IT’S NOT EASY. Here are some obstacles that I encountered:

1. Lack of time

We have so many sites to visit and only limited time on each site. So I don’t have time to really compose the scenes, adjust camera settings, etc. I’m a beginner so it all took time and time is what I don’t have. I would have loved to stay on one site for at least half an hour or so to try different settings and composition, but it’s just not possible when we have like 10 more other sites to visit. I ended up using Program mode most of the time.

2. Lack of patience from subject

It’s a family trip so naturally I want my family in the photos. However, they are more interested in sightseeing than posing for me (which is understandable of course). Generally they get impatient after two or three takes and wandered off while I’m still trying to figure out compositions, settings, etc.

3. Other tourists

Sometimes I’ve set up everything and finally everybody’s posing great and then some other tourists walked right in front of the camera, which is just so so so annoying.

4. Difficult Object – People Composition

Especially when trying to take photo of people in front of a building or similar sites. When trying to fit the whole building/architecture into the frame, the people usually turn out too small.

Any tips or tricks to take better family holiday photos would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some photos that I took. I took them in RAW and processed them with Lightroom.

My camera: Canon EOS 600D
Lens: Kit lens 18-55mm

1/200, f/11, 27mm, ISO 100


1/160, f/11, 25mm, ISO 100


1/6, f10, 30mm, ISO 400


1/50, f/4.5, 34mm, ISO 1600


More could be found here:
Macau Trip - a set on Flickr

[Hill Country Hack]

I think you did well with deing you had a small child with you. You made a good choice with using the P mode. When pressed for time and still getting comfortable with your gear, the camera usually makes good decisions. Maybe in the future shoot some in apeture priority and adjust the f stop for what effect you want and let the camera do the rest. If you are shooting moving things, go to shutter priority and set an appropriate shutter speed and let the camera do the rest.

Keep on practicing in manual mode to become more familiar with adjusting the settings to get what you want for a photo.

When travelling try to make a deal with your other half. If it is possible for you to go out alone early or later in the afternoon to have better light. Heck, bribe her with a spa morning while you go out shooting.