I don’t consider myself to be a ‘professional’ photographer, but I know what looks good to me and I love documenting my family’s travels with pictures. With that said, I never leave home without my camera – my vacation photos serve as a reminder of fun adventures and a way to capture moments in time that my children will remember as they grow up.
Here are a few of my favorite tips to capture great vacation pictures –
Panoramics
My favorite feature for taking pictures with my smartphone is the panoramic setting. It is a great way to capture the pure vastness of a destination and it allows me to be a little more creative too. Just switch your camera settings and keep a steady hand – you’ll end up with some fantastic and unique looking pictures.
On our last cruise, I loved taking a picture of the ship each time we were docked in port. It turned out to be a fun way to see the ship and show off the magnificent colors of the water too. This picture from Grand Turk is one of my favorites!
Beat the Crowds
One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to sneak out of the room early in the morning and take pictures of our ‘home away from home’ before all the hot spots are filled with people. Whether it is a theme park, the beach or even just the surrounding scenery – the places are where the true memories are made and I love having images of those spots to cherish.
Always Check Your Camera
I learned the hard way that if you let someone else take the picture, always look at it and make sure it gets your approval.
During our time in Curacao, I asked a fellow cruiser if he would take a family photo for us – he was gracious and snapped a few pictures for me. I was so disappointed when I got home and looked at my collection of images. While the stranger was being helpful, I shouldn’t have trusted that it would turn out great.
Say Cheese
Getting my entire family to look at the camera at the same time is practically impossible – especially with my easily distracted girls. Most of the time, I just point/shoot and hope for the best. As you can see from the picture above, it doesn’t always work in my favor. When that happens, all I can do is laugh.
One thing that usually helps me is to put my camera settings on ‘rapid shoot’, so I can just hold down the button and it instantly takes pictures one right after another. From there, I can choose which of the pictures looks the best and captures the best smiles too.
It’s in the Details
My favorite way to capture vacation photos is to take advantage of the zoom features! There’s no need for a special camera or fancy lens, just get in close with things around you and capture the details of your vacation. I fell in love with the plates we dined on during our visit to the Sun King Steakhouse on Carnival Freedom. I couldn’t help but get out my camera to grab a reminder of how beautiful they were.
Sometimes the small details turn into the largest pictures because it’s typically something you wouldn’t have noticed at first look. I love finding the small details along the way.
Vacation pictures are so important in allowing you to step back in time and remember the great times you had together as a family. I know my family and I love going through old pictures and talking about the places, the new friends, the food we ate and most of all – talking about how much we loved experiencing new places together.
What are your favorite ways to take great vacation pictures?
This post was created as part of my collaboration with Carnival. As always, all of the opinions, thoughts, and ideas in this post are my own.
