Simplifying travel photography

[pnodrog]

Nice shots Bill - enjoy your holiday whether you deserve it or not.

[William W]

. . . . There is little use having a nice big DSLR and a honking zoom lens if you can't be bothered carrying them.

Agree, 100%. There's no point in taking any camera if you're not going to carry it (everywhere). It's very difficult to choose whether to take a shot or not, without a camera in your hand.

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. . . Furthermore the bigger the gear the more people will react to your photos, perhaps impacting on your candid shots.

Disagree.

Most places in the world are used to ‘tourists’ carrying a camera sometimes more than one. The OP is discussing being on 'holidays'.

In my experience photographing people - even when not 'on holidays' or not in common 'tourist destinations' - people will tend to react more to the way the PHOTOGRAPHER acts, rather than the gear that the photographer is carrying.

The shot above of the Soldier was made with a 5D - that 5D has a Battery Grip on it - and I had a second camera slung on me. In this case the Subject is a trained professional and it was anticipated that he would act accordingly – he was aware of me when I was walking up from behind him at a fast pace and he was all over the camera gear as I passed him and he probably worked out where I was headed and why – but he was not reacting to the gear I was carrying – but he was very aware of my actions.

Similarly, these shots below are all made with a 5D Series Camera sporting a battery grip and a very big diameter lens – the camera gear didn’t worry any of the Subjects:


Mother and Child - Sydney Australia

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Little Girl and her Dog - Venice

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Selfies - Paris

WW

Images © WMW 1974~1996 / AJ Group Pty Ltd (AUS) 1997~2016

[William W]

The gear you are using is incidental.

Agree 100%

WW

[RBSinTo]

Three vitally important steps before taking photos of anything whilst on holidays:
1. determine if there is a convenient store nearby with postcards of the same scene,
2. check pocket for correct change to cover cost of said postcard,
3. purchase said postcard.
Extra time and trouble saved can be used to enjoy holiday with spouse and children.

[Manfred M]

1. determine if there is a convenient store nearby with postcards of the same scene.

Hmm. The places I like to visit tend to not have postcards of them. In fact, convenient stores are usually difficult to locate too.

[RBSinTo]

Hmm. The places I like to visit tend to not have postcards of them. In fact, convenient stores are usually difficult to locate too.

But of course, you silly Goose!
If you are visiting out-of-the-way places, you won't find a Convenience Store. What you should be looking for is an Inconvenience Store.
Now you know for next time.
Robert

[rpcrowe]

Three vitally important steps before taking photos of anything whilst on holidays:
1. determine if there is a convenient store nearby with postcards of the same scene,
2. check pocket for correct change to cover cost of said postcard,
3. purchase said postcard.
Extra time and trouble saved can be used to enjoy holiday with spouse and children.

Even better, buy a travel video of the area you want to visit, sit at home in your living room with a cold beer and avoid the expense and hassle of travel altogether

[pnodrog]

Even better, buy a travel video of the area you want to visit, sit at home in your living room with a cold beer and avoid the expense and hassle of travel altogether

Great idea. That will avoid the nasty habit of bumping into foreigners that happens whenever I travel....

[Mike Buckley]

Three vitally important steps before taking photos of anything whilst on holidays:
1. determine if there is a convenient store nearby with postcards of the same scene,
2. check pocket for correct change to cover cost of said postcard,
3. purchase said postcard.
Extra time and trouble saved can be used to enjoy holiday with spouse and children.

I disagree as that applies to me. I would much rather have my own photo of the scene than the photo on the postcard regardless of whether my photo is better or worse. More to the point, I enjoy the process of photography, which includes thinking about the photo before I even touch my camera and everything that comes after it including culling the photos and post-processing and cataloging the keepers, not to mention adding them to and displaying them in various slide shows. Considering that I didn't make the photo on the postcard, I am deprived of the enjoyable process if I only purchase the postcard.

[William W]

. . . I enjoy the process of photography . . . etc

Me too.

[Donald]

I enjoy the process of photography,

Like Mike and Bill, what I'm doing is enjoying the experience of making a picture. If the purpose of the exercise is only to have a photograph of a scene by which you can remember the scene, then so be it. But I don't think that's what we're doing.

In addition, I'd suggest, based purely on my own experience and approach to photography, that even if you don't make a good picture, you will end with a memory of the scene as good as you would see in a postcard. Why? Because in order to capture the photograph to make the picture you 'see', you have to be studying the scene intently. You have to look and see everything in it. I find that then etches itself onto the brain. I have pictures in my head of lots of location where I have been and didn't come away with a good picture.

[pnodrog]

Three vitally important steps before taking photos of anything whilst on holidays:
1. determine if there is a convenient store nearby with postcards of the same scene,
2. check pocket for correct change to cover cost of said postcard,
3. purchase said postcard.
Extra time and trouble saved can be used to enjoy holiday with spouse and children.

I would disagree too if I thought Robert was being serious. However I doubt that any member of CinC would ever adopt such a practical approach.....

[William W]

. . . I have pictures in my head of lots of location where I have been and didn't come away with a good picture.

Me too. The picture of the three girls in the Paris café a few days ago has technical imperfections which I cannot fix - (I would have liked the time to have chosen an higher ISO to make faster Tv to nail girl at background camera right) - and even though it is a preliminary rough edit from the JPEG, the experience at that café is now etched into my brain - the interplays between all the Characters and me: I would not have that same experience if I had merely been an observer and without my camera having been used.

WW

[Mike Buckley]

(I would have liked the time to have chosen an higher ISO to make faster Tv to nail girl at background camera right)

If you had used Auto ISO, that would have happened automatically.

[RBSinTo]

I would disagree too if I thought Robert was being serious. However I doubt that any member of CinC would ever adopt such a practical approach.....

Paul,
Thank goodness someone here knows when their leg is being pulled.
Robert

[Mike Buckley]

Paul,
Thank goodness someone here knows when their leg is being pulled.
Robert

Mine is now far longer than my pants.

[dnperfors]

1. determine if there is a convenient store nearby with postcards of the same scene,

I know you are not serious, but it might be useful to see some of the possibilities of the place. Problem is that you typically visit those stores at the end of the visit...

I always try to take some time to get 'real' photos and not just snapshots, some things I try to do when I go on trips with family / friends:

• Go off on my own for an hour or two
• Stay behind a little longer, take my time to get the shot that I want and catch up

But this is not always possible...

[Manfred M]

But of course, you silly Goose!
If you are visiting out-of-the-way places, you won't find a Convenience Store. What you should be looking for is an Inconvenience Store.
Now you know for next time.
Robert

Excuse me, gentlemen. Where might I find the nearest inconvenience store that sells postcards?





I think the answer was about 2-3 hours drive to the south-west, in Grootfontein. As I recall, that was the nearest gas station too. The camera and video gear too up a lot of my luggage space; good thing we had rented a 4x4 truck with a large auxiliary fuel tank that gave us ~ 900km range on a single fill up.

[RBSinTo]

Excuse me, gentlemen. Where might I find the nearest inconvenience store that sells postcards?
I think the answer was about 2-3 hours drive to the south-west, in Grootfontein. As I recall, that was the nearest gas station too.

Hence the store you would be looking for.
Robert

[Polar01]

I still am having trouble with "Extra time and trouble saved can be used to enjoy holiday with spouse and children.", is it not suppose to be a holiday, I see them everyday.

Cheers: Allan