Lacock Photography

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

With January the busiest month of the year for booking holidays, FIONA TURNBULL, co-owner of Lacock Photography, gives her top tips for travel photography to help you take the very best holiday snaps in 2023.

Try creating an alternative postcard shot that tells an authentic story of a place

Ialways ask my students what their motivation is for coming on a course, and a lot of the time people say they’d like to improve their travel photography, in preparation for an upcoming trip. So, if you’ve got an exciting excursion on the cards, do get in touch with us and we can recommend a workshop that will best suit you! In the meantime, here are a few of my top tips for travel photography to get you in the holiday mood!

CAMERA EQUIPMENT

Let’s start with some practical advice. First of all, you don’t need a digital camera to take stand-out holiday shots; photography is really not about having the best, most expensive equipment! So if you have a decent camera on your phone, don’t be afraid to use it! However, if you do have a digital camera and don’t mind carrying it around with you, your vacation snaps will be better quality, and therefore more likely to stand the test of time. When I’m on holiday, I always pack my digital camera but only take one lens (my 24mm-105mm kit lens), as I don’t want to be overloaded with equipment. The 24mm-105mm lens enables me to take a great variety of images, it works well with landscapes, portraits and gives me a bit of a telephoto which helps with close up images.

AN ALTERNATIVE POSTCARD SHOT

When my daughter went on a trip of a lifetime to Egypt a few years ago, she asked my advice on getting the ultimate photograph of the pyramids. I suggested that whenever photographing iconic landmarks, try and put your own personal spin on things. My daughter took this idea and instead of attempting to replicate the perfect postcard shot, she decided to include fellow tourists, guides and local workers in her images, and so portraying a modern and personal view of this ancient monument. For me, the best travel photographs are about storytelling and portraying an authentic perspective of a place. So, don’t try to make your photos Instagram perfect by cropping out people or unsightly objects like rubbish on the street, try making these things a feature of your composition!

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

My favourite travel photos to take are close ups, I love elevating the little details of a foreign place. For example, when I visited Madeira last year, I took many close up shots in one wonderfully vibrant old street, which had hundreds of colourfully painted wooden doors. I of course took the travel magazine snap of the whole street, but my most treasured images of old town Funchal explored the details, focusing on a particular mural, decorative doorknob or even the flaky paint. One of the joys of travel photography, and indeed of travel itself, is observing the ordinary details and subtle differences of the places we visit.

To book a workshop with Fiona please see to the website.

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One of the joys of travel is observing the differences in the places we visit