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Those seemingly ready-to-be-posted stunning photography with no other tourist around iconic landmarks, such as the Trevi Fountain in Rome, or the Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona.
Ever thought of having the Trevi Fountain in Rome all to yourself?
Let’s be honest, it is hard enough to take good travel selfies, let alone an entire full-body shot with no other person around the ruin the momentum.
Indeed, before I’ve ever on-boarded the blogging world, I always wondered to myself how did creators take such beautiful photos of themselves while traveling. My prior experience in Rome had made me quite aware that gone were the days where you could actually enjoy the Trevi Fountain without having to battle selfie sticks and tourists from literally every corner of the world in order to approach the iconic Italian landmark.
Or was it?
After I started dating Cris, who has been working full time as a travel content creator for a few years now and who was actually the whole reason that inspired me to start a travel blog and Instagram of my own as well.
You see, I figured that if I have a photographer as a boyfriend who does this as a full-time job, I might as well give this a try myself. The worst thing that could happen, if the blog ever failed, is that at least I would always have stunning travel photos to keep for myself.
So yes, since Cris and I started creating travel content together a little bit less than a year ago, I had a chance to learn a thing or two to create stunning travel photography and even how to take more flattering photos of yourself.
PS – Surprisingly, taking these perfect travel pictures it has very little to do with Photoshop (and editing people out of the frame, for that matter), as I had initially thought myself. In fact, to this day I don’t know how to use Photoshop, so if this was something that scared you from starting photography, don’t let that stop you from getting creative my friend.
Keep reading and get all the top tips in taking stunning travel photos yourself too.
YOU WILL HAVE TO WAKE UP EARLY
And when I mean early, I don’t mean in time to have breakfast at your hotel before starting your day. In this case, you will want to get up before the rest of the world.
The idea is to visit iconic touristic locations and have them all to yourself.
I know. If you have a hard time opening your eyes in the morning, the idea of waking up ahead of the crowd while you are on vacation seems more like a torture mission, am I right?
And I have to agree.
I remember my first ever travel photo shoot. I was in Italy with Cris at his house in Rome. It was August 2018, so you can imagine it was quite a hot and crowded time to be in Rome. This meant that, if we wanted to take amazing travel photos, we would need to beat the crowd.
The night before, Cris had checked the time that the sun would rise the following day so that we would be ready on time for the golden hour (more on this tip further on in the post).
If you don’t know yet, the golden hour is the best time of the day to take pictures, because the flattering golden light against buildings and reflecting someone’s skin makes a huge difference when snapping a beautiful shot. The golden hour takes place either when the sun is rising, or when the sun is setting in the evening time.
However, even though I am sure that places such as the Eiffel Tower look stunning against the setting sun, I am also positive that there are thousands of other people around the Eiffel Tower during the evening time, waiting for that flash of golden light to pop.
This all to say that, if you want the best light with no one around to ruin the photo, you will have to set your alarm to wake up you earlier, mon amie.
I know this sounds even insane to suggest, but trust me, there is no better feeling than having locations such as the Colosseum or the Tower of Pisa all to yourself.
HAVE A BAG WITH DIFFERENT CLOTHES
The idea is to make the most out of your shoot so that you don’t have to wake up before the sunrise every day while you are on vacation (even though, ideally to me, it is the best way to travel) and I honestly don’t min this routine).
The idea is to make the most out of your shoot so that you don’t have to wake up before the sunrise every day while you are on vacation (even though, ideally to me, it is the best way to travel) and I honestly don’t min this routine).
So if you don’t want to wake up each day for a different location, then take with you a few options of clothes.
(all the pictures above were taken the same day, believe it or not).
And if you’re wondering where you would ever change into a different outfit, you’ll be surprised with how creative you can get at 7h AM.
However, in any case, I recommend taking a towel or a long dress with you to make the change of clothes in public easier.
And don’t worry too much about onlookers, remember it is still quite early, so most of the other people in the city will most likely still be asleep.
PLAN YOUR PHOTOS IN ADVANCE
To complement what was said in the prior tip, it goes without saying that planning in advance for your photo shoot is a dead must. Not only will this guarantee you are as efficient as possible regarding the locations you will want to go, but it will also ensure that you are bringing your best outfits with you or each location.
Keep in mind to have fun with colors and themes. Sometimes it is fun to match what you are wearing with something in the background. Other times, it is just as interesting to create a color contrast (such as a bright yellow dress in those stunning purple Lavender fields in France).
Think fun swimsuits while at a beach, or boho pants when traveling eastern Asia.
If you ever need inspiration, take a quick look in Instagram or Pinterest and create an album with your ideas (more on these tips further on in this post, so keep reading).
GET PROPS
Further on, this also with the planning in advance from my prior tip given. By planning your photos beforehand, you can get inspired to which props you will want to bring with you to the shoot.
Props are actually a great way to increment any picture and in many cases, it is what takes a plain photo from being boring to looking next-level magazine style.
If you are at a hotel room, props such as flowers, magazines, in-room dining usually give photos a boost. If you are at the beach, think stray hats, flower crowns, seashells, etc.
Amazon is a great place to find props.
GET INSPIRED BY OTHER PHOTOS
You probably heard before that imitation is the biggest form of flattery, right? And that infamous quote attributed to Antoine Lavoisier that states ‘’nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed’’.
This all to tell you not to be afraid to get inspired by other pictures that your favorite influencer or even friend has been posting to social media. Don’t flat out copy everything in the picture to the just, but get ideas and transform it into YOU.
Everyone is different and has different interpretations of art. So by taking a peak to what has been going on and what is working is a great way to start getting creative. You will quickly see that you will get on-the-spot ideas of your own and that, even the pictures that you recreate from others, will essentially look very different.
Two places I strongly recommend going is:
1- Instagram
Probably the most obvious place to go for photography inspiration. By quickly doing a hashtag or location research you will be exposed to hundreds of thousands of beautiful pictures to get inspired by.
PS – Did you know that you can save your photos to organized albums within the Instagram app? (I know, screenshotting your favorite pictures seems like something so old school, but you’d be surprised with how many people live life unaware that you can organize yourself in albums).
See some screenshots below that I saved from my dear friend Anna from @wholesomeboholife to see what I mean and how to save pictures in an album:
2- Pinterest
The ultimate visual mood board. Pinterest allows you to quickly do a search on a topic that you want and thus create your personal photography-inspiration board.
It’s perfect to get ideas on poses, props, editing style, location, basically everything you need. What’s I like even more about Pinterest as opposed to Instagram is that the Pins are usually linked to the blogger’s post on the subject. So if you ever feel you need more information, you can easily find more about that pin simply by visiting the blog.
Recently I started creating a private Pinterest album to plan for my future travels.
See an example below from my Sri Lanka trip that I am planning on taking this September.
Firstly, I want to get inspired by pictures of locations in Sri Lanka:
Secondly, I’ve created an album on further photography inspiration for summer photos (my Instagram account aims to inspire endless vacation vibes):
Lastly, I’ve created an album with ideas of outfits to wear:
FIND ME ON PINTEREST
HAVE A VISUAL MOOD BOARD
You probably already noticed just how well-curated business Instagram accounts are nowadays? Well, you’ll probably not be surprised to know that there actually is A LOT of planning and ahead-thinking before posting a picture to Instagram (well, at least most of the professional Instagrammers that I know).
In order to best prepare for your feed, there are hundreds of apps to organize yourself beforehand. These apps allow you to move around your pictures to post them in the best order to give you a cohesive feed. You can also prepare hashtags, create your captions and pre-plan the best time to post.
The app that I use and strongly recommend is called Later. It works wonderfully. Plus, if you follow them o Instagram they always give amazing tips for you to grow your following and how to improve your Instagram marketing skills.
CHARGE YOUR CAMERA, MAN!!
This is a silly tip, but TRUST ME, it can happen that you do all this planning, separate a bag filled with different outfits, put on your make up at 5h AM, all this to find that you forget to charge your camera batteries.
Be smart and let your camera to charge the day before. It also doesn’t hurt to bring with you an extra pair of batteries, after all, you never know how long the shoot will take (who knows, maybe you get carried away).
PS – The same goes to be sure you bring a memory card that has enough space. Last time Cris and I woke up early here in Barcelona to take some shots, I was also initially planning on making some slo-mo videos since I was wearing a stunning red dress. But guess what, we didn’t have enough memory space in the memory card because I forgot to download the video I made from our trip t Ibiza in June. Oops.
TAKE A SMALL MIRROR (AND EXTRA MAKEUP)
This is a habit that I’ve recently adopted and it can make SUCH a difference.
By bringing a small mirror, some makeup (such as powder to mattify that shiny forehead and some extra blush + lipstick for retouches). Having a small hairbrush is also helpful, especially if you are running around from one location to another, or if you are changing into many outfits and your hair gets a bit messy.
LEARN TO IGNORE THE CURIOUS PEOPLE
Newsflash: People are naturally curious creatures. And if they see a girl wearing a bright red dress, spinning in front of the Eiffel Tower, then chances are that passersby will take a look (and sometimes even stare).
Unfortunately, that is something you will need to get over at one point or another. It is basically impossible for you to have a spot in a city all to yourself. No matter what time of the day you go, chances of there being people around are almost a given.
The best thing to do is create a mindset that these people don’t know who you are (and will probably never see you again in their lives). So learn to accept them staring and just do what you gotta do, girl.
This might take practice, but I speak for myself that I notice that I care MUCH LESS nowadays than I did a year ago.
BONUS – Have some extra balls and wanna get some extra followers? If you catch anyone looking or staring too intensively, give them our your business cards with you social handles for them to find you online. Chances are they will start following you are high.
EDITING IS EVERYTHING
Editing your pictures is a whooooooooole new world to boosting how a seemingly regular/boring picture quickly turns into a magazine-styled portrait. See a few examples below of some before and after of my own pictures.
See how before they were edited that they look extremely boring and plain, like everyday pictures?
As soon as you edit them with a bit more love, they transform into what you see on influencers’ accounts.
I believe that editing pictures deserve a whole new chapter of its own, so I will not write it now. But let me know in the comments section below if you are interested in learning more about editing pictures using Lightroom. I can even make a video demo showing you how I edit my own photos.
DON’T HAVE A PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHER?
I know. All of this seems MUCH EASIER (or even only possible) just because I have a photographer as a boyfriend. I get it, girl. And I agree.
It definitely helps to have Cris take pictures of me. It’s also unquestionably more interesting to wake up at 5h AM and walk around an empty city if you have someone by your side to share the pain.
But yes, not everyone has a photographer boyfriend. I get it, girl. This does all seems more doable if you have an experienced cameraman behind you with professional experience.
But don’t let that stop you!!!
In fact, there are thousands of ways on how to take pictures of yourself alone. And even better, you’ll be happy to know as well that you CAN take flattering pictures of yourself alone with an iPhone.
(trust me, I’ve done it).
Some of the most common excuses that I hear:
‘’I don’t have a professional camera to take decent pictures’.’
Well, my friend, I’ve got two words for you: iPhone Photography.
When I started my Instagram, the first pictures I posted were old travel photos I took with my phone or iPad from a trip we did to the Maldives a few years back. See them below:
These pictures were all taken by my mother. I would literally visualize how I wanted my pictures to look. Then, I would place my mother in a position holding an iPad and would ask her to take as many as possible with it.
One out of 15 photos, one would always look good. Moreover, the iPhone camera is indeed getting better every year, so if you are giving excuses that you don’t have a professional camera to start taking better pictures, then stop it right now.
‘’I don’t have a photographer boyfriend like you, Ana’’.
Well, even though it DOES help to have Cris around, it is not always set in stone. I am in no way glued to Cris and may times I travel alone and still want to take pictures for my Instagram or blog.
This summer, for example, I went to Cinque Terre with y mother (we travel together every year, me and her). I didn’t have Cris, nor a professional camera. That meant I had to improvise with what I had. So once again, the duo iPhone = Momma came to the rescue.
Surprisingly enough, the pictures my mother took with the iPhone were at times more liked than the ones I took with Cris.
(I was surprised myself, and it was a good motivation for me as well to see that I can be creative on my own terms when I am not traveling with my boyfriend).
‘’Ok, Ana you convinced me to try it. I do have an iPhone, but I don’t have anyone to take pictures of me as you do’’
Ever heard of a Tripod? And no, tripods are not meant exclusively for professional DSLR cameras. You can find iPhone tripods as cheap at 20 euros on Amazon for your camera. They come with remote control so that you can easily snap a picture of yourself, being thus completely autonomous.
In fact, I find that sometimes my best pictures were taken by using a tripod. For some reason, I feel more relaxed when I don’t depend on Cris (maybe just by knowing I can take as many pictures as I’d like without annoying the photographer).
So honestly, sometimes I even like it better to take photos of myself by using an iPhone tripod equipped with remote control.
And don’t stress too much. Not always things go as planned.
As an example, when I was traveling with my mother to Italy, I didn’t want to have to wake her up before the sun to take pictures so we tried to improvise. As you will see from the pics below, not always you will manage to take the perfect picture, but you will learn and, most importantly, have fun from the whole experiences.
Not a chance of getting the Duomo di Milano for ourselves at lunch time. Naturally, due to the amount of people in the background, I did not post this to the gram.
So…. What are your excuses now?
Bonus: Wanna know what time the sun will be up? Cris uses Photopills to understand at what time the sun will rise, and from which direction. You can download Photopills from the Apple Store.
KEEP READING
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