Vacation Photos Lessons Learned

I'm a PM. I admit it. I project managed just about everything in my life. It's not a disease or anything, its just the way my mind works. 

So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I sat down and did a "lessons learned" with regards to my photos and photo taking skills from this trip.

I read this quote somewhere, copied it and didn't put the reference, but it totally resonates with me NOW.

"Professional travel photographers realize that the key to their business is versatility: to be able to shoot all styles of photography, and to consistently capture great shots even under very trying conditions."

Tru Dat!

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that, of the photographers I know, we all think about what we want to shoot before we go to a location. In some cases, you may not have normally gone to said location unless you had something in mind to shoot. And second, when does a photographer ever go someplace without thinking about what to shoot? I'm just saying. 

Prior to my trip abroad I had some spare time on my hands (read: I was unemployed) and in addition to researching the stops on our cruise for historical significance, I researched photos others had taken in these places, and specifically the sights we were going to see. 

It fascinated me, and scared me, to see all the wonderful photos out there. So many of the same cathedral, city, restaurant etc, and all so very different. It gave me a start with regards to what I may want to shoot.  

It also set me up for some very unexpected disappointments. Though hindsight being what it is, I should have known.  I was too excited for the trip and so full of knowledge and a plan that I neglected to consider some of the most obvious things that a photographer should consider. 

Here are some things I learned on this trip that I hadn't actually anticipated and should have. 

Number 1:
As photographers we all know the best time to shoot is the "golden hour" - right after sunrise and right before sunset.  The perfect lighting. And should you not be able to do that, one might wish for an overcast sky so that the photos are more muted and not so harsh. 

Turns out that one cannot control the weather nor can one control the time of day one is shooting when on is on a cruise with a predefined timeframe. Who knew?

I won't complain about all the sun … but dammit we had a lot of sun. 99% of my shooting took place on bright sunny days, mid-day, and the sun was almost always BEHIND what I wanted to shoot. 

I didn't have a good way to combat this other than to change my view point (not always easy), adjust my stops as best I could, and just shoot and hope for the best.  Not the optimal way to shoot anything.

In some cases, it worked out to my liking. The sun glare added to the photo IMHO. 

In other cases, it took significant work in PSE to get something that even resembled a decent photo. All I can say is thank God for post processing.

Number 2:
This is what I like to call Sprint Photography. 

Do you remember a game show that involved people running through a grocery store with a limited amount of time and they had to buy a certain amount of items? I don't really recall too closely what the goal was of the show, but the image of these people sprinting through the grocery store grabbing items off the shelf with a limited time is what I felt like I was doing in just about every stop on this cruise (and in Rome). 

On the one hand it provided me with a challenge to see what I could get in a limited amount of time. Recording the moment instead of trying to get GREAT photos.

On the other hand, it provided me with a large amount of frustration because I couldn't stop and consider my shot from different angles. And there was a lot to consider (See #1).  I was forced to just take the shot and hope for the best. Of that...I am not a fan. 

One of my goals for this trip was to come home with some great shots. And while I got some good shots (and maybe one or two great shots) I didn't get a chance to really think as a photographer.  We moved so quickly from one place to another that my only hope of capturing what we were seeing was to just snap away.

The advantage of this "sprint photography" that there were times where I just gave up and enjoyed the moment. Letting go of the photo urge was hard to do, but the situation made it easier as the days flew by.

Number 3:
People. People were everywhere. Remember I said we were mostly shooting in the middle of the day and most people were out by then - our tour groups included. And since we were seeing some of the most important sights of these cities, it shouldn't have been too surprising to me that me and hundreds of my closest friends would be there. 

Still, people were getting in my way for some of the shots I had planned. Dammit.  

Now people do work to your benefit in some situations, especially those where you want to show scale.  I'm glad I had so many people in front of the Pantheon in Rome to see just how large of a building it was.  The people helped put the size into a perspective we could understand. 

That being said, I can't tell you how many shots I got where I was hitting the shutter button and someone would walk into frame. I'm generally very aware of people around me snapping photos and try to not walk in front of them. I can't say that's the same for a lot of folks on these excursions. Everyone pushing in to get that special shot…and ending up in my shot. 

A short side story here: on a couple of our excursions there was this gentleman who had a new camera and he had mentioned to me early on that he was new to photography. And then he would proceed to tell me how I should take a photo. Now, I gave him some lead way because I'm "usually" open to insights, but most of his thoughts were wrong (IMHO) and after about 30 minutes of it I was done. 

Then I noticed he was following behind me and taking the exact photo I just took.  Interesting. Then I started the game.  I would shoot the most ridiculous things and see if he'd follow behind me. And sure enough he did. At one point in Pompeii I took a photo of the dirt. Literally. Stopped, looked straight down and shot a photo of the dirt. Mr. Photog walked right to where I was standing, looked puzzled, but took the shot. 

Number 4:
Taking photos on a tour bus has its own unique situations. The obvious one is you're in a moving vehicle trying to take photos. 

The not so obvious one, and one I didn't consider until I was home processing my photos, taking photos through tinted glass. 

All my photos of the Amalfi Coast has this green hue to them.  It took me a while to figure out that it was the tinted windows of the bus that had caused that hue. It took me even more time how to get rid of it in PSE. 

Again, nothing you can do about it really.  I had to take the shots and had to figure out later how to fix them. 

The other thing about being on a tour bus, in all but two stops I managed to pick the WRONG side of the bus to sit on. I should have known to ask the tour guides which side would be best for someone obsessed with taking photos. But I didn't. I did, however, over hear someone ask the guide for the Amalfi Coast. She said either side would be fine. Turned out she was wrong.  I had to swap seats with my brother to get on the right side to shoot photos.

At the end of the day what I learned was:

1. Doing research before really did help me prepare for what to shoot. I wanted to give myself a head start because I knew we only had a short amount of time in each location.  Seeing what others took photos of helped kick start the creative juices for shooting.
2. Just take the damn picture.  Not getting a photo of something we were seeing wasn't an option for me. I had to just shoot and "hope for the best". And limited time meant I had to do it quickly and move on.
3. You can't control the weather or timing in all situations. Adjust and be flexible.
4. Try your best to get the shot, but not see the entire trip through your lens. Take a break. Breath in the surroundings.