3 Travel Photography Tips for Parents

A family vacation is an exciting time for both parents and kids. As a parent, you want those amazing moments captured.

You want something to go back to when you and your young ones are older. Travel pictures can help you reminisce about the good times you spent as a family.

Family travel photography can be challenging. The good news is, you can shoot amazing family pictures without hiring a professional photographer or getting expensive gear. 

All you need to do is arm yourself with the necessary tips. Here are some family travel photography tips you’ll find helpful.  

1.     Capture Candid Moments

Take candid shots of your travel moments. Sure, taking beautiful photos of everyone deliberately posing for the camera is necessary.

However, it’s also important to capture random moments of your kids and your partner just doing your thing. 

Why? 

Candid images come with the benefit of authenticity. They help you document unscripted and raw events. Candid family travel photos can also help you capture raw emotions. 

Ultimately, all these make for great storytelling. When you capture your travel memories this way, you can easily relive them.

Capturing candid pictures might take a little more effort, though. Imagine when you have to take pictures of your running toddler. But you can resolve this by taking multiple shots of your chosen moment.

You’re bound to find a picture that deserves a spot on your photo album. To capture candid moments, just be ready with the camera to take simultaneous shots. 

But don’t always focus on what’s right in front of you. At times, capturing a wide scene can give even more beautiful candid photos.

So if you’re taking pictures of the kids on the beach, step back to add a wider dimension to the images.

You can include the beautiful sunset and the clear waters in your frame. We’ll talk more about angles and perspectives later.

2.   Use Natural Light

In family travel photography or any other type of photography, lighting can affect the quality of your photos.

Your camera can emit light momentarily. So when you’re shooting night scenes, the artificial light can compensate for the lack of brightness.

But does this mean you need to use your flash to get the perfect light all the time? Not really. In many instances, it’s better to use natural lighting.

In photography, natural light refers to direct sunlight or the ambient lighting the moon provides. With natural lighting, you can set the character or mood of your travel photos, well, naturally. 

Using natural light in family photography comes with certain advantages. First, you do not need a lot of equipment. You just need to know when to shoot pictures to achieve a certain feel. 

For instance, if you want pictures that look alive during your family trip, take them during the day, when the sun is up. This is great lighting for street photography, too.

But if you want pictures with a romantic or nostalgic feel, take pictures at dawn or dusk. The soft light from the sun is typically dominated by yellow and orange colours.

They make for dramatic beach pictures and are perfect for architectural photography. 

Natural light also offers more variety. A picture of your kids playing in the water during the golden hour will look markedly different from one of the same scene taken mid-day when it’s sunny.

You can take pictures of the family with different natural lighting just for fun. 

Although natural lighting is typically used for landscapes, you can use it when taking pictures indoors, too.

In window photography, for instance, you can use the natural light emanating from windows to give character to your travel photos.

3.    Use Different Angles and Perspectives

You can add more dynamism to your family travel photos by using different angles and perspectives. 

Low-angle photos can make the subject appear in control or powerful. That’s why they’re great for pictures of architectural structures.

When taking photos, you might want to use elevation to your advantage, too. For example, you can get on top of structures to take photos of your kids.

Shooting from a high angle can help you capture more of the surroundings. It can help you give more context to your travel pictures.

You can use extra camera lenses to experiment with angles and perspectives, too. Fisheye and ultra-wide angle lenses, for example, can make the subject and the background look distant.

Telephoto lenses, meanwhile, make the subject and background appear closer to the viewer. 

In Closing

A family trip is exciting for everyone. You get to spend quality time with your loved ones. As a parent, you want to document these amazing memories by taking quality family vacation photos. 

You learned how to capture beautiful travel moments from this article. Capture candid moments, use natural light, and try out different angles and perspectives.

Implement these tips. You’ll soon have a photo album that showcases those incredible moments you wouldn’t trade for the world.

Stacie Twomey

Stacie Twomey is the Brand Marketing Manager at CEWE UK & CEWE Ireland. Stacie is an experienced marketing professional with a history of working across several different commercial products and industries.

Stacie is highly skilled in brand comms, campaigns, stakeholder management, relationship building and product management.

She has worked at Cewe for more than four years and previously worked in marketing in roles at The Camping and Caravanning Club and Coventry City Football Club.