Photographer Rachel Devine shares her tips on travel photography, backup on the run, wi-fi and immediate sharing of your images.
The Dubai Spice Souk. (Photo tip: Wandering up and down the crowded lanes of the bustling souks in Dubai can be overwhelming. Training the camera on details helps you notice all the beauty in the chaos. Focus on colours and textures using a wide aperture and telephoto lens.) © Rachel Devine.
The first bit of advice is get good travel insurance and make certain all of your equipment is covered. No matter what policy you have, it will not help you recover any stolen memories.
While no system is fool proof, I do try to make time every evening to download the day’s images from the card and save a copy to an external hard drive that I travel with. The hard drive is small enough to store with my laptop in the hotel safe.
If I have internet access, I will also upload copies of the JPEGs to a private folder on Flickr. Wi-Fi has been a game changer for me, especially when travelling. I can share the images I take with my camera via my tablet and/or phone without ever having to open my laptop.
I shoot smarter as well so that any editing I need to do can be performed with an app on the straight-out-of-the-camera JPEG. The benefit of being able to use such great gear instead of my smartphone camera on the go is the resulting better quality images.
If I don’t post moments as they happen I am afraid they will never get shared. Instagram is the perfect space to share the immediate experience when it is fresh and exciting, while saving more images for blogging later.
I treat the photos from a trip as memory enhancers instead of a moment-by-moment record of what happened. When I get back home, I have only the images I really need to create an interesting and full visual story.
I tend not to want the traditional postcard images, so I get details, street portraits and environmental shots. Back home, I star my absolute favourites with a photo book in mind and edit them simply and quickly with Lightroom only.
Bay of Fires Tasmania. (Photo tip: Dramatic skies and midday sun can really add drama to the landscape around you. Bring out the bright natural colour and crisp detail with a wide angle lens and small aperture.) © Rachel Devine.
Article by Rachel Devine
www.racheldevine.com
Excerpt from Travel Photography pocket guide.
