Welcome back to the lessons in iPhone photography. I hope you have enjoyed adding a little creative lens flare to your images the last couple of weeks. I have enjoyed looking at them! This week I thought we would do something a little different. I travel quite a bit with my iPhone and as you know by now, I take a lot of photos with it. I shot close to 4,000 iPhone images last year. Today I thought I would share a few tips to improve your own travel iPhoneography…
Your iPhone Needs Power
I know it’s obvious, but make sure to bring a power strip along with you. By now you are probably charging an iPhone, iPad, your spouse’s iPhone and iPad, maybe another camera, electric shaver if you are the dapper type, etc. There is never enough outlets, so make sure to bring your own.
Reconnaissance
In today’s world we have access to technologies WWII generals could have only dreamed of. Anytime I’m traveling, I not only want to know when the sun is going to rise and set, I want to know where. Same with the moon. I use The Photographer’s Ephemeris to tell me just that.
Level Horizons
Nothing’s worst than a photograph of an ocean on a hill. Horizons are tough to judge sometimes, so fire up your iPhone’s ‘grid lines’ and make the sea level!
Don’t Be Scared Of The Dark
The iPhone isn’t the best performer in low light, but don’t let that scare you. Even if you don’t have a tripod with you, you can still expose for bright areas of the scene to make a photo. In this image, the candle light was the perfect light source to create a moody scene.
Look For Details
This is something that I am always having to work on. There is more to the place you are visiting than landscapes. Make sure you find the details that make it unique. Details are a great way to help tell the story.
Scale
It’s hard for your viewers to tell just how bid something is unless you include something in the photo for reference. In this image, to let everyone know that it is a big ship, I included a small boat.
The People
Unless you are traveling to a post apocalyptic world, there are going to be people there. Make sure you include them in your photos. Don’t only take their photo, talk to them. Heck, maybe they’ll invite you to play short stop on their baseball team?
Assignment
By no means do you have to travel somewhere to leverage any of these tips. For all your Instagram followers who don’t live in your hometown, your images are travel photography! Whether you are traveling somewhere or not, tag your Instagram photos with #iDBTravel so we can all follow along.
Justin Balog is an award winning photographer and film maker. You can follow is daily creative adventures at HOSSedia.com or learn more about iPhone Photography in his iBook ‘Big World Little Lens‘. Click Here for the iPad Version. To find out more about Justin, follow him on Twitter and Facebook.