Taking GREAT Vacation Pictures..

We have just made it through 2013 and ushered in the year of the horse. Some of us are already busy checking the calender for holidays and start rolling out plans for 2014. While some of us are still flipping through scrapbooks of the past years reflecting on nostalgic great getaways and some still ruing over missed capture moments. Speaking about captured moments, in this section, we'll talk about 7 great tips on taking better pictures during vacation.

1. Storytelling. You take on a storyteller role. Plan your day ahead to unfold with a story line. Take pictures of highlight moments at each place you visit, food that you eat or people that you meet. So that when you put the pictures together they form a story of your travel. They say pictures speaks a thousand words. Well it certain does if done right!
2. Take in the details. Its OK not being able to take every single shots that you/desire, but don't miss out on the things around you along the way such as signs, local cuisine, locals' activity, etc. These details help to remind and enrich the memory of your travel experience.
   
   

   

   Photo like this helps to fill in the gaps in your travel memories

3. Obsessive photographing. We all how important it is to capture every moments of your travel. But as much as you want to do it, refrain yourself from overly obsessive about taking every picture of every thing that happened every seconds. Give yourself some time and space to relax and enjoy the surroundings. Immerse yourself to the sound of a foreign environment and take in the splendour of the place has to offer. 
4. No-flash. Flashes are good in the occasion depending on how the light falls on your subject. Normally, an amateur would not bother too much about this.
   
   

   

   Flash creates unwanted shadow such as the above.

   The best solution for this is switch of the flash. Nowadays digital cameras come with higher ISO which enables users to take better pictures in low lighting conditions.
5. Fill up the photo.  A friend of mine who scrapbooks always says she “crops the crap”.  She cuts out the sky if there is too much in any photo and just gets down to the meat of what she’s trying to take.  I took this advice and decided to not take pictures of anything other than what I really want to remember.  So, if there is too much sky or people are too far away, I try to remember to zoom, etc. and “crop the crap” out of my pictures.
6. Candid shots. Try taking picture of event at the time when it happens. For instance, baker flipping roti on streets of India or customers haggling with street vendors on streets of Vietnam.
   
   
   
   
    Try not to make your subject pose to every pictures. This will add more life quality into your vacation photos.
7. Closer subjects. Too often photos are taken with a huge coverage of the background making 
   
   
   your subject look tiny as though like a smudge on an otherwise beautiful panoramic picture. Rule of thumb: fill up 2/3 of the picture with your subject. Turn on the gridlines option to better assist you.