Deciding which camera to take on a trip can be confusing. In today’s world, there are many ways to capture moments in time, especially with travel photography. Whether or not you are a professional photographer, you probably have many options available to you. Some of these could be your phone, iPad or tablet, e-reader, point and shoot camera, small interchangeable lens cameras and every size SLR on up to to pro-sized DSLRs. It really depends on what you want to photograph and how much gear you want to pack. If the focus on your trip is photography, you might want to bring a camera and accessories that can handle every kind of lighting situation, along with different lenses, filters or a tripod. If you just want a way to record part of your trip for the family photo album, then any of the above choices will do. I have seen beautiful travel photography done on Instagram with an iPhone!
Other things to consider would be the weight of your gear, do you want to carry a heavy load if you are doing a lot of walking? The smaller compact sized cameras with interchangeable lenses are a great choice for those of us who like the manual settings but with a smaller, lighter weight camera. Many of us Pro Photographers are expected to bring the big heavy Pro cameras, as it seems to be some kind of proof that we must know what we are doing. I have recently taken a couple of trips with a compact camera and have come back with a nice portfolio of shots. It was great having a lighter carry-on bag!
I do think that you “see” with your eyes, not your camera. So it should not matter what device you are using, you can still capture your vision. If you are planning on having big prints made when you get home, a bigger camera with more megapixels would be needed, although the I-phone 5 has an 8 Megapixel camera, that’s pretty good! If you are keeping all of your photos on your computer or are internet photo sharing, you do not need to worry about the bigger megapixel cameras.
Smaller cameras are great for hiking and long days spent walking in cities. They take up less room in your bag and are easier to grab and shoot in auto-mode. Whatever you decide to take, there are many ways to capture the feeling or mood of your trip, and that’s what we will cover in Part 2 of Travel Photography.
Stay tuned in the next two weeks for:
Travel Photography – Part 2, How to capture a Story with your photos
Travel Photography – Part 3, What to do with your photos when you return home. – Telling Your Story
All Photography by Porteen Photography – Robyn Porteen
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