How to take good photos on holidays

For many, holidays are a great opportunity to take photos. While I can admit that my worst shots were done during my family holidays, you can avoid this curse by following a simple golden rule:

Stick to simplicity

You have the whole rest of the year to try fancy stuff such as Perfect Exposure at 1st shot: 3 Flashes & 1 Flash meter or create a Watermark with Action & Droplet in Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop… Now you are with your loved ones and if you wish to avoid those shots full of your own frustration and being perceived as a Looser with a midlife crisis by the ones closest to you, you need to photograph simple things and fast. As far as I am concerned, I am currently in Lithuania with my very understanding wife and my daughter Skye, so amazed by what I do (ok she is only 6 years old). This year I promised myself I would not go back home in Scotland with my CF card full of junk.

Photograph your family

I wanted to photograph my daughter. Two days ago, it was the perfect setting as we were on Neringa (the Curonian spit). I laid on the fine sand dunes with my 24-70mm and I asked her to do a star jump. I hope you’ll agree the scenario cannot be simpler and the execution was trivial.

Photograph what is in front of you

Once you have fulfilled your “family obligation”, you can finally tackle something different. Be careful to not go overboard! As for me, I was surrounded by the finest sand and the most challenging thing was to find a spot free of footsteps. Since it is the holidays, I chose a very relaxing posture, on my knees and elbows and I captured this:

Let me know in a comment below what you think of the photos and how you plan to take yours during your next family holidays.