I am Jerome Nathen, a Travel Blogger. I travel around the world collecting material for writing about my travel experiences.

Aug 25, 2016

How to Take Better Travel Photos

Looking back at photos of when I first moved to Thailand or traveled around Southeast Asia I’m torn between two feelings. On one hand, I love them all — it was such a new, exciting time for me and looking at the photos brings back a hint of that excitement and novelty. On the other hand, they kind of suck.

Since then, I upgraded to better camera gear, improved my composition skillz and learned how to better process and edit photos. I still am by no means a great photographer, however, and often fake it when it comes to the technical side of things.

Fortunately, I am friends with people who are more talented and smarter than me and actually know how to use their camera. What’s even more fortunate is that these friends stayed with me in Chiang Mai for months and not only indulged me in some photoshoots, but let me steal some of their photography tips and tricks as well. (You can also see some of the cameras and gear I personally use here.)

So, today Laura and Tim from Sullivan & Sullivan photography — a couple of yoga teaching and social working turned photographers and retreat organizers, self-described typewriter pen pals who became best friends, fell in love, got married and started dreaming of ways to tell the world’s great stories together — are going to share some of their tips for taking better travel photos with you.

Sweet baby Ganesh, we’ve all been there — your acquaintance down the street gets back from some package sight-seeing trip to Mexico and is like, “Come over and look at my photos!” and 3,000 unedited images of a donkey on the side of the road later, your brain is mush and you never want to speak to another human again.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON.

Or the person who floods Facebook with a trillion blurry shots of their food from Indonesia. Consider these humble tricks when planning your travel photography and your Facebook friends will thank you.

(Note: there are some tips and lingo in here that are aimed for beginning DSLR users, but most of them will apply to the iPhone photographer and DSLR user alike. Take what serves you and leave the rest behind!)