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Taking Good Vacation/Beach Photos

pagefrocks

pagefrocks

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So we are off on an adventure tomorrow . . . driving to Fredericksburg, VA to spend a night at a B&B and have a fabulous dinner - this is a historic town, where we hope to visit George Washington's sister's plantation before we head down to Virginia Beach to spend five days on the beach. We'll take a short trip north to Norfolk to visit VA's largest zoo.

I'm taking the "big" camera with all the lenses - including my latest love - my 90mm macro lens.

I'm looking for any and all suggestions to tell the story of our vacation through images. I especially need help capturing those details, but in a less predictable and more artistic way . . .

Any ideas?
 
My suggestion is to take lots of photos of everything. You can always weed through them later and delete the ones you don't like but you won't be able to go back and take pictures you wish you would have taken. Also take pictures of the same thing at different angles. Get pictures of the details as well as the overall "bigger picture." It might also help to make a list of pictures you would like to get or do a search of beach pictures and make an inspirational folder to refer to. Pinterest is a good thing for this if you are on there. Most importantly, have fun!
 
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think of different perspectives to tell the story- i'm a big fan of feet photos - you know, toes in the sand, or flip flop clad feet, or feet running down the beach... that kind of thing. Also, maybe beach toys blurred in the background with a forward focal point of a shell or something like that on the beach. anything in the natural surrounding that strikes you as beautiful, like maybe tall grass bordering the beach or flower blooms... those kinds of detail shots make great additions to tell the story.
 
Have a great trip. Take lots of pull back shots along with the macro shots. I agree with changing the perspective...shoot low, getting down to the level of your main focus and then shooting higher up looking down. I love shooting macros. Get shots of the textures of the architecture you get pull back shots of, get shots of the food and the beach is full of fun stuff to get shots of. I tend to keep my horizons level, I'm not a fan of tilt shots unless it's a single shot that will be scrapped by itself. I like the continuity of level horizons in my photos. Sounds like a fun time. Can't wait to see your pics!
 
Enjoy Fredericksburg! I live just about 15 minutes north of there, so I'm fairly familiar with it. Downtown (or old town) Fredericksburg is fun and there's lots of opportunities for fun street photography. I love a wider angle for street/landscape stuff, but macro street photography to capture the little details is fun, too. There's a fabulous farmer's market at Hurkamp Park in downtown, if you like that sort of thing.
 
I love taking vacation photos! Take a good variety of images - the wide angle photos to show all of the surroundings and beauty of the environment and close up shots to show the details of the sand, shells, favorite meals, etc. Posed smiling shots but also get shots of people engrossed in the moment - concentrating on building the sand castle, laughing with family members, walking along the shore...the unposed, natural life moments. Bending down/squatting to get eye level with people sitting in the sand and even laying down in the sand to get a different angle works great. Signs of restaurants, features unique to the location such as brick roads, boardwalks, and piers make for great photos. Footprints in the sand, the name/year of the vacation location spelled out in the sand, waves washing up over feet, kids buried in the sand, flying a kite on the beach and sunrises/sunsets are some of my favorite photos. I also always to try find a "welcome to ____" sign and use my self timer to get a family photo at the welcome sign. Silly, but a really fun memory. :)

Be sure to take photos earlier & later in the day as the lighting is better and usually less people in the background of your shots. Midday sunlight directly overheard is harsh and usually results in really squinted eyes and raccoon eyes. You can use your flash to fill in some light (unless you are like me and hate lugging a flash on the beach). I just try to do my best and go with the flow - enjoying the vacation yourself is important too! ;)
 
Have a great trip.
One thing that makes a great and unusual photo ,is taking a photo through water of a swimmer ,get to a vantage point and take the photograph straight down into the water. I can not do this,(because I am a lousy photographer) but I am 100 % sure you can ,because I have seen your photos . Enjoy your trip
 
If you have to shoot midday at the beach (or anywhere really) shoot manual and try to backlight as much as possible. Better a blown sky than a blown face from the sun.
 
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