10 TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS TO TAKE EPIC INSTAGRAM PHOTOS

When you travel, you love to collect souvenirs, when we travel, we prefer to collect gorgeous images. Images that will work like a time machine freezing our memories from that journey. Images that we could look back anytime and enjoy them for years later. Images for us are the best souvenirs from the trip we had to recollect thousands of treasures we found there in each moment.

Every place you visit will give you a new perspective to capture in your camera, Travel Photography is all about it! Experience the culture, people, stories, landscapes and feelings through your camera of each destination that you choose to visit. Travel photography is all about capturing these moments through photos and show the spirit of the place to the world, giving them a glance of how wonderful it would be for them to visit there.

Each destination we have visited has taught us new things in photography. From white sandy beaches of Maldives to the high cliffs of Grand Canyon, we have learnt a lot on the way about capturing the moments perfectly. We are still far from the perfection and we are rather still learning and growing, However, we would like to share with you our learnings of Travel Photography with these handful tips.

Here are our favorite travel photography tips to improve your photography and to get you those perfect Instagram pictures.

1.Scout out your location:

== Once you decide on a location for your trip, search online about most picturesque places to see in that location to get an idea of what you want to achieve out of your photography.

== Once you are there, speak to locals to identify some offbeat places which you might not have known but are must to click.

== Explain them your style of photography that you love to click in your trip, for e.g. Flowers, Landscapes, Local People portraits etc, they are the best ones to let you know where you will find your perfect subject.

== Talk to your family and friends who have been there and get more insights of the places they have visited at that destination.

== Learn as much as you can about the place you are visiting. Don’t leave a chance of not knowing any places that you might just miss to shoot. The more you learn, the more beautiful your travel photography will be.

2.Choose the right lenses:

== Once, you decide on the location, Next step is choosing the right lenses. It is difficult to carry all if your lenses together.

==So, once you know the place much better and the kind of photography you would like to do there, Choose the right lenses for you to carry along.

If you choose any destination like Maldives or Himalayas etc, you would need ultra-wide-angle lenses which would give you full picture landscape frame.

== If you are planning to hit any Jungle Safari's, then carrying telephoto lenses are must.

== You can opt to choose 18-200mm Lens which would give best results for wide angle shots as well full zoom in shots.

== It is fun playing around with different lenses, and you can get interesting effects with wide angle lenses and macro lenses.

3. Shoot in Correct mode:

== Shooting in RAW mode will offer you a great opportunity to process the image as you want it to look like. However, this will mean you'll need to travel with a several high capacity memory cards.

== Best practice is to backup your images to a laptop or photo storage device every night, so you can free up your memory cards for the next day.

== When you go off shooting, take twice the amount of cards/capacity with you than you would expect to need.

== If you want to shoot Flying birds, running children or any subject that is moving, it is good to use burst mode, which will capture many shots at a go and then you can pick the best one from the lot for your Instagram feed.

4. Shoot in Golden hours:

== Golden hours (in Photography concept) are basically an one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. Of course, this purely depends on where you are in the globe.

== It is of course a best idea to get up early to get those amazing sunrise photo opportunities, while all the other tourists are still asleep.

== We love chasing sunsets, so we try to arrive to locations we want to shoot during this time, so that we can capture those perfect sun setting moment.

== Little research will help you to catch the golden hours. When you're traveling to any location, try typing into Google "sunrise time in [location]" and "sunset time in [location]" and get the exact timings for not to miss golden opportunity to capture your pictures in golden hours or http://www.timeanddate.com can also be useful.

5. Play with Composition:

==Never be happy with your first click of the subject, always try taking pictures from different angles which probably will give your picture a different perspective.

Slight changes in angle of your camera or timing can mean the difference between the shot you intended and one that you clicked.

==Frame your subject using trees, windows, arches and other features can be very effective.

== Getting pictures from low angle is a great way to capture stunning images. It is specifically good when you are taking pictures of streets that have nice cobbled pavements.

== Do not forget one of the biggest and most famous rules for composition in photography is to use the "Rule of Thirds".

6. Get Reflections:

== Getting Reflections in your images is an amazing aspect of travel photography.

== Reflections help in balance your image and is a great idea to showcase your photography for Instagram feed.

==You can catch reflections from Lakes, rivers, Mirrors, windows, puddles, etc. and makes your pictures more interesting and creative.

== You can capture reflections of Mountains, trees, birds, monuments etc. any subject you find that is of your interest.

7. Consider small things

== When we travel we usually get so busy in clicking the best places in the city, that we forget to capture the small moments also count in our trip… Folks, Capture them!

== Often, small things can be more memorable than just standing and smiling in the shot.

== While, walking down the street, click some art pictures crafted on the wall.

== While you shop in local market, click the different colors, texture and patterns of the products available there.

== Saw some amazing street food hawkers, catch those yummy looking dishes in your camera.

== Don't forget to capture some silly moment, when you crack a joke and your travel companion laughs instantly.

== Remember, not every picture has to be perfectly framed, sometimes your random shots will sum up your trip.

8. Shoot Night Photography:

==Night photography will take loads of patience and planning, but it can be super fun.

==Night photography can be much more rewarding than photography during the day. Because everything looks different at night.

==Cities come alive with lights and color at night, and distracting details such as cranes, wires and unsightly buildings melt away in the background.

==Use Tripod, while not necessary, a tripod will give you the greatest flexibilityto get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures.

==Wide-angle lenses. This is a personal preference, but we love the way they work in night photography.

==Water is your friend in night photography. It seeps up color in reflections, softens it and adds a charming glow to your images.

9. Ask Permission:

==While photographing people of the local destination you are travelling to, be careful and out of respect, ask permission if you can click their picture.

==In different countries with different cultures and languages where it is hard to communicate, if you click someone’s picture where you are not supposed to, can land you up in rough situations.

==Let them know your intention to photograph them, this probably will help them to understand why you want to picture them.

10. Learn Photo Editing:

==It is a great idea to learn photo editing and give a different look to your travel images, especially when you click in RAW mode.

==Editing your digital images is an important step in any good photo workflow. Taking pictures doesn’t end when you press the shutter button; it ends when the final image is printed out on your wall or it goes on your Instagram feed.

==Editing images will give you second chance to correct your images, although we should always strive to get it right when taking the picture, no matter how good you are, there are times when you are going to stuff up a little.

==We prefer to use editing software to slightly enhance the colors and lighten up dark photos or to pop some colors of the pictures.

== If you are super serious about photography, Get Lightroom and Photoshop software. There's nothing better than these two to edit your pictures perfectly.

Now that you know some of the amazing travel photography tips, go ahead and experiment. Have fun. Learn from your mistakes. Make up your own tips and techniques for taking fantastic photographs, We'd love to hear them.

If you are an Instagram freak, and want to show us your travel pictures, Follow us : @MAP. CAMERA. TRAVEL , Tag us and use #mapcameratravel to get featured in our feed.