Each new city you discover provides you with countless new opportunities: it’s a place to try new food, a labyrinth of streets to wander without a map, a museum of street art, or a canvas for travel photos. Sometimes the city you have just discovered is so beautiful you cannot help but take hundreds, thousands of photos. And before you know it, you get lost behind the camera.
And we understand this; we’ve all been there, but discovering a new city shouldn’t be only about keeping your camera permanently attached to your hand. Also, you’ve probably noticed that when you get home, you tend to love most the travel photos that you took on the run. But how can you make sure that you won’t miss such a moment?
The secret is to plan the trip with intention so you get beautiful photos without spending all your time behind the lens.
Scout two main locations in advance
Your work starts at home. Find two locations you genuinely want to take photos of instead of trying to document the entire city in images. A great idea would be to pick one landmark or famous viewpoint, maybe the place that captivated your attention and convinced you to book this trip. The second one could be more atmospheric, something you find charming, like some architectural details, waterfronts, a particular neighborhood, or even a market. The second one is the place where you feel it gives the city a sense of character, something unique.
It’s essential to make this distinction and stop treating the entire city as a photographic opportunity. Checking your screen and adjusting the camera isn’t the purpose of the trip. Picking two main locations to photograph creates a useful boundary that encourages you to slow down from exploring and focus on documenting the places.
Give sunrise and golden hour their deserved places in your itinerary
It’s no news that light has the power to transform an otherwise familiar city scene into a marvelous shoot. However, it doesn’t mean that you should spend your entire trip chasing light because this would be far from an ideal way to enjoy your holiday. It would be better if you built your photography around some deliberate light windows like the sunrise and the golden hour. Sunrise is the perfect moment for taking photos of major landmarks because they’re less crowded at this time of the day. Also, it tends to give streets and squares a completely different character from the atmosphere you might encounter later in the day. Even if you might not find it thrilling to wake up before the others, once you check the photos, you’ll be thankful that you did.
The sunset time, or golden hour, is also a great time for photographing, but maybe stay away from the big landmarks of the city because everyone will chase this moment. Travel further away from the busy streets and head to smaller, less crowded spots where you can take more time taking close-up shots.
Consider if it’s worth hiring a local expert
There are some cities where a little local knowledge will prove quite helpful and save you from trial and error. You can hire a local photographer to take professional photos so you can document your trip and go home with some precious memories. A local professional vacation photographer understands better how famos locations behave thoughts a day, which viewpoints are more practical for the kind of photos you want, where light falls in the morning and afternoon, where crowds tend to gather and if those spots are worthy it or there are better ones, and which streets might provide you with a glimpse of the local atmosphere. their knowledge is particularly valuable when you spend just a weekend in a city and don’t want to spend hours scouting the perfect place to take the photos for your album.
When you want dedicated portraits without turning your city break into a photo project, you can book a local vacation photographer. On Smiler, for example, you find several destinations where you can hire such an expert who takes and edits your photos, helping you create a gallery that depicts the emotions you felt during this adventure.
Don’t fight the weather; plan around it
Even if you research ahead and book the trip during a time of the year when weather is supposed to be ideal for visiting this location, chances are there still might be some cloudy or rainy days. No one can predict the weather perfectly, and you shouldn’t stress over it. We know that you want to get back home with some beautiful photos, but don’t fall victim to the idea of having backup plans for every bad weather scenario. Instead, try to be more flexible and keep the plan loose enough that you can move the photography window a couple of hours or even a day to see if the conditions change. If the weather stays the same, try to approach the process differently. Only because you decided to take pictures of a landmark during sunrise, but there are only clouds doesn’t mean the shots will look bad. Sometimes cloudy weather works even better for architecture than sunny conditions.
Photograph both the place and the people
The best vacation gallery includes both. Years from the city trip, you’ll check the album and want to see glimpses of everything: landscapes, architecture, landmarks, and locals doing whatever they’re doing on a normal day. This doesn’t mean you’ll turn every meal, coffee, and street crossing into a staged portrait. But you’ll try to capture natural interactions: your partner laughing with a vendor over an item, someone walking their dog through an old street, the crows sitting on top of a landmark, and similar small moments that will gain value over the years in your gallery.
Remain present while documenting your city trip
The easiest way to remain present while trying to capture memories is to plan ahead. You don’t need hundreds of similar photos, but a smaller collection that depicts the mood of the place and your feelings while exploring it.