I think when photographers arrive at an exciting travel location they can become a bit overwhelmed by their surroundings and forget to photograph that special location in a creative way. What often happens as a result of this is that photographers end up capturing only the most obvious postcard looking shots of the place but manage to miss out on some of the cooler looking angles. Following are 7 ideas you can apply to your shooting methods to afford you some more creative looking shots from your travels:

1 – Shoot Rows – Selecting a camera position which places objects at the travel location in a row can help give your pictures more symmetry as well as added depth and dimension.

2 – Shoot Diagonally – It is often good to try and compose a shot by creating diagonal lines running from corner to corner in your photos. You can do this by having things enter into the frame of your photo diagonally from the left or right corners of your photo and continuing diagonally into and across the composition of the frame.

3 – Reduce Depth Of Field – Often shots with a shallow depth of field help to isolate subjects and make them more outstanding in your photographs. This can be achieved by getting closer to your subjects and focusing on a subject close up which will help to blur out other objects in the background.

4 – Shoot Through Objects For Framing – Framing pictures using an object in the foreground at the location can help to frame a subject and create both more depth to your image and a reference point to the location. Framing is also nice because it gives the actual subject placement rather than just showing a stark object isolated on its own. Even if the foreground object being used for framing is blurred out, that is fine as it can still create an aesthetically pleasing frame around the subject.

5 – Choose Interesting Backgrounds – An interesting background behind the subject can also help make photos look more creative. Try and choose backgrounds which have homogeneous colors and or interesting textures to present the subject of your photo in a more pleasing way.

6 – Shoot From Up High or From Low Down – Often shooting from different elevations can help to create interesting perspectives which are different from the way we normally see things from our own eye level in our everyday lives. It also shows the subject from different angles and allows to see things about the subject we might not have seen otherwise. At different angles you will also get different backgrounds behind the subject.

7 – Rule of thirds – The rule of thirds is an old, well known rule of photographic composition, but it’s always a good one. By placing your subject away from the center of your photos, and into the 1/3 zone of the picture, either in the left or right 1/3 of the frame, can help give more dimension and provide your photo a more artistic overall feel. It can also leave a lot of empty space to the left or the right of your subject and allow you to add a secondary subject into the background of your composition within that empty space.

This was meant just to be a short post to give you some ideas you can easily remember and apply quickly to your own shooting practices when out shooting at an interesting location. I hope these thoughts help you in your picture taking.