I came upon an article called How to Photograph Busy Tourist Sites by Kav Dadfar on the Digital Photography School website a few weeks ago. All the tips sounded a lot like the ones I have talked about either directly or indirectly here on the my blog over the years. I thought it would be fun to take each tip and expand on them. I hope you enjoyed the series. Below is each tip and a summary of the posts with links for your reference.

1. Get Up Early

I showed how getting to popular tourist destinations early is the way to beat the crowds and get good light for photography. In contrast, as I explained over on my Walt Disney World blog, staying late at a Disney park will give you your best people-free photography opportunities.

2. Include the Tourists

Especially at a Disney or similar type of place, it is almost impossible not to get other guests in your photos. As I showed, just include the people like I did below. In fact, I waited for someone interesting (see #4 below) to stop in front of the fish tank on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

A lady looking at the fish on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/125s, f/5, ISO 1100, EV 0, 100mm focal length.

3. Compose Carefully

By carefully cropping people out of a photo either in camera or afterwards in post-processing, you can eliminate distracting crowds or individuals in your photos. While it is best to do it before taking the photograph, it is easy to crop and, even eliminate, distracting people in our photos using photo editing software.

4. Take Your Time

I do understand this can be hard to do for people traveling with families, waiting for a time when people are no longer around at the location you want to photograph does work. As Confucius said, The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

5. Think Creatively

This can be very challenging and very rewarding to do. Look from different angles, get low, get high or tilt your camera in different directions. You never know what you might uncover.

6. Focus on the Details

Looking for and finding details to photograph in the places we travel to is a favorite subject for photographers. Details both small and large help to tell the story of a place.