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As a freelance writer, travel blogger, and oftentimes, a solo traveler, capturing stunning images of the places I visit is so important, and I'm always trying to improve my skills. I rely on high-performance photography gear and gadgets to help get the best photo - especially when there's no one else around to help.
Travel photography has come a long way since the days of point and shoot disposable cameras. We all remember the joy of taking film to be developed, excitedly flipping through the prints only to find your thumb blocking half of the shot - in every shot.
Over the years, I've come across a few gadgets that have really helped me improve my photos, protect my gear, and step up my travel blogging game.
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A tripod is essential for any photographer, especially when shooting at night, but it can be incredibly bulky to carry around. It also requires a flat surface for stability, which is not always possible in certain situations.
Joby has really revolutionized camera tripods with its portable GorillaPods. They're small enough to fit into your bag, but more importantly, they're flexible. It attaches securely to your camera and you can then wrap its legs around literally anything to get your camera in place for the perfect shot.
I find mine really useful when traveling solo to take images of myself for my blog, or for steadying my camera when taking nighttime landscape shots. I've wrapped it around fence posts, set it up in hotel rooms, and used it on boats — I always travel with mine in tow. Combined with the self-timer on my camera, this is how I take almost all of my solo travel shots.
But make sure you check the weight of your camera to ensure which Joby is the right one for you. I have a Sony mirrorless camera so this 1 kilo version of the tripod is perfect, but a smaller or heavier camera will require a different model to accommodate the weight.
"Lonely Planet's Guide to Photography" by Richard I'Anson
For me, photography is an ongoing exercise in practice and technique.
It's really easy for me to get frustrated when trying to capture the perfect shot, but I always find it helpful to flip through "Lonely Planet's Guide to Photography." I'm a big fan of its travel guidebooks — from a company who literally wrote the book on travel, this one definitely lives up to the reputation of the brand.
There are lots of tips on the basics of photography, especially composition, light, and exposure, but it's chock full of others too, including a section on how to monetize your travel shots. It's written in layman's terms, so it's easy to understand — even if you didn't go to photography or business school.
Of course, it also delivers with an impressive range of inspirational images.
Camera gear and tech are expensive, so you need to keep your investments safe.
When looking for gear bags, this one really appealed to me because it has more safety features than I ever thought a bag could or should have — and that's a good thing. All of PacSafe's bags have locking cables and secure hooks so you can attach them to fixed objects, and are made of slash-proof materials so someone can't cut through and steal your gear.
I can fit my laptop, camera, and other odds and ends in this bag, and it even has built-in rain cover to keep things from getting soaked. It's great for travel as I know my equipment is much less likely to be damaged in transit — or worse, stolen — when it's in this bag.
I rarely go anywhere without my Sony A5100 — it's a good mirrorless camera if you're looking for a fairly entry-level and reasonably priced model for travel photos. We've tried other mirrorless cameras as well as DSLR models with different price points and specs, it just depends on what you're looking for.
The Sony A5100 was the first "proper" camera I'd invested in and several years later, I don't feel the need to replace it, as I'm still really happy with the images it takes.
I find it straightforward to use whether shooting on intelligent mode (which I use 99% of the time) or shooting manually. It comes with Sony's 16-50mm E-mount lens, although this is interchangeable. I find the included lens great for most situations, although you'd probably find an additional zoom lens necessary if you like to shoot long distance or take wildlife photography.
Using Lightroom to edit my travel photos has made such a huge difference in the quality of my images — especially for Instagram, where you only have seconds to catch someone's attention as they scroll by.
Lightroom is part of the Adobe suite of photo editing tools, and makes it really easy to create edits that makes your photos "pop," drawing viewers in with bright color, beautiful light, and well-composed crops and edits. Consider creating your own Lightroom presets, which you can apply to a set of photos to create a consistent look.
The tool is fairly easy to learn and is a lot of fun to play around with. For best results, shoot your images in RAW mode as this will give you better results when editing your photos. Just remember that shooting in RAW takes up a lot more memory on your memory card.
I edit all of my photos in Lightroom these days and have noticed an instant improvement in the quality of my Instagram images and blog images.
