While arguably one of the easiest forms of photography to get stuck into, from my experience, it’s extremely difficult to take a truly spectacular travel photo. The thing is, unless you’re a professional photographer (which I am not), when you travel somewhere your sole aim is unlikely going to be to just take photos, meaning that it’s very difficult to take an “art worthy” photograph, that does not simply  count as a “snapshot”.

Here’s a bit more of an explanation on this, one photo I took time to set up, compose, and get my exposure settings correct on… a real photo, and one that I just hastily took… a snapshot:

 

Even though both of these images are taken of the same end of Lake Garda, albeit different times of day and different sides, it is clear to me which I prefer. I wish all of my 3000 images from my holiday turned out like the image on the right, but these two images illustrate a very important point when it comes to the quality of your photos. In general, I have found that the quality of your final image is directly proportional to the time invested in the photo. While there may be a few exceptions when you capture an amazing image, completely out of the blue, as a general rule, if you want to take good photos, you need to be patient. Another thing that I discovered is that patience comes in three main forms. Take the image on the left as an example, which I’d give a score of around 6/10 if we assume the one on the right is a generous 10/10. The patience for the right photo came in the form of setting my camera up on a tripod, framing the boat according to the rule of thirds (ish) and then attempting to get the correct exposure which took about 7 different photos. All in all, the photo on the right took about 5 minutes to capture in a way that made me happy. To improve the photo on the right, a different form of patience will have been required. While the surrounding area was completely beautiful, this photo is extremely boring, not showing off any of my photography skills. To improve this snapshot, then, I have a few options:

1. Find a subject for the photo, this may be a tree, rock, wild animal, or human – just anything to put the vastness of the area into perspective and give the photo an extra interest
2. Use an interesting technique with the photo, with this photo, for example, I was considering taking multiple images to stitch together in photoshop, a process I experimented with here last year (not to overwhelming success, but it’s a cool concept nonetheless):

3. The third obvious way to improve the photo on the left is probably the easiest, just come back at sunset. Easy, if you take a photo during the golden hour, it’s bound to be better.

So, there’s one example of patience in a photographic situation for you, and here’s another. While I was in Venice, I knew that I needed to capture a photo of one of the city’s famous bridges, something that I found particularly difficult – with it being quite a clichéd image. In fact, I’m going to put my three rules above into practice and show you three photos:

1. Find a subject for your photo:

Quite a simple tip, making for a photo that just about escapes the realms of the holiday snap, the subject in this image being the boat. To improve, I would have got down to the same level as the boat, zoomed into full and got the boat driver as the subject, perfectly placed underneath the bridge. That, however, was not quite possible.

2. Use an interesting technique for the photo, in this case, another night time long exposure:

3. The final option, and the easiest to execute – taking the photo at sunset:

Simple, while you have to be very patient if you want to stand in the same place, not moving until sunset- the emission of the harsh lighting that is prominent during the daytime creates a very pleasing aesthetic.

What have we covered in this hastily written article, attempting to have a central theme of patience then? Well, all in all, there are three things that elevate a snapshot to a proper photo; while my these rules are simply a few of the things that go through my mind before taking a photo – they all force myself to invest time into my images. So, if you take anything away from my ramble, the one word you need to remember is… Patience!

One more thing, I’m going to start a regular blog series in which I attempt to critique my reader’s photos – but… this will only happen if you lot cooperate. So, if you want me to write about some of your images (as many as you want to send me), just go onto my “info” page and send me a message.