Focus on Travel Photography
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Shooting from the Land and Sea
On almost any trip, you'll find yourself using all sorts of ground and sea transportation, from high-speed trains to traditional jitneys to gondolas and more. Photographs of these modes of conveyance, and those taken from them, resonate with presence and authenticity.
En route, your transportation will often reveal vistas or vignettes that you may not see again once you arrive at your destination, so be sure you have a camera ready to snatch such opportunities. Point-and-shoot cameras are ideal for this kind of photography, because they let you react quickly with little fuss or bother.
One solution to the problem of constant motion is to use a high-speed ISO setting (ISO 400 or faster), so you can set shutter speeds fast enough to stop the motion and f/stops small enough to provide adequate depth of field. The alternative is to use a slow ISO setting and deliberately set a slow shutter speed to present a blurred, more vivid impression of movement. Be aware that if you're shooting through thick glass (an observation car on a train), your camera may have difficulty focusing. If possible, shift to manual focus.
Once you arrive in a place, take time to look around for interesting views that include your means of transportation. Straight shots of a ship in a harbor or a train at the station tend to be static, so try instead to find compositions that reveal their relationship to the locale.Next: "Signs Along the Way"