You plan for months, you pack your luggage, pile the kids into the car and you’re off on that family vacation. And like most people, you probably want to capture (i.e., photograph) all the fun times you are about to have so to be able to relive those memories over and over and over again. Great! Nothing wrong with that-I do it too.

But maybe, perhaps maybe, you want this round of photographs to be better than the last one. Sure, you want to get that photo of the family standing in front of that monument, but you also want something unique, something cool, something better.

Here are a few tips to help.

1. Make sure you pack a good camera. Forgetting a camera is never a good thing, but brining a camera that is not up to snuff is almost as bad. Sure, I have family and vacation photographs that were taken using something less than a decent camera and when I look as some of those photos today I am reminded that I want to continually kick myself for not having better equipment with me at that time.
2. Don’t forget to actually take a photo of the family. Like I previously mentioned, you want to take that photograph of the family in front of the monument, but when you take it, make sure that you can actually see and indentify the family. Many times, the family is nothing more than some distant object in the frame of the picture. Move in close and take that photo with the family identified; take a separate photo of the landmark if you wish.
3. Not all photos need to be posed shot, so be sure to get lots of candid’s of your family doing what they do.
4. Take detail shots of your subject. A lot of interesting pictures come in the form of detail so don’t be afraid to get in close, but always remember safety first! (Your camera/lense combination may have some limitations on how close you can get so pay attention to the focus)
5. Don’t always take your photographs standing perpendicular to the subject. Vary your perspective and create angles. Framing and lighting might be better as well as visual pleasure by just moving yourself a few feet this way or that.
6. Take a lot of photographs. With the advent of digital photography comes a very low cost per picture (no film, no developing) and if you don’t like how the photograph looks you can always delete it.

Happy shooting and have a great vacation.