10 Tips to Take Better Family Vacation Photos

Sum­mer­time means fam­i­ly vaca­tion time. And fam­i­ly vaca­tion means fam­i­ly pho­tos! Cre­at­ing mem­o­ries is mag­i­cal, and cap­tur­ing them so that the entire fam­i­ly can always look back on those mem­o­ries is so impor­tant. To help you cap­ture those mem­o­ries, I’ve put togeth­er 10 tips to help you take bet­ter fam­i­ly vaca­tion pho­tos this year.

It does­n’t mat­ter if you are a begin­ner or a pro­fes­sion­al. These 10 tips will help you cap­ture your fam­i­ly vaca­tion mem­o­ries in a way that will spark joy and smiles through­out the years.

How to get better family vacation photos…

1. Do your research! Research­ing your loca­tion ahead of time for cool places to take your pho­tos will save you some stress. In today’s world of Insta­gram and Pin­ter­est, it’s super easy to find pho­to-wor­thy loca­tions in most des­ti­na­tions. Find these spots and map out the loca­tions to avoid stress. 

2. Don’t always plan! Like research­ing the loca­tion and plan­ning the shot is impor­tant, so is get­ting that can­did shot—the shots of the fam­i­ly play­ing in the ocean and rid­ing the rides at an amuse­ment park. Can­did shots will stir emo­tion and bring up mem­o­ries for your kids as they get old­er. Noth­ing will stress your fam­i­ly out more than if you are fol­low­ing them around ask­ing them to smile. Have that cam­era ready, sit back, and let them be kids. You will be sur­prised at the fan­tas­tic can­dids you can capture. 

3. Get in front of the cam­era! I can’t stress this one enough, and I definet­ly need to prac­tice this one more often. You are a mem­ber of your fam­i­ly as well, and when your fam­i­ly is look­ing back on vaca­tion pho­tos in years to come, you will want to be in them. Hand the cam­era over to some­one else and be in the pic­tures! Use a tri­pod, set up that timer, what­ev­er you need to do…make sure you are in some of your photos. 

4. Tell the whole sto­ry! Remem­ber to cap­ture the lit­tle details. If you are at the beach, take shots of the shov­el and pail, the pier, your child asleep in the back­seat of the car after a long day, what­ev­er it may be to tell the sto­ry of your day. At the amuse­ment park, cap­ture shots of the kids eat­ing cot­ton can­dy or the amuse­ment park games. When you look back, doc­u­ment­ing the day will help stir those memories. 

5. Use the light you usu­al­ly would­n’t use! Get up ear­ly and use the light just as the sun is com­ing up. Stay up late and cap­ture what is hap­pen­ing after the sun goes down. Use those extra hours for some alone time cap­tur­ing things you would­n’t nor­mal­ly have the time to capture.

6. Make sure your equip­ment is ready! Noth­ing is more frus­trat­ing than turn­ing your cam­era on, get­ting ready to cap­ture that moment only to real­ize your bat­tery is dead or your SD card is full. Charge your bat­tery night­ly or even car­ry two. And always have more than one SD card with you.

7. Know how to use your equip­ment! You don’t want to be on your amaz­ing fam­i­ly vaca­tion; start fid­dling with your cam­era set­tings and miss the moment. Spend­ing some time learn­ing to use your cam­era to get the best pho­tos prop­er­ly is vital, and it does­n’t have to take a long time. Take a course to help you mas­ter your cam­era before head­ing on your vacation. 

8. Use the rules of com­po­si­tion! You want your mem­o­ries to be…memorable and not look like snap­shots. Know­ing and using the rules of com­po­si­tion will help you achieve pro­fes­sion­al, print-wor­thy pho­tos that you will be proud of.

9. Com­mu­ni­cate your expec­ta­tions! My kids are old enough to know that there is a fam­i­ly pho­to if there is a fam­i­ly vacay. It is a giv­en in my fam­i­ly, but…I still remind them, and I set the expec­ta­tion that I want one posed fam­i­ly pho­to. I even pack spe­cif­ic out­fits for the posed shot. Set­ting this expec­ta­tion ahead of time makes sure that we are all on the same page. 

10. Out­source! If the thought of cap­tur­ing your fam­i­ly’s pho­to in front of the Eifel Tow­er or Lean­ing Tow­er of Pisa stress­es you out, think about out­sourc­ing your pic­ture. You can eas­i­ly find pho­tog­ra­phers in any city and hire them to do a 30-minute shoot. 

I hope that these 10 tips to get bet­ter fam­i­ly vaca­tion pho­tos have you excit­ed to cap­ture your fam­i­ly trip. Remem­ber to have fun, relax and what­ev­er you do…enjoy your vacation!