15 Fantastic Summer Photography Ideas

Are you run­ning out of things to pho­to­graph? Are you look­ing for sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas? Some­thing to push your pho­tog­ra­phy and get your cam­era in your hands every day!

I teach my stu­dents all of the time that skills are like a mus­cle. You have to work those mus­cles, or they become a bit weak. A pho­tog­ra­phy project helps you flex those pho­tog­ra­phy mus­cles and also inspires you…who does­n’t need a lit­tle inspiration?

Every pho­tog­ra­ph­er, whether just start­ing or a sea­soned pro, needs some­thing to chal­lenge them, ideas and inspi­ra­tion, and there are a lot of sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas. Today, I’ve got you cov­ered. Here are my top 15 sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas.

Summer Photography Ideas

#1 Traditions

Most of us take pho­tos of things mean­ing­ful to us and what is more mean­ing­ful than our fam­i­ly tra­di­tions. You don’t have to lim­it your­self to cap­tur­ing mem­o­ries of hol­i­day tra­di­tions. That’s why #1 on my list of amaz­ing sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas is traditions. 

Begin cap­tur­ing your sum­mer tra­di­tions as well. Does your fam­i­ly have any sum­mer tra­di­tions? Camp­ing in that spe­cial spot? Boat­ing on the lake? A year­ly fam­i­ly reunion? Spend time cap­tur­ing the lit­tle details of these events to reflect on for years.

#2 Playing in the Water

While this is easy to cap­ture in the sum­mer, swim­ming in the pool, tub­ing in the lake, or jump­ing through the ocean waves, try to think out­side of the box when cap­tur­ing this sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy idea. Cap­ture those relaxed, can­did moments that make sum­mer so special. 

Bath­time, play­ing in a pud­dle, and even doing the dish­es. And if you can’t enlist the help of a child to cap­ture the fun, use a four-legged friend, a part­ner of a friend and get their sup­port. Remem­ber to keep an eye on your shut­ter speed and cap­ture the move­ment of the water in your shots.

#3 Camping Out

Num­ber three on my list of sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas is one that brings back mem­o­ries. One of my favorite mem­o­ries of a child was tak­ing every blan­ket that I could find and cre­at­ing a fort. Camp­ing out whether, in your liv­ing room, in a tent in the great out­doors or sleep away camp is a sum­mer sta­ple in most of our memories. 

Use this sum­mer pho­to idea and cap­ture the details of your cam­pout. Your group laugh­ing and roast­ing marsh­mal­lows on the open fire, set­ting up the tent, or search­ing for fire­wood, look for the lit­tle details. If you are feel­ing real­ly cre­ative, shoot a day in the life on your camp­ing trip. Shoot one pho­to every wak­ing hour and show the details of your day.

#4 Sunset

You can cap­ture a sun­set shot any time of the year, but there is some­thing mag­i­cal about sum­mer sun­sets! The light is bet­ter than at oth­er times of the year, and the col­ors are more vibrant. Cap­ture the col­ors on the big, puffy clouds after a storm. The way the sun slow­ly dips behind the water. Nar­row your aper­ture and work on cap­tur­ing sun flares, or use the per­fect time of day to work on your sil­hou­ette photos.

#5 Bubbles

Whether it’s bub­bles from a bub­ble machine, hand-made bub­bles or bub­bles from a sink of dish­es, every­one loves bubbles…and they cre­ate cool pho­tos. Mak­ing sure that you have good light, and plan­ning for the bub­ble shot will help you be suc­cess­ful. Nar­row your aper­ture to cap­ture the detail, and get ready and shot. Cap­ture some­one blow­ing the bub­bles from dif­fer­ent angles all while remem­ber­ing to com­pose your shots, and remem­ber to shoot before and after they blow so that you get the best shot.

#6 Watermelon

If I have to think of one thing that imme­di­ate­ly takes me back to those sum­mer mem­o­ries, it’s water­mel­on. Set up a shot of this bright mel­on, wor­thy of a food mag­a­zine. Think out­side the box and cap­ture the seeds or a water­mel­on seed spit­ting contest—your favorite “sub­ject” dig­ging into the sum­mer fruit. The pos­si­bil­i­ties are endless.

#7 Bedtime

It does­n’t mat­ter if you are an adult or a child, after a long day in the sun and a nice bath, noth­ing is bet­ter than curl­ing up in bed. One of my favorite pho­tos is of my son all clean and cozy in bed read­ing. Bed­time pho­tos cre­ate won­der­ful mem­o­ries but you don’t want them to cre­ate stress. Put on some relax­ing music, dim the lights and start shooting. 

Look for unique per­spec­tives and change your angles. Shoot the details of the moment. Their lit­tle fin­gers wrapped around a favorite blan­ket, or their lash­es just as their eyes have close. And remem­ber you don’t have to have lit­tle kids to shoot great bed­time shots. Enlist your teenagers or part­ners to help you shoot this chal­lenge or even shoot your own bed­time rou­tine. Your tooth­brush, or face wash. Your bed with the sheets pulled back. The pos­si­bil­i­ties are endless. 

#8 Friends

Sum­mer is the per­fect time for gath­er­ing with friends. Whether your kids are hang­ing out, hav­ing sleep­overs with their friends, sit­ting and shar­ing those sum­mer secrets, dan­gling their feet in the water, or you and your friends shar­ing a drink at hap­py hour, try to cap­ture the nat­ur­al smiles and relaxed atmos­phere. Remem­ber that not every pho­to has to be a posed, in-your-face type of sit­u­a­tion. Focus on your sub­ject, cre­ate some back­ground blur, and secret­ly cap­ture those sum­mer mem­o­ries with friends.

#9 Bike Ride

Head­ing on a bike ride this sum­mer? Maybe you are watch­ing a bike race, or your kids just rid­ing in front of your house. Up that shut­ter speed and start snap­ping. Cap­ture the details of the bike. The spokes of the wheel, the bell, or the stream­ers on the handlebars. 

Line up your rid­ers and have them race towards you, or even set up an obsta­cle course for them to use. If you are out on a fam­i­ly ride get a shot of every­one rid­ing down paths or a qui­et road. Remem­ber that if you are on your bike you need to have your cam­era secure­ly around your neck or wrist, you don’t want your fun day to end in a bro­ken camera.

#10 Farmers Market

Every Tues­day and Fri­day in my vil­lage there is a farmer’s mar­ket. Even if I have noth­ing on my shop­ping list, I love stop­ping at the stalls and see­ing the bright-col­ored fruits and veg­eta­bles. Food is always a great time to use the com­po­si­tion rule of fill­ing the frame. Set up your col­or­ful shots and cap­ture the har­vests of the sum­mer. You can go at your pho­tos from a more pho­to­jour­nal­is­tic approach, cap­tur­ing the farmer sell­ing his crop, or the crowds lined up for their purchases.

#11 Lemonade

Sum­mer and lemon­ade go hand in hand right? That’s why I have added lemon­ade to my list of sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas. Cap­ture the whole process of mak­ing the lemon­ade. Start pick­ing the lemons from your tree or pick­ing them out and your gro­cery store or farmer’s mar­ket. Set up a pret­ty shot while you cut and squeeze the lemons, and then do a mag­a­zine-wor­thy shot of your final prod­uct in a pret­ty pitch­er sur­round­ed by lemons. Or if your kids are help­ing set up a lemon­ade stand with the fin­ished lemonade. 

#12 Books

Num­ber twelve is an easy sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy idea. Most kids have a sum­mer read­ing list, and often times the adults have a bit more time on their hands to read them­selves, so what bet­ter time to cap­ture pho­tos of books. Again, think out­side of the box…shoot from behind, over the shoul­der. Stack up all the books you hope to read or have read that sum­mer and pho­to­graph the spines or indi­vid­ual pages.

#13 Travels

Many of us get out and explore over the sum­mer hol­i­days. It does­n’t mat­ter if it’s a “stay­ca­tion” where you are explor­ing your home town or you are tak­ing “the trip of a life­time” use this oppor­tu­ni­ty to cap­ture time­less mem­o­ries. Spend a bit of time and research some loca­tions that you want to add to your trav­el pho­to­shoot list. 

Wake up before every­one gets going and cap­ture the pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions with few­er tourists. Prac­tice and exper­i­ment with the rules of com­po­si­tion and try to cap­ture the locals to tell your sto­ry-remem­ber to always ask per­mis­sion. Remem­ber to be patient, have your cam­era with you at all times and still have fun!

#14 Seashells

At the beach this sum­mer? How could I have a list of sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas and not have seashells on it? Try cap­tur­ing the details of the seashells, keep­ing in mind the rules of com­po­si­tion. Get down low, cre­ate some depth of field and shot that shot. Or fill the frame with the unique aspects of the shells. Line them up and use the rule of thirds. Is your beach full of shells? Lay on your stom­ach and cap­ture the end­less “sea” of shells.

#15 Wildflowers

My last sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy idea for you is wild­flow­ers. Do you have a beau­ti­ful gar­den full of wild­flow­ers? Per­haps a sun­flower field near­by? Put your­self in the mid­dle of the field, sur­round your­self with flow­ers and start shoot­ing. Your goal as the pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to get your view­er to “smell” the flow­ers through your pho­to! Play with the angles of the stems, and find some shad­ows cre­at­ed by the flow­ers. Remem­ber that you don’t have to be in the field of flow­ers, cap­ture the wild­flow­ers in a vase at home.

You can focus on one of the 15 sum­mer pho­tog­ra­phy ideas this sum­mer or tack­le all 15. Remem­ber, no mat­ter what you decide, have fun, stick with it, shoot with pur­pose every time, and see what a dif­fer­ence prac­tic­ing will make in your pic­tures! And…if you are ready to reach your pho­tog­ra­phy goals even faster, check out The Begin­ner Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Class here and under­stand ISO, SS, Aper­ture, WB and more!