Capture one

Went away for a few weeks to LA with my wife and daughter for a vacation. So want to share a few experiences of travelling to the United States and also while travelling with a young child.



Tripod

I took mine with me but most tourist sites won’t allow you to use it in the States. You are considered a “pro” as soon as you have a Tripod in your hand. So I didn’t use a tripod at all. Actually didn’t need to at most locations. I was able to rest my camera on fences, pavements, lean against light posts.

Conclusion, I will leave the tripod home on family vacations unless I have already got a permit to use it.

Lenses

Take your biggest range zoom lens. I have Canon 24-105mm f4 lens as my primary. Additionally, I used my wide angle. Didn’t use any fixed focal length lens like 85mm f1.8 or 30mm f1.4.

So, do yourself a favor and travel light, especially if you are traveling with a young child (my princess is 2yo)

Taking pictures

You will find that you won’t get time to take all the photos you want. So don’t get frustrated!! Why? You say!!

Kids run around do silly things, you will be keeping an eye on them stopping them from hurting themselves. So you won’t (as much as you want) always be looking through the viewfinder.

Purpose of a vacation with family is to spend time together while capturing special memories. Not the other way around ie. taking photos of your desired locations while dragging your family with you.

Conclusion, it’s okay if you miss some shots, enjoy your time with your family. Don’t get upset.

Portraits

Typically you need a nice wide f-stop lens which is usually a fixed focal length like 85mm1.8 or 100mm 2.8 for the best portraits but you can imitate the same with your zoom lens.

Open the aperture as wide as possible f4/f4.5/f5.6 or whatever your zoom lens allows. Step far from your subject, as far as you can possibly go and them zoom into as much as possible. This will increase the lens compression and create depth of field similar to a wide aperture lens. For example I’d move 5-6 meter away from my wife and zoom in all the to 105mm at f4 on my lens rather than stand close to her (1-2meter) and shoot at 24mm.

I hope you find some of my experiences useful in your situation or similar to what you may have experienced already. Leave me a comment and your thoughts.

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