Expert advice: Pros share travel photography tips and tricks

There’s nothing better than snapping that epic pic when you’re on vacation. Not only is it a memory captured in time, it provides serious bragging opportunities for all of your social media channels. So how do you go about taking the best travel photography? Well, we talked to two of our favorite and most creative photographers-turned-bloggers in the biz for their top travel photography tips.

Related: 5 pro tips for killer vacation food photos.

Superstars Trey Ratcliff and Kirstin Alana share tips on how to score killer shots and they reveal what inspires their own travel photography.

Stuck In Customs

Trey Ratcliff needs no introduction. His travel photos have been viewed more than 99 billion times. He’s the mastermind behind the blog stuckincustoms.com and he’s wrapping up a photo walk to 13 cities across the United States. He’s best known as a pioneer in HDR photography and Trey’s photo,“Fourth on Lake Austin,” was the first HDR photograph to hang in the Smithsonian. We caught up with Trey at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach, right before his Miami photo walk.

Trey’s featured shot from the Miami photo walk.

Treyrecommends investing in the right equipment, but he says you don’t have to break the bank. His favorite camera for travel photography is Sony’s A7RII. “This is currently my main camera,” says Trey. “I absolutely love it. It has all the power of the giant DSLR systems at a fraction of the price and size.” For a more entry level camera, he recommends the Sony A5000.

Related: Your 7 most cliched travel photos—and how to fix them.

“I have this big camera, but in all honesty I could take 90 percent of my photos with my iPhone, and that’s the direction the industry is going,” adds Trey, mentioning that it’s perfectly fine to practice your photography skills using your smart phone.

“I’m interested in making the art of learning photography very personal and available to anyone,” says Trey about his photography apprentice program called The Arcanum. “We decided to bring back the master/apprentice style system. We work with around 50 of the greatest artists of the day, who have become masters and now have apprentices who are learning the art.”

Who inspires Trey?

1. Stephan Bollinger: “Stephan’s portraits are absolutely mesmerizing!”

2. Jackie Ranken: “I love how Jackie finds beauty in everything.”

3. Jessica Lark: “Jessica’s images combine beauty, fantasy and reality into something truly magical.”

Aviators and a Camera

Kirsten Alana is one of the hottest up-and-coming travel photographers we’ve come across and you can follow her work on her blog aviatorsandacamera.com. She’s been listed by countless magazines and media outlets as one of the best travel photographers in the world and her Instagram account (@KirstenAlana) will inspire some serious wanderlust. Four Seasons Magazine even hired her as their featured photographer to capture stunning moments and circumnavigate the globe on their private Four Seasons Jet. Here’s an impressive shot by Kristen in Sydney, Australia while staying at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney.

For the fourth stop of her around-the-world journey, Kristen traveled Down Under to Sydney, Australia’s largest city, where the skyline is defined by the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“Ithink it’s important to capture a mix of photos while traveling so that people who are following along can see a whole ‘picture’ of a place, rather than just a narrow viewpoint,” says Kristen. “Sunrise and Golden Hour, just before sunset, are some of the best times to take travel photos no matter where you are in the world. It pays to be an early riser and it also makes it a lot easier to deal with jet lag if you just get up and start working. You’ll also see a side to a place you never would when you’re exploring only during the middle of the day.”

Related: See how Instagrammer Krista Simmons beautifully chronicles undiscovered Greece.

Kristen also recommends to always ask for permission before you take a portrait of someone while you’re traveling. “Many photographers espouse the philosophy that you should shoot first and ask later but I have found that asking, before shooting, not only allows me to feel better about the photos I create but it also leads to some amazing conversations with locals,” she adds. And Kristen tries to learn the phrase, “May I take your photo, please?” in the native language of everywhere she travels.

Who inspires Kirsten?

1. Zach Glassman: “Zach is a friend of mine now but I first noticed his work on Instagram because he seemed to follow my philosophy of showing a well rounded viewpoint of everywhere he travels. And he brings an element of playfulness into his work that’s only surpassed by his mastery of using light.”

2. Jamie Beck: “Jamie is the master of the artful selfportrait. In a world where the selfie stick reigns, she proves that you don’t have to use one in order to give people a sense of where you are and how you are enjoying a place when you travel. Whether she’s showcasing her fashion work, her home in NYC, or her current far flung destination. I’m always on the edge of my seat in excitement to follow along.”

3. Chris Burkard: “Chris is probably one of the most followed, and most featured, photographers on Instagram and it’s because his stunning landscapes seem as if they are too good to be true. They’re not, in fact they’re the work of a man who has perfected the art of letting the earth’s beauty speak for itself.”

Now that you have a few tips and new inspirations to follow from the pros, where are you off to next?

Tagged: Europe, Photo essay