A Simple Way to Add WOW! to Your Travel Shows

You are about to head out the door on a holiday, camera at the ready. So what does one take on a vacation? Well most of us shoot a collection of random photos and videos as we go along over the span of our trip.

Sometimes this works and when we arrive home there is a travelogue show we can cobble together, other times there is too much of one day and less of another. What is left to work with could be disjointed and may not produce a smooth coherent travel show.

Now you could just shotgun the trip with endless photo/video coverage of places, people and events but that is more work and less relaxing then anyone wants for a vacation.

Always enjoy shooting macro flower images on my travels – San Francisco Botanical

The first thing to decide for a trip shooting schedule is whether to make your show a daily journal. I often do a chronological timeline of my trips but it has its shortcomings.

Showing what you did day after day can be very orderly and can be a great record of how the trip went when you look at it years later. Where is can have weak spots is on the days not much happens, the weather sucks or you felt lazy and left the camera back at the hotel room. Break away from this structured timeline.

Here is a simple way to better that effort. Typically we all gravitate to shooting content of things we like; be it flowers, architecture, birds, fishing, surfing, markets, street scenes….so on. So do more of that and be better at it!

What you need to do is commit to a few thematic subjects and be consistent with your coverage.

Documenting your interests and showing your personality through your photo/video content will add that special Zing (technical term) to your travelogue shows.

Did an epic mountain bike ride at Lake Tahoe

Focusing on a few of the highlights of a trip makes it special, captures your audience’s imagination and takes them away on your travels. Delivering your show as groups of topics you’re interested in naturally produces wonderful results. You have fun shooting, enjoy the editing and feel proud and knowledgeable about the topics.

Again these are your interests on the trip, which could be what your kids did, visiting relatives, the zoo, travelling on trains, landscapes, climbing mountains, snorkelling, local artisans, churches, old castles etc.

The idea is, once you have your group of special interest images back home you can do many more things with them than just lining them up in a timeline format.

When you edit the show, you are at liberty now to group photos and videos how you wish and not by the date taken. This can improve the flow of your production with no apparent dead spots. And these focal points become highlights of the show.

Typically you want to start and
end your show with visually strong content.

Shot a ton of pix when at the Hearst Estate, California

These featured segments of your trip can act as those highlights so place a few in the body of the show to change the pace and switch up topics.

Ever notice in music, which you might also add to the show, that the song builds, changes, repeats, builds again. It is an art to create a mood and tempo for your show. Adding groups of about 10 photos or a minute of video on topics you like will be gold.

So don’t just take random whimsical pictures of your vacations. Put some sparkle to it and add your flare and style. Make the effort to favour a few select topics that the trip location lends itself to and do a conscious effort to cover it. And shoot more than you think you need too.

Let’s work to get beyond the boring usual vacation show – went here, then there…saw this…then that.. and more of this stuff again… yet another sunset… ohh look my foot….Yawn…zzzzzzzzzz

well ok I might take foot fotos as I tread this earth

all photos by author