"Signs" of Our Times- Photographic Opportunities Missed

For most travelers the camera is packed away in a bag or suitcase, awaiting arrival at your holiday destination, right?

Big mistake!

How often have you been reviewing your pictures some months after your trip and have no idea where a particular shot was taken. It has happened to me on countless occasions.

I was reminded of this on my recent drive across America. Thanks to the way all our pictures are automatically numbered on our digital disc (I assume you are using digital photography) it is easy to insert markers in the form of road signs or sign posts along the way. This gives us an immediate location guide when reviewing the pictures. Everything between my Arizona signpost and "Welcome to New Mexico" were obviously taken in Arizona!

You should always include street signs, famous landmarks and easily identifiable objects in your travel picture collections.

On the subject of travel pictures, there are often great picture opportunities that fly by as you drive to your destination. Unique pictures, unusual signs and photo opportunities that may last just a few seconds as you speed down the road. If you are using a simple point and shoot camera, it is essential that you target your picture as far ahead as possible. Shooting directly sideways out the passenger window will, in most cases just result in a blur.

If you are fortunate enough to have a camera that allows you to select what is called 'shutter priority' you need to select the highest speed the lighting conditions allow. In my case that was 1/800^th of a second. The other technique employed by professional photographers is to 'pan your object' which simply means capturing the object in your viewfinder and moving the camera in the direction that the object is moving - usually moving in the opposite direction to which you are going. At the point that you come along side the chosen target object you just press the shutter.

Make sure that you follow through with your pan movement. Stopping as you push the shutter button will in most cases cause you blur you shot. Stationary sport photographers use the same technique at sports meetings such as when shooting fast moving cars at the speedway or horses at the racetrack.

There is an additional benefit with this technique. Because the camera is moving at the same speed and direction as your subject, the subject is sharply in focus whilst the background is blurred giving a great effect of motion to your picture.

I should mention in passing, the wonderful storage facilities offered by such sites as Kodak Gallery and Snapfish. Both these web sites allow you to download your pictures into their storage facility saving valuable space on your computer. If you can, it is best to download your pictures on to a CD or DVD for storage, however if you do not have that ability or equipment either of the aforementioned sites make no charge to store your pictures in albums that you can send to friends or access from any computer anywhere. In the case of the new Kodak site it is possible to download your pictures in high resolution, invaluable for professional photographs like myself.

Enjoy your travels and don't forget your camera!Dr. Peter J. Shield PhD ( http://pjshield.com)