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People tend to take most of their
pictures while on vacation. It's quite natural to want visual reminders
of all the interesting places one has visited. Holiday photography, in
addition to making a record of a trip, usually affords an excellent
opportunity for improving technique, developing the eye for better
composition, and experimenting with equipment.
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My advice is to travel as light as you
can. If you load yourself down with a lot of equipment, you may find
yourself more concerned with choosing the right lens than with taking a
good picture.
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Nearly every situation can be covered
with three lenses : a normal lens for general coverage, a wide-angle
lens when you are working in confined spaces, and a telephoto for shots
when it's impossible to get right up to the main subject. A tripod or
monopod is helpful for dimly lit interiors like churches or houses, and
for night photography. If your mission is to shoot wild animals from a
distance, you will need a long telephoto lens ( 200 to 500 mm ).
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One mistake I see people make everywhere
I go happens when the photographer wants a picture of his family in
front of some famous landmark. Invariably one or more subjects are
placed next to the monument, or whatever, while the photographer moves
far enough away to fit the whole scene into the frame. The resulting
photograph will usually show, at best, a barely recognizable tiny
person in front of the overwhelming background. My advice is to
position the subject fairly close to the camera, with head and
shoulders in the frame, and the landmark, possibly out of focus, in the
background.
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I enjoy photographing people on my
vacations, and find that the best way to catch them in their natural
behavior is to be unobtrusive and to blend in with the background as
much as possible. At the same time one must always be alert and try to
anticipate some interesting action so you are ready for those fleeting
moments that happen only once.
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