Click! Click! Click!

This is the only sound I heard throughout my backpacking travels in 2019.

Okay… maybe it’s not the only sound, and it’s certainly one of the more predominant ones, since photography played such a big role throughout my journey.

I literally couldn’t stop taking photos everywhere I went. Even the smallest minutiae, my mind would want to take photos of.

While I was prepared to capture images - having brought my Nikon 3500 DSLR along with two lenses for it in addition to my Iphone -, I didn’t realize HOW many pictures I’d be taking throughout my travels.

I talk at length about photography in some of my posts, and I haven’t - up until now - made an entire blog post about taking photos whilst backpacking.

That’s about to change. With this blog post, I’m going to cover some basic photography tips that any backpacker can follow while on their adventures.

So sit back, grab a pen and paper, and jot down some of these tricks, because if you’re not already a photography enthusiast heading into your travels, you’ll want to be after you read some of the advice in this article - afterall, the more photos you take, the more memories you’ll have of your escapades. Why not make them as exciting, adventurous, and inspirational as possible?

Here are six photography tips that anyone can use on their solo budget backpacking travels:

Yes and no. In other words, the rule of thirds argues otherwise; states that the most interesting compositions come from placing your subject - or other, distinguished parts of your area of interest within the frame - not in the centre of your frame, but in the corners, or in the left, center, right, or bottom, centre, or top thirds of your picture.

If anyone’s watched Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans (2022), you’ll remember a scene towards the end where Sammy meets John Ford, and the latter tells him that when the horizon is at the top or bottom of the frame, “...it’s interesting”, and that when it’s not, “...it’s not interesting.”

The rule of thirds basically says that as well.

So if you want your photos to start looking more professional - and to help you tell your stories -, start experimenting with following the rule of thirds.

It’ll work wonders for you, especially because architecture - i.e. churches, historic buildings, and many other structures of which you’ll see PLENTY on your travels - lends itself nicely to these guidelines.

And of course, this is just the first technique that I’ll cover to help you create the best possible photos of your backpacking adventures.

The next will be…

2. Harnessing the Power of Golden Hour

Certain times of the day are better for taking photos - especially outdoors - than others.

These times are called Golden Hours, and they take place either right after sunrise, or before sunset - you’ll also hear the term Blue Hours referring to the bluish hue of the sky before sunrise or after sunset.

The reason that these times are known as “Golden Hours” is because the sun is lower in the sky than during the daytime, allowing you to get softer light.

If you were to take photos during the daytime, when the sun’s at its strongest or highest point in the sky, you’d be dealing with harsh light and shadows, making it difficult for you to capture your subjects with even lighting that doesn’t distract from the focal point. This would require you to invest in - or create your own - additional equipment and tools (i.e. reflectors) to balance the lighting and eliminate shadows, which isn’t always practical when you’re backpacking, especially alone.

Obviously you’ll be taking photos at all times of the day throughout your trip, regardless of whether or not the light is perfect for your photography needs - after all, the goal is to backpack and see the world, not just take photos, and who wouldn’t want to do that on bright, sunny days? -, and if you happen to get up early one morning - i.e. let’s say you need to catch an early Uber or train to get somewhere - and you want to use that as an opportunity to take some photos, go for it. Because if you’re into photography, your photos are going to look awesome.

Same goes for cloudy or overcast days, barring that it’s not raining heavily. Clouded weather creates even lighting because it blocks the sun, making your photos look nicer because you’re not dealing with shadows and harsh lighting.

In order to enhance your photos further, you might also want to…

3. Experiment with Perspectives

Dutch angles / tilts, low and high angles, close-up shots and wide-shots… These are all examples of perspective in your photography.

Perhaps this is a little much for taking photos while traveling, and depending on how invested you are in your photography - I know I was trying to take great photos while I was backpacking -, it might be worth it for you to experiment with various angles, shot sizes, point of views, etc.

Maybe some of you even want to tell a story through your pictures or your videos. In any case, it’s important to test and play around with various compositional techniques that - combined with the rule of thirds - enhance the overall quality of your photography.

At the very least, you’ll have some beautiful looking photos of churches, monuments, or historic or famous sites and landmarks, and you’ll have these as memories.

And speaking of memories, we’re lucky to have smartphones on us to a) store our photos on and b) to enhance these long lasting memories for us.

That’s why I recommend you…

4. Embrace Smartphone Photography Hacks

This could include everything from turning on HDR (high dynamic range) mode on your smartphone camera - this allows you to widen the exposure range in your camera, which adds more detail to the light and dark areas in your photos -, to using manual focus, to using the various aspect ratios on your phone as well as any color filters you might have, and even using third party apps to enhance the quality of your image.

Third party apps such as Photoshop Mix, Photographer’s Companion, PhotoPills, and many others allow you to edit, plan, and take better photos.

They do this by giving you information about the best times to take photos (i.e. Golden Hour and Blue Hour, the latter being right before sunrise and right after sunset), detailing the position of the sun, moon, stars, & Northern Lights, and providing settings for depth of field, field of view, equivalent exposure, and more.

Meanwhile editing apps like Photoshop Mix allow you to color correct, add filters to, and play around with the overall look of your photo in post-production.

Many of these apps also come with tools such as a light meter, and intervalometer, though you can also download separate apps for those.

So yeah, do your research, figure out what apps you need, and download them as you go. Most of them are free, with the paid versions being quite cheap (around $3-4), and ad free.

Regardless of which version you get, remember, you must…

5. Tell a Story Through Your Photos

The point of photographs is to create memories for your travels.

And wouldn’t it be cool if you could also tell a narrative through your pictures?

Maybe one day, you’ll want to start a blog like I did, and use those photos to enhance your writing, and talk about your travel escapades.

Or perhaps you’ll want to share them with your family, or create a photo album of your adventures.

Either way, while I’m not suggesting that you need to plan out every single shot like you’d be doing if you were to make a movie, I think it’s cool to keep it at the back of your head that, “Hey, maybe one day, I’ll use these to narrate or tell a story about my travels to someone.”

If nothing else, it’ll give your photography some direction.

But other than that, go ham and take photos of whatever you want. I kind of did, and I still found a way to use my travel photos for personal and professional use.

None of that would’ve been possible, however, if I didn’t…

6. Practice Patience and Observation

This one’s obvious, and since most of us are Gen Z or even Millennials, I feel like some of us have lost the ability to truly be patient, and observant of our surroundings.

While I don’t want to generalize and say that everyone’s impatient, some of us are.

Photography oftentimes requires us to be calm, sharp-eyed, and tolerant of imperfect lighting conditions, weather interruptions, or just good ol’ fashioned malfunctioning gear and technology.

As such, it’s crucial for us to practice calmness and consideration in our resolve to capture awesome photos, since we can only control our actions, and not the weather or lighting conditions of the places we visit - sure when you’re doing photography at home or in a studio, you’ll have your own lighting setup, and I’m talking about when traveling.

Even if you do bring a small lighting kit with you, I highly doubt you’re going to use it when snapping pictures outdoors, in museums, cathedrals, or castles.

Patience also lets you experiment with different shot sizes, compositions, angles, and lighting setups (albeit ones that are out of your control).

So yeah, patience is crucial for - good - photography.

And photography is crucial to your travels because let’s face it: when your journeys end, you’ll want to remember them. And you’ll be amazed at how quickly your memory forgets certain details of your adventures.

Even me, I forgot so many important moments of my travels, until I started gathering photos for this blog.

So yeah, photography plays a critical role in your backpacking journeys. And your travels are 100% worth remembering, so you might as well make the photos you take on them look great.

I’m sure there are tons of other photography tips and tricks out there that I might’ve left out of this article for the sake of keeping it short, tight, and readable, so feel free to comment down below or on our Facebook, Twitter / X, or Instagram channels to give us feedback on what else we could write about, photography or travel related (or both in one).

Also, give us a like on those platforms in order to get more insights about all things backpacking when they pop up. With us, you’ll get the most up-to-date information about backpacking and travel.

That’ll all for now, and we look forward to giving you guys more articles about all things travel. In the meantime, tell us what more you’d like to learn, and have a great week!

Solo Travel Photography: Capturing Unforgettable Moments on the Road

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