Travel Photography For Beginners: Choosing A Camera And Getting Started

By: Paul Symonds
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:30:14
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Travel photography can be as much fun for non-professionals as it can be for professionals. So what do you need to take up travel photography as a hobby and what else do you need to know? If you are a professional photographer this article will definitely be too basic for you. If you are a beginner then please read on.

Most of us travel these days anyway, so it is not a case of needing to travel anymore than what we already do, to start enjoying travel photography. Travel need not even be far, with the other side of your city still worthy of being called travel. The idea behind travel photography is that you are capturing images of culture, scenic views ie the essence of a place no matter what its location or size.

The more expensive the camera then generally you can of course expect better quality images, i.e. higher pixilation and more available optical zoom. Personally I find pocket cameras excellent because it is not realistic to carry a bulky camera everywhere, unless you are a real hard-core photographer (perhaps one who also carries a tripod everywhere, as though it were the car keys). I have found myself that I have some of my best photos from opportunistic moments and I have only managed to get these photos because I had a pocket camera ready on hand. If you are looking for a pocket camera so that you can begin snapping away wherever you are and whenever you want, then I personally think the Sony series of pocket camera's such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W70 Digital Camera (with 7.2 Million pixels & 3x Optical Zoom and affordable) is a worthy buy.

Hard-core photographers will say that using a manual camera is better. The fact is though, that unless you are a series paid photographer, then digital camera's are fast closing the gap on manual camera's and many digital camera's now also have add on manual lenses and also manual features.

Many beginners to photography get confused also about zoom and the meaning of optical zoom, when buying a camera. Optical zoom refers to the zoom that you get which does not affect the quality. You zoom in on an object for example and the quality is not affected. Normal zoom is when you zoom in closer but the closer you zoom is, the less focus you get. Optical zoom is the zoom that matters. Buying a camera with optical zoom of 3 or 6 is usually sufficient. If you really want to zoom in from a distance then you might possibly need a camera with 8-10 optical zoom.

Others may disagree with me but I think that the way best to start off is buying yourself a pocket camera and just to start snapping away. Get a feel for what works, what comes out well, what doesn't. Do not be afraid to experiment with the features on the camera. Try night shots for example, and try shots of different subjects i.e. sunsets, objects, landscapes and people. From experience and experimenting you can move out of the beginners level.

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