In a nutshell
- The best camera for travel photography is compact, lightweight, and has a wide zoom range — we share our top picks.
- The golden hours — early morning and late evening — give you the most beautiful light for stunning shots on the road.
- Selfies are part of it too and make wonderful souvenirs for you, your family, and your friends.
- A printed photo evokes far more emotion than a quick glance at your smartphone screen.
- Want all our advice on how to take better travel photos? Read on for the full guide.
The best camera for traveling
We both started out with a DSLR. By now, though, we’ve both switched to mirrorless cameras and haven’t regretted that decision for a single day.
Especially when traveling, you want to make sure your camera gear doesn’t get too heavy — that way you’ll actually want to bring it along every chance you get.
There are certainly people who don’t mind hauling around a bulky camera, but we’re not those people. The temptation to leave the camera back at the accommodation because it’s too impractical to carry is just too real for us.
We started out traveling with the Sony Alpha 6000 and can wholeheartedly recommend this mirrorless camera to anyone who wants to make the leap to a mirrorless system.
Super lightweight, an absolutely brilliant price-to-performance ratio, and top-notch image quality. Even though we both mostly shoot with the Sony Alpha 7ii these days, the Sony Alpha 6000 is still our favorite travel camera.
What matters is that you actually enjoy shooting on the go and don’t get tired of carrying your camera around. If you’re in the market for a new camera, we highly recommend our article Camera Buying Guide: Which Camera Is Right for You?
A minimalist setup
Six months of traveling with carry-on luggage only — camera gear included? Sounds crazy? We thought so too. We did it anyway and spent six months traveling through Southeast Asia with two 40-liter backpacks and small camera shoulder bags.
These days, though, our luggage unfortunately exceeds the maximum carry-on weight for most airlines, so we usually have to check our backpacks.
Even so, we make sure to bring only the most essential camera accessories on our trips, packed into our camera shoulder bags. And that’s exactly what we’d recommend for you too. Think about which lens or accessory you always carry around but almost never actually use.
Know your camera
That might not sound particularly difficult at first. But do you really know your camera? Can you honestly say that in any given situation you know exactly which settings to dial in and that you’re always happy with the results?
It might sound simple, but truly knowing your camera inside and out doesn’t just take a while — it takes an enormous amount of practice! And no, auto mode can actually do quite a lot, but it usually doesn’t give you the best possible result and doesn’t always capture your subjects exactly the way you want.
We hear very often from our readers that they’d love to learn how to take proper photos, but that the technical side intimidates them and they have no desire to work through all the complicated settings.
You know what — there’s nothing more enjoyable and hardly anything more fun than getting to know your camera. And with every bit of knowledge you gain, you’re one step closer to taking the shots you’ve always imagined.
The problem of camera technique often being taught with complicated jargon and no sense of fun is something we experienced ourselves. It frustrated us enormously — and that’s exactly why the world’s most beautiful hobby deserves better.
So starting now, make your camera your best friend and get to know it inside and out. The more you practice, the more you’ll see your travel photography improve with every single outing.
Standing out is best avoided
In other countries, you often stand out as a tourist whether you want to or not. If you’re traveling with expensive camera gear, standing out is less than ideal — after all, you want to bring your equipment back home with you at the end of the trip.
Some of the things that make you stand out can be changed, others can’t. In some countries, Jenny often draws attention simply because of her blonde hair.
Since Jenny doesn’t want to dye her hair and we generally don’t want to change our appearance, we try to adapt to the local customs of whichever country we’re in. Why not buy and wear locally typical clothing while you’re there?
Carrying an expensive camera bag or a large, fancy camera backpack is also not the best idea. You might as well stand on the street and shout: “Rob me!”
As an alternative that we genuinely love, you can simply get a camera insert that lets you safely fit your camera into almost any backpack or other bag.
Even more practical than a camera insert is a camera wrap, since it’s even more flexible — though it’s not quite as sturdy as the insert. Camera wraps are of course available in various sizes.
Respect
We sometimes get the feeling that photographers confuse people in other countries with zoo animals. Generally speaking, we’re big fans of portrait and street photography. But there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed. The golden rule of street photography: respect!
And that’s exactly what we should always keep in mind when we’re out shooting — regardless of whether we’re photographing right outside our front door or in another country.
These days, though, it’s not just about respect — it’s also about the privacy rights of the people being photographed.
What you need to keep in mind when publishing photos, we’ve actually summarized for you in our article Publishing Photos of People.
So our request to you is: always be respectful when taking photos, especially when people are your subject.
For us, that means communicating with people before you photograph them. The excuse that you don’t speak the language doesn’t hold up!
A friendly smile and pointing at your camera is usually all it takes to make yourself understood.
Follow the light
We’ve got some good news for early risers. The most beautiful light for photography comes in the morning at sunrise.
Getting up early and shooting at sunrise has another huge advantage at most locations — you’re often completely alone and don’t have to share your shot with crowds of other photographers.
Unfortunately, we’re not early risers. Quite the opposite, actually. Jenny in particular is a total morning grouch and starts getting in a bad mood the night before when she sets the alarm. But for a great photo, she’ll still get up before sunrise. Because it’s worth it!
But we also have good news for everyone who, like us, isn’t a morning person. In the evening at sunset you get equally beautiful light that you should absolutely take advantage of for your travel photography!
Things can go wrong
You might as well get used to the idea of having to go home without a camera. That’s truly the worst-case scenario, but it’s not out of the question.
Something always goes wrong. Sometimes it’s just small, annoying things — a forgotten or broken SD card, a dead battery, or blurry photos.
When traveling, your camera equipment can get damaged or stolen despite all precautions. If you get used to that idea now — before your trip — you won’t be quite as devastated if it actually happens.
We obviously hope nothing goes wrong. But if the worst does happen, just remember that it’s only a camera.
The most important thing is that you’re okay. Besides, there’s no point in getting upset over things you can’t change. So stay calm and carry on!
And what’s even more important: back up your travel photos regularly while you’re on the road. We carry multiple external hard drives and also back up our data online. Be sure to read our article on how to safely store photos while traveling.
Smartphone photography
Phone photography is always a bit of a mixed bag, and of course a phone camera doesn’t replace your actual camera.
That said, it’s perfectly fine to use it while traveling. There are simply situations where you can reach for your phone more quickly, or where the risk of your camera getting damaged is too high.
In those cases, your phone camera can be a great substitute. Even then, though, you shouldn’t just snap away randomly — think about your composition.
Just imagine you’re holding your “real” camera instead of your phone. That way you won’t fall into the “snap-first-think-later” trap.
Phone photos are totally allowed while traveling! Also check out our article: Smartphone Photography: 22 Tips for Better Phone Photos.
Don't forget selfies
You don’t have to walk around with a selfie stick everywhere you go, but you should still take the occasional selfie — with or without one. We resisted a selfie stick for a long time, but our phone tripod now has one built in. We’ve barely used it so far, though.
We do love being in front of an amazing, unique backdrop ourselves sometimes. Most of the time we’re behind the lens.
Once you get home, you usually have way too few photos with yourself in them.
Our goal is always: at least one selfie per day. We don’t always pull it off, but keeping that goal in mind means we at least take more selfies than we would otherwise.
Another great way to take selfies is to put your camera or phone on a tripod and shoot using either the self-timer or a remote shutter.
We use this travel tripod for our mirrorless cameras.
Our tip: Next time you’re traveling, challenge yourself to take 1 selfie per day.
Getting travel photos printed
Way too many photos are just sitting there collecting dust on your hard drive! Are we right? That’s definitely the case for us — we get far too few photos actually printed.
Then we ran into the next problem: where do we hang the pictures, and how? Frames, canvases, or something completely different? We tackled the problem and decided on a gallery wall.
Our plan: after every trip, we sort through our best photos, get them printed, and swap out the travel photos in the frames with the new ones. We’ll see if it works out.
