Travel Photography Tips

This post is written by Guest Contributor, Champ Ocampo. If you are also interested in writing a guest blog, please reach out using the form in the Contact page.

Traveling is almost everybody’s dream, whether out of country or simply just out of town.  Aside from passport and plane ticket, camera is one of the most important things to carry while traveling. It is SOP to have a camera to capture all the memorable moments at a certain place. Can you imagine traveling without a camera? How will you be able to brag to your buddies that you have already been here and there and everywhere without photos as a proof? So, camera is really as important as your passport and plane ticket. Some travelers only bring point and shoot cameras for light packing purposes. But some do bring DSLRs for quality photos. Obviously, you cannot pack light with DSLRs. Variety of lenses will add you 2 to 3 kilograms on your baggage. Imagine you have your normal lens, your ultra wide angle, your macro lens, your telephoto plus accessories in a bulky camera bag. I bet you prefer to hand carry your camera bag than check it in.

Here are some tips to travel light with your DSLR:

1. Bring only one DSLR body: If possible, try not to bring a padded strap (Black Rapid or Quick Strap Sling types).

2. Bring only one lens: A 17-50mm f/2.8 will do the job (18-55mm f/4.5-5.6 kit lens will also work). You can do both portrait and landscape with this amazing lenses.

3. Battery Charger: Do not forget to bring a universal adapter.

4. Shoulder type DSLR bag: Obviously, this type is smaller and much lighter than backpack types.

And here is the list of extra stuff you want to carry when traveling,

1. SD/CF Cards

2. Battery

3. ND Filters – Good for tropical countries to capture greener tree leaves and perfect blue skies. ND8 is highly recommended.

4. RF Remote Shutter Button – This will allow you to have a complete family picture. You do not have to shoot your wife and kids or your wife shooting you and your kids. Just mount it on a stable flat surface (we can always look for an alternative to a tripod) and keep shooting using the remote.

So we can now leave other camera stuffs home. We have to be very practical when it comes to select stuff when traveling in order to avoid excess baggage. After all, capturing priceless moments is the most important thing to remember.

Getting The Perfect Shot Of Your Baby

This post is written by Guest Contributor, Champ Ocampo. If you are also interested in writing a guest blog, please reach out using the form in the Contact page.

Taking pictures of baby is not a joke. We need lots of patience to get the right angle and more patience to get the shot of baby smiling with joy. It will be an expensive deal if we will have our baby photo shoot in a studio. Save time and money; get your DSLR and try shooting your baby on your own and I am here to share some of tips with you. I took this picture of a four months old baby girl couple of months ago. You may have noticed that I captured her smiling. But to be honest with you, she was not really smiling at me but in fact she was smiling at her Mom who was standing behind me. Yes, I did not do this alone. I asked her parents to stay behind me and catch the baby’s attention.

Photographing a baby is a team effort. You can ask your spouse to get behind you and try to catch your baby’s attention by clapping hands while calling the baby’s name or shake a rattling toy that will make a baby pay attention and eventually smile and laugh. The technique here is just to keep on shooting in order to get the perfect angle and perfect smile of the baby.

Let me walk you through the equipment setup and camera settings I used. I used 50mm f/1.4 prime lens but you can use any lens you want or have. I also used an external flash mounted on a stand with an umbrella. Do not use a flash with babies who are 3 months old or younger. It might have a side effect on baby’s sight development and I recommend using pure ambient lights in that case.

Our camera settings

1. Focal length – 50mm

2. Aperture – f/1.8

3. Shutter Speed – 1/200

4. ISO 100

5. WB – Kelvin 5000 (or Set into Flash icon)

Equipments we used

1. Flash stand with hot shoe holder

2. Umbrella and holder

3. Flash trigger and receiver

Flash positioning

1. 45 degrees from your right

2. 3 feet away from the subject

3. Stand should be at least 3-4 feet tall from the subject

Set the flash power level a little bit lower than normal and do not forget to attach receiver on the flash unit and trigger on your camera body to fire the flash remotely. I prefer bounce light in this case; so invert the umbrella to bounce off the flash to produce more diffused light.

Now the equipment is all set and it’s time for shooting. Always remember that proper timing is required while photographing a baby. Ask your spouse to catch your baby’s attention. Keep your eyes focused on the baby’s face, once you see your baby smiling, shoot it and capture the moment of your life. Enjoy!

Self Portrait Photography

This post is written by Guest Contributor, Champ Ocampo. If you are also interested in writing a guest blog, please reach out using the form in the Contact page.

After doing few experiments, I can say that shooting self portrait is one of the most difficult categories in photography and fun shooting as well. Getting the right angle will be a difficult task to achieve. But gladly, with the aid of right equipment, self portrait is becoming easier and fun! Shooting oneself requires no boundaries, you can shoot all you want, pose in ways you want and dress up the way you want. It is just between you, your camera and your creativity. Let me share some of the tips and my experience for self portrait shooting.

The equipment I used and recommend

1. Tripod

2. External Flash

3. Flash Trigger and Receiver

4. Flash Stand and Hot Shoe holder

5. RF Remote Control

6. External Flash Soft Box (optional)

Self Portrait

This self portrait of mine was taken at our dining area after cooking our supper and waiting for my wife to come home from work. This shot was actually experimental. I thought of a “bright and dark side of Champ” concept. The black background was purely improvised. I used my wife’s shawl as my back drop. I mounted my DSLR on a tripod and placed it 2 meters away from me and mounted my external flash unit on a stand and place it closer in front of me about hip high. I also used an external flash soft box diffuser. Now after completing equipment setup, I moved to adjust camera settings. I find camera settings are very important when shooting with variation of lights. I used my kit lens (18-55mm f4.5-5.6) for a semi wide angle shot and used following camera settings.

My camera settings

1. Focal length – 35mm

2. Aperture – f/5.6

3. Shutter Speed – 1/200

4. ISO 200

5. WB – Kelvin 5000 (or Set into Flash icon)

6. Flash Power Level – 1/16

I have few recommendations when you are shooting in this kind of environment. Before shooting, try to turn on all the lights possible to check where you want to stand in front of the camera. If everything looks OK, set your camera shutter release mode into IR Remote timer. It is always convenient to use an IR Remote Control than setting up your camera into 10 second timer, press the shutter release button, run into your place immediately and adjust your desired position. There are lots of cheap IR Remote Controls out there, mine is JJC brand, and it costs around $5. Now if you are ready, turn off all the lights, go to your position, pose yourself, emote and press the remote to release camera shutter. Shoot as many as you want until your battery drains. I am sure you will have fun shooting self portrait. Happy Shooting!