How to create unique photos and avoid typical travel photography mistakes

VICTIM OF THE SOCIAL NETWORK 

How many times have you seen a beautiful hotel or place on Instagram? Often, right? Did it make you want to go there because it was a good place and you wanted to travel there and enjoy your time, or because you can take beautiful photos there? Think before you answer. 
If the answer is the second variant then I am very sorry, you will never enjoy your vacation because your focus is photography! Go to the place you want to visit, enjoy this place, and then take photos there, but don’t go to the country, city or island because of the photo, you will never like this place.  
This has happened to many people and bloggers, and their main focus has always been creating cool content. Many bloggers travel to places they don’t like, they are doing it just because they want to get followers, and they think that if they go to the most instagrammable places, they will get their audience. But let’s be honest, people want to follow you because you are different and you show them something new and interesting, not because you go to the same places as other bloggers. The other problem is that all insta places are always crowded. You will have to wait in line just to take a picture.
In the end, you become a hostage of the social network. Is this what you want? I do not think so.

PHOTOSHOP AND FILTERS 

I’ve noticed most of the bloggers have very dark photos without presets and most of their photos look very boring without those fake filters and photoshop. Why? They aren’t professional photographers and models, that’s why. 
I am a professional model and I’ve been working with many photographers and I love to take photos by myself and I never saw a professional photographer that shoots very dark photos and then makes them very light by using strong filters. 
There is no sense in using a lot of photoshop or crazy filters, especially on travel photos, first of all, you lie to people, you don’t show the place as it is in reality and completely destroy their dreams. There were so many cases when bloggers showed a beautiful place and people dreamed of going there, saved their money, and finally got to this place, but were very disappointed.
If you want to make really beautiful photos for your memories, content for your Instagram, or work with big brands, first what you should do it’s to forget about fake filters. Photoshop is necessary in extreme cases, it is used for advertising, fashion, and creative solutions. If you are not an artist or a professional photographer, don’t get addicted to photoshop.
I use very few changes in my photos, I just add more focus on some objects and make the colours a little warmer, sometimes I also make my skin smoother when I’m not satisfied with how my skin looks in the photo, otherwise, all of my photos look good after shooting. I never use filters on my videos, I just make the colours a little stronger and make them sharper to notice some details. 
Don’t take very dark photos, it’s unprofessional, it’s never real colours, and it’s very boring.

DON’T STRESS YOURSELF AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER

When I travel, I always see couples who fight over the perfect photo. I know that we all have moments in our lives when we’re not in a good mood, and I also sometimes complain to my man when I don’t like the way he took the photo of me. However, there is no point to spoil everything because of one photo. I’ve seen so many couples in Cappadocia fighting like crazy and then going off in different directions, most of the time it was when it sunrise, and every girl wanted to have the perfect photo with balloons.
One morning we took a private ATV tour to meet the sunrise and see hot air balloons from different spots, and when we stopped at the first one, there were a lot of people: professional photographers, bloggers, couples, and families. I grabbed my phone and started to make videos with balloons, meanwhile, I noticed a couple taking photos, the girl kept asking a lot of questions to her boyfriend and seemed to make him really nervous.
I was walking about 1.5 m from his side when he suddenly started complaining very rudely to me: “Can’t you see that we are taking pictures here?!” I thought, “Yes, like everyone else here” so we had a bit of a fight because he was very rude to me, and it was clearly not a private area, and different people were walking around me, too, and sometimes they appeared in my videos. He was very tense because she made him nervous, and then he couldn’t control himself, and that’s of course his fault. So do not stress yourself and your photographer, enjoy this moment and do not fight with other people!  

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

How many times have you seen the same type of photos on Instagram? Let me help you with the answer – every day! Bloggers and digital creators often copy each other’s content and even clothing, don’t they want to be creative? But why? The answer is simple:
-Тhey don’t have their own ideas
-Тhey like the idea of others 
-Тhey are afraid to be creative and find something new (what if people don’t like this content?) 
-They are too lazy to create something new (it’s much easier to steal an idea from others)
-They became blogger only because it’s fashionable and they can stay in Hotels for “free” 
Don’t become a blogger or digital Creator if you can’t be creative! 
If you can’t find your own style and you’re just a copy of someone, why would people follow you? What can people actually learn from you?
Of course, it’s not always possible to take only unusual photos in unpopular places. It’s normal to go to famous spots, like near the Duomo in Florence or Milan, and take photos there, like many other people. Just try to find a different angle and don’t wear exactly the same clothes as the others. 
When you travel to small towns like Portofino or Oia, it’s hard to find an unusual place to take photos, but it’s still possible. See where most people take their photos, and go away from there, walk around until you find the best place, and try to do your photoshoot there.
Many people on IG try to copy the most successful content, thinking that they will get the same number of likes and attention, but they just lose themselves.
Remember that the best photos are always about some moment, happy, beautiful, emotional, etc. If you take photos like everyone else, what moment do you want to show?
What to do if you are not a creative person and you find it difficult to find cool ideas? This is normal, all people are different, in this case, you can find ideas on IG or Pinterest from different people and combine 3-5 or more ideas into one, and voila your photo is already different from the others.
You will never become a legend if you are just a copy!

PERFECT PHOTO

Don’t take thousands of photos in the same place in pursuit of the perfect photo!
I know that some people take more than 500 photos in the same place and clothes and spend hours to get one perfect shot. I spend a maximum of 30 minutes, but it usually takes to me about 10-15 minutes, we take 20-100 photos in one place, and then I select favourites and often delete others on the same day. There is no point in taking sooooo many photos in the same spot and choosing only one or two after, you just waste your time for no reason. I prefer to enjoy my time by the pool, take a walk or drink a cocktail in a nice bar and chat with people I love, rather than take millions of photos during travel.
First, enjoy your holiday, then take a few pictures for memories.

OUTFIT FOR PHOTOSHOOT

Most of my travel photos were taken spontaneously, and only a few of them were planned earlier. I don’t like to make fake photos, so I always wear what I like and stick to my own style of clothing. When you see my photos, you can be sure that this is what I was wearing at that moment and didn’t change my clothes for the photos. When I plan a specific photoshoot, obviously I need a special outfit, for example, if I take a photo in a dress at the top of a mountain, hill or by the sea, the dress was taken with me, as it is inconvenient to go Hiking in it. When a photo was taken in a city, cafe, by the pool, on a boat, etc., this Is what I was actually wearing at the time, I just choose clothes that I like and that will look good in the photos, so I don’t need to have a second outfit with me.
If you plan to do a cool photoshoot in a special place, you can choose a special outfit and take it with you, but don’t do it all the time. If you usually always wear jeans and in photos, you are always in a dress or a suit, if you are a man, people will be confused. So where is the real you, in real life in jeans or in photos in beautiful outfits? Who are you? Do you want just to show a fake life on Instagram? Don’t be fake. First, it can be stressful to always take extra outfits with you, and second, why are you afraid to show your real face to people?

LIGHT & TIME 

All photographers love the Golden hours – sunrise and sunset. Why? It’s simple, it gives perfect natural light. Of course, you can’t only take photos in the early morning and at sunset, you are on vacation and you want to sleep and have photos during the day. The best light for perfect photos is from sunrise to 11.30 am and from 3 pm to sunset in the summer, but of course, it always depends on the location and city if there is a shade or it is crowded at this time. In winter and in some countries, the sunset occurs as early as 4 PM or even earlier, try taking a photo 1.5 hours before sunset or in the morning, the light will be amazing. 
For example, when I was in Santorini in mid-October, the best time for photography was from 3 pm to 7 pm and in the morning from 8 am to 11 am. In Cappadocia, in early October the best time to take photos was during sunrise from 6.45 am to 9.30 am and before sunset from 3.30 pm to 6.30 pm.