“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
~Karl Lagerfeld
Selfie sticks, they are all the rage right now! As much as we are not fans, we can appreciate that people want to get in front of the camera and take a snapshot of themselves to capture the moment!
Ok….we admit it….we’re so vain…..we love stepping in front of the camera to capture the moment, document the adventure and freeze the emotion we are feeling! There are a couple ways we achieve this when traveling.
We have no reservations about asking strangers nearby to snap a photo. Sometimes you’ll be surprised and the person you ask snaps several at different angles!
Taken by a kind stranger on The Terrace at the Trump Hotel in Chicago
We love traveling with our tripod and will set it up to capture a few photos on self timer.
Tripod shot from our balcony in Santorini at sunset.
We have also been guilty of purchasing the photo souvenir on adventures such as this one in Sydney.
An unforgettable moment at the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during our bridge climb.
But our absolute favorite way to capture the moment when traveling is to hire a local photographer. We get to have a few professional snapshots in addition to documenting our favorite places! We also love to support the local artists and we have found them to be extremely friendly in giving us tips about the city we are in during the shoot! We always buy a package that includes the digital images so we have a few to take home, print at our leisure and use in our travel yearbooks!
One of our favorite US cities – Chicago. Right before we moved away from Chicago, we hired Genevieve from The Way We Click to capture us at some of our favorite spots around the city.
In 2013, we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary in Bora Bora. We hired Helen Harvard to take a few shots of us around the resort. She did an excellent job capturing our emotion at this breathtaking destination!
Lastly this past summer while we were in Florence, we hired Cassie from Captured Holidays. She was able to capture the romance of the city for us perfectly! As a bonus she provided awesome tips of places to eat, sites to see and facts about the city. We felt like we had a personal tour guide as part of the shoot as well!
Don’t be afraid to be vain! We promise you will appreciate capturing these moments when you return home! More than that, you will appreciate them years later when you reflect on the wonderful memories that are within them!
What are your favorite ways of getting in front of the camera when traveling? We’d love to get any other ideas you have in the comments.
View Comments (14)
Ummm, stop being such a gorgeous couple!! ;)
I totally remember all of those places in Florence...what a great place to hire a photographer to take your pictures! <3
Thanks so much Kim! We loved Florence and happy we decided to get some photos there!
What a great idea to hire a local photographer, I had never considered that before.
Our daughter was usually our photographer, in person and with the selfie stick. Now that she is about to leave the nest for some solo travels I needed some new ideas.
We've been really happy with local photographers, we are big fans of getting destination photos! Glad to give you a new idea since your current photographer is graduating :)
Great idea hiring a local photographer! My boyfriend and I just might try that. :)
We usually just set up a tripod or hold the camera out in front of us (his long arm functions as a selfie stick). But the shots by a local photographer are really amazing. Maybe we can do that for our anniversary trip. Thanks for the idea!
How luck you have a built-in selfie stick with your boyfriend :) Glad to hear the tip on professional photographers was helpful. Hope you get the opportunity to do it!
That is such a great idea, hiring a local professional photographer. We may try that someday though you have great results in all your photos. We have a selfie stick and we will occasionally ask a passerby to take a photo. We usually wind up choosing people who are much better photographers than we are so we've been quite lucky in that regard!
Awesome to hear you have good luck with strangers taking photos! We haven't added a selfie stick to our photo tools yet but it is likely in our future.
I always purchase the family photos that we take at big attractions! always so fun. Just haven't got into the selfie stick yet but we try and do a family selfie on every vacation too.
Great to hear you make an effort to get family photos why you travel! Thanks for stopping by.
Beautiful photos! I always regret it when I come home from a great trip and realize there are hardly any pictures of me to prove I was there!
Thank you! Yes, it's better to feel awkward taking a photo in the moment as you'll always appreciate it later.
I've never really thought about hiring a professional photographer while traveling before, but it's a really great idea to capture those moments while you're out enjoying the sites! So you can be in the photos and not worry about taking them. I'm not really a selfie stick type of person, so this appeals to me more :)
We don't take good selfie photos as our heads always look disproportionately large :) Glad you enjoyed the tip!