Honeymoon Photography Tips!

Planning a wedding can be exciting, but if you ask me, planning the honeymoon was even better.  You’re newlyweds and on your first vacation as a married couple. It’s a special time in your life and you should really capture as much of it as possible. If you don’t have a decent camera, now’s the time  to pick one up,  if you need any help selecting one, don’t hesitate asking for advice.  Here are a few of our photos from our honeymoon, and some of my tips to help you take some great shots on your honeymoon.

Research:

When you’re planning your honeymoon and you really want to get some great photos,  the first thing you should probably do is some research.  I know,  who the heck wants to do research?  You just want to go and have fun,  spend some quality time together and share some wonderful moments.  But if you’re going on a bigger trip such as Hawaii or Mexico or maybe Australia, take the time to read a book or bring along a reference book with you. If I hadn’t read Maui Revealed, I don’t think I would have captured as many gorgeous images as I did. Here are a few from doing some simple research.  These next few shots I took while watching the sunrise from the top of Haleakala.  If you ever visit Maui, it’s something you have to experience, it was breathtaking.

Perspective:

You’ve done some research,  and now you’re ready to capture some great images. Probably one of the first things you should practice is perspective.  What the heck do you mean by that Tom?  Glad you asked!  When you come up to something that you would like a picture of, don’t just stand there! Move over a few inches, maybe crouch down, try and get up on something and take it from a different view. If you’re taking a picture of a flower, get down to its level, same with an animal. Taking a picture of a beach?  Put the shore on a diagonal line in the frame of the camera…..no, not the horizon…..the beach itself!   The next few pictures are examples of perspective.

Details Details Details:

It’s all in the details! Don’t hesitate to take pictures of small details. If you’re at a landmark building, don’t forget to take pictures of the things like the door, the windows or detail in the architecture.  If you’re in a resturant, take a picture of your drinks (the colorful umbrellas in Mia Tai’s look fabulous) and if the presentation of your food is perfect, take a picture! And if you’re walking around and you see flowers that grab your attention…..set your camera to macro mode and take a shot. Oh, and don’t forget to get down to the flowers level. These next few shots are detail samples from our honeymoon.

Candid:

Ok,  everyone likes to pose themselves or their spouse in front of the landmark building or the high traffic tourist spot,  but take that camera and point it at your spouse while they’re being themselves and not “posing” for the camera. Usually you end up with a great shot that you really couldn’t get if they new you where taking a photo. Just don’t take a shot of your new wife getting out of the shower with crazy hair and no makeup on………should I post it? It’s a cute picture in my opinion….but……hmmmmm…….I do want to experience tomorrow…..maybe when she’s not looking ; ) I didn’t take enough candid photography but here are a few candid shots that I don’t think she’ll mind.

Final thoughts:

Now you’ve got a few pointers for taking some great shots on your honeymoon. Now take as many as possible. Digital is great,  you can shoot to your hearts delight and just delete the ones that aren’t so good.  No film processing, it’s great……just don’t forget the most important thing. BACKUP!!!!!   Backup all the picture you take. Every hard drive fails, every CD eventually goes bad, memory cards eventually tank,  take all those pictures you’ve taken and back them up to another hard drive, burn them to multiple CD/DVD’s  and take those burned CD’s and leave them at a family members home.  You always want to have an off sight backup.  You never know what will happen to your home.  You don’t want to think of the worst, but you do want to be prepared. You can also back up to different online solutions such as, Mozy, Carbonite, Amazon…..check them out and see which is best for you. You won’t regret it.

And now for the fun part…….SHARE SHARE SHARE!!! take those pictures and share them with friends and post them to your Facebook and MySpace accounts or your Flickr accounts and share them with the world.

Have fun taking and sharing the photos, that’s what it’s all about.

A few more of our favorite honeymoon pictures!