The days of kid wrangling are long past for me, but I would like to offer up a few hard earned tips along the same lines on trip photography looking back 40 years later on what I wished I had done or do different if I could.
1. Reverse the ratio of photos of scenery to family from 95% scenery : 5% family, to 95% family : 5% scenery. All mountains and waterfalls look the same 40 years later.
2. Learn how to compose a picture. Mostly this means get closer to the subjects so you can see their faces.
3. Select very few high quality photos from the trip and get them printed on archival quality paper and mount them in a archival quality scrapbook. Label and date them like your mom told you to. Trust me, you are going to loose that digital file, a little harder to loose a big scrapbook. Be ruthless on the image selection, one or two images from a trip is all that you will need to spark hours of memories years later. But if all you have of great grandmother with the baby is one blurry image, print and treasure that one.
4. Hey designated cameraman or person. Get out from behind the camera/phone and be part of the trip. Ask a friend or even a bystander to take that family photo. The same goes for you camera-shy people. Your grown kids and spouse would love to had more photos of you to treasure after you were taken from us way to soon.
The BabyBjorn travel crib is the only one I would recommend. Lightweight but very sturdy, folds itself into a no fuss bag to check, and sets up in a flash (helpful when exhausted after traveling).
Stasher silicon bags. We store a variety of snacks and they can be washed and reused.
Triangular crayons - particularly helpful for setting up on airplane tray tables.
First floor rooms if there is a patio that opens up to the hotel grounds. Gives kids to run around.
Travel pizza first and/or last night especially if changing multiple time zones. Don’t try to rush into local/exotic cuisine on bookends of a trip. Just get food you know even highly picky toddlers will eat.
The days of kid wrangling are long past for me, but I would like to offer up a few hard earned tips along the same lines on trip photography looking back 40 years later on what I wished I had done or do different if I could.
1. Reverse the ratio of photos of scenery to family from 95% scenery : 5% family, to 95% family : 5% scenery. All mountains and waterfalls look the same 40 years later.
2. Learn how to compose a picture. Mostly this means get closer to the subjects so you can see their faces.
3. Select very few high quality photos from the trip and get them printed on archival quality paper and mount them in a archival quality scrapbook. Label and date them like your mom told you to. Trust me, you are going to loose that digital file, a little harder to loose a big scrapbook. Be ruthless on the image selection, one or two images from a trip is all that you will need to spark hours of memories years later. But if all you have of great grandmother with the baby is one blurry image, print and treasure that one.
4. Hey designated cameraman or person. Get out from behind the camera/phone and be part of the trip. Ask a friend or even a bystander to take that family photo. The same goes for you camera-shy people. Your grown kids and spouse would love to had more photos of you to treasure after you were taken from us way to soon.
A few things come to mind:
The BabyBjorn travel crib is the only one I would recommend. Lightweight but very sturdy, folds itself into a no fuss bag to check, and sets up in a flash (helpful when exhausted after traveling).
Stasher silicon bags. We store a variety of snacks and they can be washed and reused.
Triangular crayons - particularly helpful for setting up on airplane tray tables.
First floor rooms if there is a patio that opens up to the hotel grounds. Gives kids to run around.
Travel pizza first and/or last night especially if changing multiple time zones. Don’t try to rush into local/exotic cuisine on bookends of a trip. Just get food you know even highly picky toddlers will eat.