10 Tips for Family Travel Photos
We’ve all seen the services that offer professional family photos in far flung and remote locations. While I think these are great options for families looking for professional photos, you don’t need to hire a professional photographer to take some gorgeous family travel photos yourself. You just need to do a little smart packing and to have a few tricks up your sleeve for dealing with uncooperative kiddos. Our kids have been to over a dozen countries and on too many road trips to count and I’ve captured some gorgeous shots of them. I’ve turned the memories into gallery walls and photo albums. If we’d relied on professional photographers for all of those vacations, we’d have infinitely less family travel photos! I might not be a professional but I can confidently say I’ve gotten some great family travel photos using some basic principles that anyone can apply. I can’t wait to share all the things I’ve learned in ten years of traveling (and photographing) children.
Bonus, these recommendations and tips will help you take gorgeous family photos even when you aren’t traveling!
Dressing for Family Travel Photos
Chose a Color Palette that Matches Your Destination
When you are planning for family travel photos the most important thing you can pick is your color palette. If you don’t get this right nothing else will matter! The reasons are two-fold: 1) if you don’t pick the right color palette your family travel photos won’t pop, and 2) if you don’t stick to a color palette you will likely end up overpacking.
Colors I avoid no matter what:
- Black: it is too harsh, particularly in photos. Instead use grays, browns, and navy as your neutral and build your packing list around staples in those colors.
My recommended color palettes for warm weather photos:
- If your travel destination is green (tropical locations, mountains): pack whites, yellows, and pinks to stand out against green foliage. I once saw a woman on Instagram who shared how heartbroken she was with her vacation photos because she wore a green dress against a leafy green backdrop and honestly…she was right! She pretty much looked like another shrub.
- If your travel destination is blue (the beach): pack whites, pinks, oranges, and dark blues. White looks so crisp against a bright blue ocean backdrop. Oranges and pinks will also offer a lot of contrast with the ocean and sand and are colors I favor for bathing suits and rash guards. A lot of beachy architecture favors white buildings which is why I typically pack polos, shorts, and dresses in navy blue.
- If your travel destination is a city: This is trickier as all cities are different! You are going to have to do some homework to decide what the right color palette is. Do a few quick searches for ‘most instagramable spot in XYZ place’ and look at the type of scenery you are dealing with. Is it mostly historical architecture? You can get away with some pops of color and neutral basics. But not everywhere is so easy. When we went to Portugal, I knew I’d be photographing our kids against a lot of printed blue tiles. To compliment the backdrop I packed a wardrobe of creams and navy blues and steer clear of busy prints so that my kids wouldn’t clash with the historic tiles. Think you’ll be taking a lot of photographs in a city park? Steer clear of greens that will cause your family to blend into the background. The photo below is in Spain, I knew we’d be at this monument and that I’d be photographing the kids with a heavily saturated red wall in the background and went with creams and prints in the same color. When in doubt white paired with denim looks great!
My recommended color palettes for cold weather photos:
- If your travel destination is snowy: Snow is honestly so fun! Most colors will pop against a snowy backdrop. I need to favor bright colors that really make you stand out like pinks and reds. Prints also look great against a snowy backdrop, so don’t shy away from printed winter coasts, especially for young children and to break up black snow gear. Will you be on a ski mountain with evergreens? Avoid greens!
- If you travel destination is gray: Winter can be dreary! Avoid grays and blacks to blend in with the skyline. For this reason, I’ve stopped buying black winter coats for myself. Instead opt for softer colors like a beige trench, chocolate brown sweater coat, or navy blue parka. You can add warmth to photos via cheerful hats or scarves.
Shop with Family Photos in Mind
Now that you have your color palette selected, it is time to go shopping!
When we were heading to Iceland, I kept reading how great yellow and red rain jackets look against the black sand beaches and waterfalls. Too bad I’d bought both of my kids teal rain jackets that not only didn’t look great against waterfalls, clashed with each other. Now when I shop I try to think about the trips we have coming up and what type of clothes we might wear. Am I recommending you do all of your shopping based on family travel photos? No, but so many people go shopping for upcoming trips. If you are going to buy new clothes for a trip you might as well make sure they are going to photograph well!
Pro tip: As kids get older it becomes harder to pack for them. If you’ve already thought about how to coordinate their outfits with family travel photos and each other then you are setting yourself up for success. When we pack for a trip I tell my tween exactly how many of each item she can have. Because I’ve done a good job with shopping, I know anything she picks out is going to match the rest of the family and look photo ready.
Pack with Family Photos in Mind
You’ve picked the color palette, you’ve bought the clothes, now how do you decide what to pack? Packing for great family travel photos is critical because you are going to want to pack light!
This might sound crazy but while I am shopping, I put together a mood board with all of our outfits. I’ll even pull online photos of things we already own and are brining. I’ll put different pieces together to get a sense for how the outfits will come together for the whole group and put it next to a photo or two of the different locations I know I want to get family travel photos in.
Some tips for making sure your family outfits look great together:
- When in doubt, only put one person in a print. It can be really fun to mix prints and certain things look great together like plaids and florals. But if that feels too complicated pick one person to wear all of the prints. I have two kids, a boy and a girl, and I usually pick printed dresses for my daughter because they are just more fun than prints for boys.
- Avoid heavily logo’d t-shirts unless that is your style. My son has some cute Nike workout shirts but I don’t pack those for vacations because I don’t need him to be an advertisement in our family travel photos. Instead, I opt for plain t-shirts that let him and the scenery shine.
- Stick to the color palette for everyone. On a recent trip to Europe, I decided our color palette was going to be blues and creams and I stuck to that for every single person on our trip. Not only were the outfits easy to mix and match, they went well with each other. If I had my daughter in a white dress then I put my son in navy shorts and a baby blue polo and they looked great together. When she wore her navy dress, I switched him into a white polo. I never had to worry about one kid wearing orange and the other in neon purple.
Getting the Shot: How to Shoot the Perfect Family Travel Photos
You’ve figured out your color palette, what to buy or bring from your own closet, and how to make sure everyone in the family semi-matches. Now you are onto the fun part! Figuring out how to get the perfect family travel photos while enjoying your sightseeing, relaxing, and potentially navigating over tired or hangry kids.
First things first, I want to stress that even though I love family travel photos I never sacrifice my own enjoyment of the experience to get the perfect photo. For a while I ran an Instagram account and I found that it made traveling feel like work so I stopped. Immediately. The need to capture videos (not my thing) and constantly being sharing sucked all the fun out of travel. I much prefer the blog and sharing in depth itineraries and recommendations that will live on forever. If at any point you feel like you are fixating on capturing memories and not actually being a part of them, then I suggest you relax, put the camera down, and forget about the family travel photos for the day. Memories still count even if there is no photographic evidence!
But if you are in the mood for capturing some awesome family travel photos here are my staging tips.
Turn Grumpy Kids Away
As a mom of a tween, I am no stranger to the eye roll. While I like to think my kids are pretty cooperative there typically comes a time in any trip where my daughter starts to whine ‘not another family travel photo, don’t you have enough?”. Little does she know I can never have enough travel memories! My solution to this (and to sunny days and squinty eyes), is to position the kids looking away from the camera. I use them to frame up some beautiful scenery and lean them on a railing or post so it looks like they are just contemplating the views. When in reality they are making faces and complaining about how dumb their mom is.
Pro tip: You can go overboard with this. I’ve definitely had trips where I’ve looked back on the photos and been like OMG, did I capture anyone’s face?! My rule of thumb is for every photo looking away from the capture, I try to capture two of my kid’s smiling faces.
Pro tip: This also works really well if you are considering sharing your family travel photos as an influencer but don’t want to share your kids’ faces online. You are still sharing a glimpse of your life while protecting their identities.
I like to Move it Move It
Have you seen that funny trend on social media of people galloping while someone takes their photo? Honestly it is super cute and works wonders. On our trip to Italy, I had my kids hold hand and gallop towards the camera and the photos are magical. Don’t be afraid to tell your kids to move around. Is your child wearing a dress that was made for twirling? Go for it. Need to lighten the mood? Start blowing some raspberries and capture their giggles. Photos don’t need to be staged and forced.
Frame Your Photo
Great family travel photos use the scenery so that you are capturing great photos of your family and great photos of your location. A rule photographers use is the rule of thirds, placing a subject in either the left or right third of the frame instead of dead center. This is a great way also capture more of the surroundings and bring them to the forefront of your photography. I also like to use walls, staircases, and monuments to frame the photos and add interest.
Don’t Forget to Take Family photos of Your Family
I’m sure wherever you are is beautiful but sometimes it’s fun to just get some shots of your kids and their smiling faces. And if you are putting together photo albums of your family travel photos these photos will break up scenery shots. Variety is good!
Get low
This tip is all over social media but it truly makes a difference, especially when shooting young kids. Don’t shoot standing up, drop down to your knees. The change in perspective will 100% elevate your photos.
Get High
If you are guessing at this point that anything goes when it comes to great family travel photos, you aren’t wrong. I’ve shown you smiling pictures of my kid’s faces, photos where I got down low at their level. And now I’m going to tell you to get up high for a different vantage point. I think the real key here is that we are getting a variety of shots. This will add interest to your photo albums and capture just how special your travel memories are.
Give Kids the Camera
This is all about getting great family travel photos and news flash – YOU ARE A PART OF THE FAMILY! I can’t tell you how many vacations we’ve gone on where I’ve served as the trip planner, tour guide, and professional photographer only to come home and realize there was no proof I was even there. It can be hard but put your family in a beautiful spot and ask a stranger to help you out. Other tourists are using more than happy to do a photo trade with you. Or if you are somewhere secluded let your kids get in on the action. Mine love taking pictures of mom and dad!
Honest moment: These usually aren’t the best family travel photos we get from the trip and rarely make it into my gallery wall but are always a cherished part of the photo album. I was there and I might be half cropped out with a thumb in the corner but I’m always happy to see proof of parent! In fact, one of my favorite photos of all time is the blurry one below. My husband put the background in focus not the people! But it was still a great memory and the photo always makes me laugh.
What About the Camera?
You might have noticed none of my tips revolved around which type of camera to use. 90% of the photos above were taking with an iPhone, and rarely the latest model. I do bring a DSLR with me (an old Cannon) but truthfully, I’m not an expert on all of the different settings and find that my iPhone is easier to bring sightseeing, definitely easier to navigate on an airplane, and often time takes photos that are just as good. With the new portrait mode you can do all kinds of blurred backgrounds and play with the focus. If the thing that is holding you back from taking great family travel photos is concern that you don’t have the right camera, then get your cell phone out and start shooting!
Now I know How to Take Great Family Travel Photos, What Next?
The next step is to book a trip, duh! If you are looking for some inspiration my personal favorites for great family travel photos include Oregon and Iceland. They both make for some epic family travel photos!
