Education (online bonus article)
Capturing Your Memories Without Boring Your Friends to Death: Tips for Taking Better Vacation Photos and Videos
By Lee Greenway
Posted April 2009

I don't have kids. A lot of my friends, on the other hand, do have kids. And, like their parents before them, they like to take pictures and videos of their kids while the family is doing something Neat Away From Home (normal people call this "vacation"). While this practice may seem cliché or passé, or possibly some other word ending in an é, I think it's a relatively harmless use of a camera, and probably a good way to keep the memories of the good times alive.

It's also great blackmail for when your kid brings his dates home later. Just ask my mom.

Unfortunately, though, a lot of parents take...well...really bad pictures of their kids. Particularly on vacation. Since it's summer, and since many of you will be packing the wee ones into SUV's and Priuses for the long trek to Panama-Hilton-City-Head-vannah-World Studios this summer, let me give you a few short tips for taking better vacation photos and videos.

Get the right camera
If you're a gadget-hound who's going to be using the camera to take vacation photos and cover the 2010 Everest expedition for National Geographic, spurge on the $1,000 SLR with hot-swappable backs and a Minolta bayonet converter. Otherwise, spring for a nice, middle-of-the-road digital model in the $100-200 range from a major brand. Pick it up at a national retailer so that you can exchange a camera or get it repaired while you're away from home. Buy an extra battery or two, and a handful of memory cards - they're cheap, and it beats running out of space in the middle of your daughter's first time seeing the ocean.

Watch your subject
You're taking a picture of your family, so let's see your family. All-too-often, we see photos of tiny people in front of a huge sky. We don't care about the sky - we want to see the people. Get close enough to your subject to make out facial expressions (if you're shooting a person) or surface details (on inanimate objects). But, it's always nice to open with a single broad panorama as an "establishing" shot to set up the location (a rule stolen from video production - parents with video cameras, this one applies to you, too!).

Watch your background
Kids do not sprout trees from the tops of their heads. Make sure your snaps don't imply that they do. The background is just as important as the foreground - make sure it fits! Pay attention to what's going on behind the subject(s), and avoid embarrassing overlaps. You'll also want to watch for glares and bright light sources (like the sun or headlights). If you're using a flash, you'll need to look out for reflective surfaces like glass or Dad's bald spot.

Get active
The family standing in front of the locomotive at Disneyland is adorable. The kids climbing aboard the train and waving at Mom is insanely adorable, and a lot more interesting. You can certainly take all the standing-in-a-group shots you want to take (with a good digital camera, you can take almost as many as you want of anything), but make sure to take plenty of dynamic, active photos. Get candid shots, too - unexpected photography is amazingly compelling sometimes.

Don't do it all over again
Panoramic exposures of the rolling Appalachians may be stunning, but they're not exactly... exciting. If it's the same shot that exists in a travel brochure or a tourism board commercial, it's not really your memory. Get shots of your family goofing off in the car, shots of them on the pier at Tybee, shots of them playing Marco Polo in the hotel pool and just buy the DVD of the museum tour. If you can get the image somewhere else, do that - spend the rest of the time enjoying your family.

A few quick video tips:

• If you move with your video camera rolling, stay loose and walk heel-to-toe to hold your camera steadier. Bracing with both hands may help.
• Don't use the zoom too much. Get the wide shot, zoom in to your family, the panda bear or the log flume at Six Flags but don't switch back-and-forth. It makes things all "Cloverfield"-y.
• Slow and steady win the race. When you pan (swivel side-to-side) or tilt (tilt up and down) with the camera, do it slowly and smoothly. This is a vacation, not an episode of "24."
• When possible, get the sticks. Invest in a lightweight tripod, and use it for long shots of the whole family playing together.

If, at any point, these rules keep you from enjoying taking photos and video of your family, please disregard numbers 1-6. It's your camera, and they're your family. So, for crying out loud - do what works! These are some suggestions that have helped me in taking photos with my friends and family, but they're not - by any stretch of the imagination - hard and fast rules for family photography.

Photography is fun. It's family photography, not covering a major journalistic event like The Coronation for the London Times. There is no reason to ever make it or take it serious. It's supposed to be fun and silly. Remember, we ALL learned how to do "bunny ears" from someone in our family first.

Lee Greenway earned his Master's Degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at UGA. He is the Director of Communication for a national educational nonprofit society and an occasional photographer of his friends' children - which affords him enough time around kids for him to know that he's quite happy being one himself.