Tips For Taking Photos on your Favorite Hikes!
How can I take photos while hiking on mountains, especially if I have to hang onto rocks as I am climbing? Well, it can be done! Let's go over a check list of what to bring:
Cell phone - this is the easiest piece of equipment to bring. You can put it in a pocket, a backpack, fanny pack, or even your bra!
Camera - whether it is a disposable, non dslr, dslr type of camera, you can bring it. A backpack will greatly help you with carrying this precious piece of equipment.
Backpack - if you want to bring a camera, a backpack is a must.
A plan where to go! It is important to plan out your hike, what you can bring, weather conditions. Easy hikes you can definitely bring your camera. The more challenging hiking path, bring at least your cell phone, or a buddy to hold your camera.
Now that we have a plan, what should we take photos of? I go on trails I have been on before and new ones. Sometimes the element of surprise is a lot of fun on new trails. When I am hiking, I look around at my surroundings and think what would be a fantastic photo. I usually bring my cell phone, mostly for convenience and ease if I have to use my hands for climbing.
Desert hike among the cactus.
Since I live in the desert, I will be showing desert photos, which can be very beautiful. The trick is, what anchor will you use? Meaning, what is the subject you want your audience to look at first? Let's look at the above photo: In most of your photos, try to have the sun behind you. I know it can be a challenge at times. You will not have sun spots or risk over exposing your photos if the sun is behind you. What I did was turn my back on the sun, stay on the path and included the cacti, or cactus, actually a saguaro (however you say it in plural). The hiking trail is to the left of the photo while the saguaros are on the right. The clouds were a bonus. I just did slight edits to bring out the color more. Also, one more thing about the cactus. Notice how they are staggered? Try to stagger the objects in your photos. Let's take a look at another photo:
Hiking trail in the desert with clouds.
Look at the clouds. Notice how they are at a diagonal? That is important in a photo. If you can have something diagonal in your photo, move yourself around so it can happen. The hiking path is slightly to the left. It is sometimes nice to put the subjects on the left or right side of your photos. I really like how the clouds looked that morning. Let's talk about curves:
Desert hike with a curved trail.
I really like curves in paths or roads. It just adds something nice and different to the photo. It lets your eyes wander around the photo, getting to know it better. Find paths that have curves in them, and take a photo shortly before it curves, as done here. Let's do one more photo:
Desert hiking
You know, seeing all these photos makes me anxious to get hiking again! It is very hot where we live, so I haven't hiked in a while. Anyway, notice the lone, tall cactus? I used that as my anchor for this photo. Therefore, that is something I want my audience to notice first, and then look at the rest of the photo.Well, there you have it. Now go and take those amazing photos on your favorite hiking paths! By the way, all these photos were done with my cell phone.