If you’re a photographer and you’re on vacation, how do you go on vacation and not drive the rest of your family crazy but still walk away with something good photographically?

This is the exact question discussed by our good friend, Dan Milnor.

Milnor has traveled to Maine many times over the years and he stated he always feels like he needs to walk away from a trip with something in hand. 

Dan provided us with tips as to how you can enjoy your vacation but still feel like you captured something. Something that’ll help you build on something you’ve started or continuing something that you’ve started.

 

Tricks of the Trade

1. Vignette

When out and about, Dan shared that he will plant himself in a specific location, usually a place with a lot of foot traffic. He will sit there and people watch. Milnor’s attention would be on people’s conversations as well as the details around him. 

 

While listening to a conversation, Milnor would “cherry-pick” parts of the conversation. He takes those pieces of the conversation and combines them with details of the environment around him. Then, he looks for a single photograph that sums up that little moment.

Dan compares it to having a one page chapter. It’s still a piece of the story, a good part of the story, it’s just a smaller piece of it. 

 

2. Put yourself on a clock

It’s important to give yourself a timeline when you’re on vacation but wish to take a good photograph. Give yourself ten minutes Milnor suggests, to take that photo. 

There can be so much going on that you see the potential of a million pictures but you only have ten minutes. 

Milnor shared that this works for him because he used to be a photojournalist. In working for a newspaper, there were always deadlines. It was imperative that you never missed a deadline. Dan was once told that if he ever missed a deadline then he shouldn’t come back to the paper. 

 

It is agreeable that that statement seems a bit harsh and a lot of pressure but Dan saw that pressure as a good thing. 

Milnor stated that that pressure forces you to perform. 

 

“ I literally have ten minutes or I’m gonna be like stealing cars by 5pm because I’m not gonna have a job.” – Dan Milnor.

 

Essentially, the pressure from the deadlines allowed him to focus. You forget everything else, any potential distraction is deemed unimportant because you have a job to do. 

That’s why this method works for Milnor. While he’s on vacation but wants a good photograph, he gives himself ten minutes. That way, he gets a good photograph with time to spare to have a good vacation with family.

 

 

3. Mix your Media

There are many professional photographers who share this opinion of mixing your media. 

For example, Dan mixes his media in the sense that he is a journal keeper. He’s been keeping a journal for years that he writes in everyday. It has notes, sketches, anything that went through his creative mind.

 

“Some of you can illustrate. Some of you can sketch. You’re not just photographers.” – Dan Milnor

 

Yes, your heart and your passion lie with photography but mixing your media can be beneficial to your creative mind. 

Dan calls them little ways of catching little opportunities to be creative. Especially since, there may not always be time to photograph or maybe you don’t want to photograph at that moment. Writing, sketching, or illustrating provides you with the opportunity to still play with your creativity.

 

4. Choose a mini theme

Dan stated that a mini theme can be simple and obvious, such as objects of a specific color.

“What a mini theme allows you to do is build a body of photographs.” 

 

By designating a theme for your photographs allows you to collect photographs that form a cohesive body that you can edit and create a print project.

The personal example Milnor used was double exposure. He was in Albania not too long ago and that was the first time he’d ever done double exposure. With that theme still in his mind, it carried it over to his trip in Maine. 

Dan has been to Maine so many times that he had realized, he would be photographing the same people and places he always has been. Therefore, this theme allows him to create new and different photographs while still creating a “cohesive body.”

 

In regards to choosing a mini theme:

“It allows you to create a cohesive something instead of just a bunch of random.”- Dan Milnor.

 

What do you think?

We’d like to thank Dan Milnor for providing us with these helpful tips. 

Click here to watch the full video on our YouTube channel Advancing Your Photography. 

Here’s my question for you today:

Do you have any methods for taking photographs while you’re on vacation? If so, please share in the comments below.

Thank you.