How to Enjoy A Photoshoot While Traveling

Photo credit: genius photographer Anthony Bellon

I LOVE doing photoshoots. I can’t help it; I’m juuuust vain enough that I find it fun.

I realize this is not the case for many people, I’m going to walk you through the process I undergo when I decide I want to do a photoshoot while traveling.

For purposes of these posts, we are NOT talking about the following: family photos, headshots, honeymoon photos, wedding photos, etc. A lot of what I discuss will be relevant to those situations, but I’m not going to go into detail about anything other than my own personal process, which is having photoshoots while traveling that I can use for social media and website content.

What do you want?

First, I decide what I want to get out of the photoshoot: am I looking for photos to use on my website’s About page? Am I looking for photos I can sprinkle throughout social media? If so, do I want close-ups on my face, full-body shots, detail shots, action shots? Generally I want a mix of all of the above.

If I have some knowledge of my destination, I’ll add anything specific I want to capture to the mix. Once I have an idea what I want, I’ll make a list so I can share that with the photographer.

For example, the list I included in my queries to photographers in Paris looked like this:

Drinking wine/coffee/cocktails
Window shopping
Reading
Hanging out in parks
Detail shots
Close-ups
Interested in black and white as well as color

I regret to inform you, but there is some homework involved

The MOST important part of the process is choosing your photographer. Hands down. Not only do I want a photographer who seems proficient in their craft (there are a lot of great photographers out there), but I want someone whose style matches what I envisioned when I made my shot list in step 1.

I also want someone who shoots fast - that is, who prefers to set their camera with a fast shutter response time so we have a ton of options to choose from and I can feel free to move around and pose my fanny off and not worry that they’re going to miss the shot of the day. Other people might prefer someone who’s a bit more deliberate in their style, with a lot of direction and posing.

Price is also a consideration - photography is a valuable skill, as is the ability to edit well, and a photoshoot is, rightly, not usually an inexpensive proposition. In my case, the photoshoot is an investment in my business, so I’m willing to spend some cash on it, but I also don’t have an enormous budget. That being said, this is a classic get-what-you-pay-for scenario.

Where do I find photographers? I’ve had good experiences using services like Flytographer, but the best results have come from photographers I found on Instagram. For recent shoots in Paris, I searched #parisphotoshoot and #parisphotographer and scrolled through the top and recent photos looking for posts that had the same look and feel I was going for.

Specifically, I was looking for shots that appeared candid and/or used unusual angles or perspectives. I was NOT in the market for your standard photoshoot poses or locations (no Eiffel Tower for this lady!).

Once I narrowed my field of potential photographers, I emailed each individually with what I was looking for. I also favorited the photos from their feeds that prompted me to reach out to them and sent them a collage of those photos so they had a better visual sense of what I wanted.

Make sure you understand the obligations of signing up; most services and individual photographers will want a deposit to hold the date. Flytographer will take both the deposit and final payment via credit card; most independent photographers will want the deposit paid via PayPal or Venmo and the remainder in cash at the end of the shoot. Ensure you know what the expectation is so you leave plenty of time to hit up the ATM beforehand if it’s a cash situation.

Finally, get on the same page as the photographer about what you can expect to receive as the product after the shoot is over - how many photos? What format will they be in? Color? Black and white? A mix of the two?

Like anything, the keys here are communication and setting expectations.

Dress Rehearsal

I probably spend waaaay more time than necessary thinking about what to wear at photoshoots.

I’ll spend hours at home trying on different clothing combinations, checking and re-checking every detail.

This method was proven to be completely unnecessary during my Paris trip, when I got fully dressed in my carefully selected outfit, only to drag the corner of an armoire door across the toe of my cool silver oxfords, leaving a giant gouge and rendering them unwearable (no worries…my genius cobbler was able to fix them - PHEW). I had about twenty minutes left before I had to leave, so switched gears and just threw on my favorite pieces from what I’d brought for the week, which turned out to be perfect.

LESSON LEARNED. Next time, I’m just going to pack my favorite (weather-appropriate) clothes and select what to wear for the shoot the night before. I feel more relaxed and comfortable in my favorite clothes. You might feel better in a fancy dress and heels or whatnot. I do not, and since I want the photos to reflect who I am, I want to feel as comfortable as possible and reflect myself as authentically as possible. If there are clients I don’t land because they’d prefer me to be wearing a suit or a party dress, then those aren’t great clients for me.

Takeaways from this list: not only are these my favorite clothes, so I feel super comfortable and myself in them, but they lend themselves well for photography. They’re solid colors, so they don’t distract the eye or clash with my surroundings. They’re primarily dark colors, which are both slimming visually and stand out from the background. [I am not a person who can wear a white shirt and not immediately drop something on it. If you are, white also makes a terrific option for photos.]

The accessories are striking without being overbearing - as the adage goes, I’m wearing them, they’re not wearing me. In general, you want one or two stand-out items that you can easily take on and off or adapt into new looks on the fly. A scarf that doubles as a wrap is perfect - I tied and re-tied that scarf about six different ways during the shoot (and it kept me warm as the sun went down). Not super confident in your scarf-tying abilities? YouTube has thousands of videos with tutorials on this.

don’t just stand there, let’s get to it…

A couple of things to remember about posing:

You’ll feel silly at first, which is perfectly normal.
People will stare, so just take that in stride. You’d stare too. Take advantage of it and shoot your onlookers a gorgeous smile. Or, as the Harry Winston quote goes, “People will stare. Make it worth their while.”
Posture is super important. Your abdominal and back muscles are critical to movement and posture; we ignore and abuse them all day long by sitting in front of computers and staring at our phones. However, if I tell myself “Okay, Kate, pull it together and stand up straight!,” I’ll look super stiff and posed. Instead, I focus on engaging my abdominal muscles (imagine there’s a string running through your belly button straight out through your back; imaginarily tug on the string - NOW your abs are engaged) and pulling my shoulder blades together. If I focus on those two things - are my abs engaged? and what are my shoulders doing? - I’m naturally standing, sitting, and moving more confidently.

Day Of

Stay simple: do whatever you need to to feel relaxed and happy when you get to the shoot.

Drink a glass of wine.

Arrive early; schedule enough time that you and the photographer can spend a few minutes chatting and getting to know each other before you start shooting. If you’re not comfortable in front of the camera, make sure they know that and ask that they suggest poses. Bring a friend to tell you jokes during the shoot. Natural smiles always look better than forced ones.

Don’t pack a big bag of things to bring with you - you’ll be moving around a lot and, unless you bring a friend to carry your bag, either you or the photographer will have to keep track of it and that’s a waste of your time and investment.

And that’s it! Nothing to it. Now that you’re a pro, shall we start planning a trip for you to slay your photo shoot?